By Dale Weddle  

Photo: Kentucky always yields a handful of truly world-class bucks. In 2006, the cream of the crop was felled during a quota hunt on public ground.

-- Choosing a piece of public ground to hunt deer in Kentucky is fairly easy. Narrowing the list of 88 wildlife management areas down to those most likely to harbor wallhangers requires a little homework.

That was Mervin Yoder’s job in 2006, and he did it by studying the state’s annual hunting guide. He looked at locations, hunt dates and the rules and regulations before locking in on those places offering quota hunts — days set aside for a specific number of hunters, whose names are drawn by lottery.

Number 18 on the list was the Pennyrile State Forest and Tradewater Wildlife Management Area about two hours west of Mervin’s home. According to the publication, 758 hunters had applied the previous year for the 300 available slots at Pennyrile.

Mervin was the point man for a group of friends from the Amish community near Horse Cave, Ky. They all wanted nice bucks. One of the guys, Dan Miller, had even suggested they visit someplace with an antler restriction, and the Pennyrile hunt was among several in which bucks must have a minimum outside antler spread of 15 inches.

“I can stay home and hunt a deer with a spread under 15 inches,” Dan had told his buddies.
That’s how the men came to apply for the Pennyrile quota hunt, which is open to both residents and nonresidents. Up to five people can apply together. And if any one of them is drawn, the others are automatically entitled.

They were drawn.

“I almost didn’t get to go,” Dan said. “I had obligations and couldn’t go scouting with the rest of the group. We used to hunt the Peabody Quota Hunt in the western part of the state, but I had never been to Pennyrile.

“My cousin, David Miller, was able to scout it. He came back and told me that he’d found an area that looked good, and said I could go back in with him. He had his stand set. ‘You’ll see deer,’ he promised.

“When we got there on the morning of Nov. 4, we had a 2-mile trek to reach the place David had found. It was breaking day when we got back there.

“The place was everything David said it would be,” Dan continued. “There were a lot of white oaks, and the terrain wasn’t real rough. I like hunting that type of area. My thoughts were on the beauty of the surroundings as we walked along. I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t see a deer, this experience — just being in these big woods — is wonderful.’

“I found a spot and sat until a little past noon,” Dan said. “No deer. Not a single sign of a deer. But it was nice. It was a good place. Still, a move seemed to be in order. I started looking for a little draw or something where I could sit and watch.”

Around 2 p.m., Dan came across a place he really liked.

“You could see the deer had been through there from the sign. I sat until about 2:30, and then I sensed it. I looked across the draw and saw a buck. It was facing away, and I was sure its rack was at least 15 inches wide, a legal buck. So I just drilled it; let him have it. And I thought it went down; I really did. But when I walked over there, the deer was gone.

“There was blood on a tree. It looked good, but the deer wasn’t there. You know how you’re sure you’re going to find that deer? That’s the way it was when I walked down over the hill to look,” he continued.

“As I was going along, this guy yelled at me and asked if I shot a deer and how big it was. I just said ‘decent,’ and kept going. After a while, I did what I should have done in the first place and went back to the point of the shot, found the blood, stayed with the trail, and then found where the buck had bedded before getting its second wind.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh no, I’ve got a problem. Maybe it wasn’t as good a hit as I thought!’ Just when my doubts materialized, so did the buck,” he said.

The size of the animal was unbelievable. Dan’s “decent” buck had 30-inch main beams, a world-class typical mainframe and nine additional irregular points, including a 10 6/8-inch drop tine on the right side and a 10-inch kicker on the left. Add in mass of more than 5 inches at each circumference, and the hunter was looking at what would be the largest deer taken in Kentucky in 2006.

“I knew right away that I needed help to get it out,” Dan said. “I did not mark the deer; I didn’t cover it up. I didn’t think anyone would bother trying to drag it very far. I walked all the way back to the road and found one of our men, Andrew Miller. On the way back, we ran into another member of our group. I was hopping and skipping and trotting along to keep up, since the other guys were taller than me. It was pitch dark by the time we got back to the area where I had left the buck.

“We spread out and combed this little valley that looked like the place where I’d left the deer, and then went back and started over. We found it the second time. The other guys saw the deer and went crazy. I was worried about getting it out of there, while they seemed to be concerned only with counting points. In the end, though, they pretty much got it out for me,” he said.

It had been a long walk in and out. For most of the time, Dan had been running on the extra adrenaline. But he was bone-tired when they reached the main road, where a crowd had already gathered.

“By the time we got the buck loaded and started for the check station, there was a caravan. It was probably 9 p.m. before everyone had taken pictures and we finally headed for home. It seems everyone who knew someone close by had called them,” he said.

“My respect for people who hunt has gone way up after this,” Dan said. “Nobody seemed jealous. Everyone wanted to jump in and help. They were sincerely happy for me.”

Editor’s Note: For more information about Kentucky’s quota hunts, WMAs and the Pennyrile tract, visit http://fw.ky.gov/navigation.asp?cid=527&NavPath=C151C158.

BTR Score: 235 5/8

–Mike Handley