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Outdoors Weekly Buck Fever entry
Joshua Stern of Cold Spring, MN shot this 215-pound, 10-point buck south of Detroit Lakes, MN. The buck had an inside spread of 19 inches.

About 4 years ago our group of hunters decided that with the intensive harvest allowed by the DNR that there was no reason to shoot small bucks. In the last 4 years we have only harvested 3 bucks off this piece of property (2 eight-pointers and a 10-pointer that made Pope and Young record books), along with many does and fawns. This year the trail cameras let us know that it was going to be a great year. In the last week of September during a bow hunting outing my brother tagged a 148 inch, 12-pointer that will land him in the record books. That same night we had more than 30 does and fawns visit an alfalfa field that borders the woods we hunt. On Saturday night of opening firearms weekend I decided to sit overlooking the alfalfa field in hopes of harvesting a trophy buck. That night I enjoyed listening to a good fight happening not more than a hundred yards behind me along with watching a spike clear 8 does and fawns from the field. It was about 5 minutes before the sun dropped below the horizon when I noticed a doe and two fawns running across the field from my west. I turned back to the east and saw another doe and fawn making their way to the field. I was alarmed by their slow approach to the field and when I tuned back to the west, this monster was standing on the horizon with the sun setting behind him. At this time he was about 350 to 400 yards away. My legs and arms were shaking so badly I had a hard time counting points through the binoculars. The deer followed the exact trail of the previous does and fawns so I knew if I just waited a few minutes (felt like hours) I would get about a 200 yard broadside shot. Sure enough he offered the shot and in one pull of the trigger that deer did not take another step. When I approached the deer my Grandpa was also walking up to the deer as he could see everything from his ground blind. There was no ground shrinkage on this deer as myself and my 80-year-old Grandpa exchanged high fives.
- Joshua Stern, Cold Spring, MN