When you call your hunting buddies to tell them you shot the “30-pointer”, most wouldn’t believe you. This was the case for Jim Wackler, a 78-year-old lifelong hunter from Howard Lake, Minnesota. He was hunting along the edge of a corn field from his lawn chair when he heard what he described as a freight train coming through the standing corn.
Upon hearing the noise in the corn, Jim switched the safety off his 20-gauge and waited for the deer to step out. When it finally did, the veteran hunter gave him a loud shout to get him to stop in lane between the corn and and woods. The buck stopped and looked in Jim’s direction as he steadied the bead of his gun on the front of the buck’s rib cage and squeezed the trigger.
The buck didn’t make it too far and when Jim walked up to it and started counting the points, he couldn’t believe he shot the “Turdy Point Buck”. Of course, when he called for help and told others he had shot a 36-pointer, no one believed him until they saw it with their own eyes.
The buck drew quite the crowd at Joe’s Sport Shop in Howard Lake later that night. Unofficial measurements came in at 270-inches, which would make it the biggest non-typical buck ever taken in Minnesota with a firearm. The buck must wait the 60 day required drying period before it can be officially scored in January.
Photo Credit: Joe’s Sports Shop
