172-inch Illinois typical

My friend Craig Warmington, who heads Vital Gear’s marketing, shot this monster IL. buck yesterday. What a beast!

First buck for 17 year old!

In his own words, here’s Luke Perring’s story:

Luke Perring
17 Years Old
10-24-09
DeWitt County
Bowtech 82nd Airborne
7 scorable points


This is my second year bowhunting and I made it my goal to kill my first deer with my bow this year, not a big buck, just a deer, thats all I wanted. Having missed alot of oppurtunities on good bucks last year I wanted to redeem myself. The year started well and I saw alot of does and managed to harvest one finally, then it was time to look for a good buck.

We had so much rain the week before and by the time I arrived at my spot I realized that the creek had flooded and none of my stands were on dry land, so one of my friends that hunts the samepiece let me sit in a ladder stand overlooking a large set a side field with about 6 foot tall grass. After seeing several does I could hear another deer coming out of the field but couldn’t see what it was. Finally I saw ivory white antlers, I looked with my binoculars to see a nine point buck rubbing his antlers on the grass and eating, he was a shooter. He finally came of but he was a good sixty yards away and would not respond to my calling and left the area.

It was almost dark and I began to hear another deer coming from the field, I looked over my shoulder to see a very large bodied buck coming towards me, and he was definitely a shooter! Once he put his head down into the grass I stood up with my bow. He finally came into range but was quartering towards me, I thought about taking the shot in the chest but decided against it since he would offer me a better shot. He began to walk broadside and I stopped him with a “MEH!”. His head rose and he looked up at me and I settled my pin behind his shoulder and squeezed off the trigger, the arrow dissapeared into his vitals and he humped over and took off down the clearcut. I could tell he was hit good, I waited in the stand to settle down because I was in shock.

We arrived the next morning to find him around 9 AM. To our surprise the creek had risen much more over night and we had to wade through waste deep water to find him. We practically swam down the clearcut to see a horn emerging from the water, it was him not more than seventy yards from my stand. We dragged him out of the overspilled creek (he was not a light weight!). Finally I got to admire what I had brought down, I was very satisfied with my first archery buck!

How to mess up a chance at a 160” buck!

In the timber tonight and hunting on the ground behind a huge oak tree. At 6:15 or so, a huge 5X5 that would easily go 155-160” trotted past me at 15 lousy yards broadside! I screamed at him to stop because he just wouldn’t stop after repeated attempts trying to get him to slow down. He finally did but he was a bit farther out now and I had to stretch around this tree to get a shot off. With the pin on his chest broadside and as he stood there waiting to see what all the racket was about, I hit the release and heard a “bang”! Although my pin was on his chest, my arrow flight path was right in line with this ladder I set up last year for my wife to hunt from. Needless to say, I lost my chance of killing him tonight but may have made one heck of a commercial for the Muzzy Phantom broadhead as it penetrated through 1/2 ” of steel! I don’t think I’ll have to worry about these braodheads going though bone now, will I?

Maybe I’ll see him another day!