Vern Evans
Dec. 7 was a gloomy, windy, 35-degree overcast day in northwest Illinois. But when Teddy Robbins departed the funeral home where he works, he headed right to the woods.
“I had a place in a small 18-acre woods on a friend’s farm that I could hunt for a few hours before dark,” Robbins tells Outdoor Life.
He knew about a well-used trail that crossed a creek on the small property, so he grabbed a lawn chair (it happened to be bright blue) and headed to the spot at about 2:45 p.m.”
Robbins picked a tree to sit next to and settled comfortably in his lawn chair about 50 yards from the creek crossing. He cradled a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun (no sights) loaded with copper slugs, and planned to shoot the first buck he saw, no matter how big.
“I didn’t sit there long, and at 3:30 p.m. I saw a deer with antlers,” says the 24-year-old hunter from Rock Falls. “He was headed to the creek crossing, and when I grunted to him, he turned toward me.”
The buck was initially facing Robbins but he stepped toward a bush, offering a broadside shot at 50 yards. Robbins raised his shotgun fired, and the buck took off immediately toward the creek, crossed it and disappeared.
“I didn’t know if I hit him because I had to shoot between two trees when his shoulder was exposed in that opening,” Robbins says. “He took off fast.”
Robbins backed out and called his uncle, Seth Nelson, who joined him an hour later, along with his son, Oliver. They brought two tracking dogs, a beagle named Ruger and a German shepherd named Maverick.
“I sat in my truck waiting for my uncle, and thought about what had just happened,” Robbins says. “When my uncle got there we went right to the creek. We found good blood there, and just a few yards beyond the creek my buck was laying there dead.”
They hadn’t needed the tracking dogs after all, though it was good (if short) training for them. Robbins’ slug had struck the buck neatly behind the shoulder.
The men used a drag sled to haul the buck across the creek and back to the truck. The buck had lost weight from the rut and clocked in at 183 pounds before field-dressing. Its rack sported 17 total points and a green score of 184 7/8 inches. Robbins plans to hang the shoulder mount by his front door.
“I had no clue that buck was anywhere nearby,” Robbins says. “I learned from neighbors afterward that they’d seen the buck and had trail camera photos of it only a week earlier. That buck was cruising, looking for does.”
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After his shot, Robbins noticed a 6-point that had been behind his buck. If that smaller buck had appeared before the larger deer, Robbins says he would’ve shot it.
“I’m a very lucky man,” he said. “I’m just glad the big one was the first one I saw.”
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