It\u2019s not easy to pass on a Booner buck year after year, but that\u2019s exactly what Iowa bowhunter Bruce Severson did to tag the biggest whitetail of his life last Tuesday. After sending up a prayer (or two), Severson finally put an arrow through the giant 24-point buck, which had a green score of 207 and 5\/8 inches. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Severson tells Outdoor Life <\/em>that he first noticed the buck four years ago on a piece of private land that he regularly hunts in southeast Iowa. The deer was already carrying around at least 170 inches of antler at the time, but he looked so young that Severson nicknamed him \u201cBaby Boy\u201d right away. He sent trail camera photos of the buck to his friend Don Higgins, who told him he should hold off for at least a year or two.<\/p>\n \u201cHe goes, \u2018Oh Bruce, you gotta let that deer go a couple years. If you can\u2019t stop yourself from shooting him, you shouldn\u2019t even hunt that area,\u2019\u201d says Severson, who took Higgins\u2019 advice without questioning it. The buck would show himself again and again over the next two seasons, but Severson refused to hunt him. He wouldn\u2019t let anybody else hunt the property either and it became a sanctuary of sorts\u2014until last season, when he decided he couldn\u2019t wait any longer.<\/p>\n The buck was approaching the 190-class by that point. After two close calls with his bow, Severson almost got a shot during the last day of muzzleloader season. In the end, Severson had to watch Baby Boy fight with another buck just out of range as darkness fell and time ran out.<\/p>\n Like clockwork, Severson says the buck showed back up on the property sometime in mid- to late-October this year. He got at least 200 trail cam photos of the deer over the next few weeks, but only at night. Still, Severson had made up his mind that he\u2019d hunt the buck as hard as he could, and last week on Nov. 8, he walked out to the treestand he\u2019d hung near a scrape in the hardwoods. While on his way to the stand, he stopped for a moment to pray.<\/p>\n \u201cI said a very selfish prayer to God that if he\u2019d give me an opportunity, I sure would appreciate it, and I gave thanks for allowing me to hunt such an animal,\u201d Severson says. \u201cAnd I no more got done with that prayer and came up over the hill when I saw that deer out in the open about 125 yards from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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