A third-generation salute with a spike buck: Buck of the Week

Spencer Benedict proved the history of a first buck is as important as the size of it.

The 15-year-old from Glendale Heights shot his first, a spike, on Thanksgiving morning at his grandparents’ home in Rapid River, Mich. With the rifle used by his grandfather for his first buck many years ago, according to Joe Benedict, Spencer’s father.

BOTW, the celebration of big bucks and good stories, runs Wednesdays when apt on the Sun-Times outdoors page. The story part, as this BOTW shows, matters as much as the big buck part.

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