Megatron: Taking the measure of a really big buck (updated)

Jimmy Ellison watched a big buck for years and finally arrowed it Friday in Hancock County.

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Jimmy Ellison arrowed a 20-point buck in Hancock County.

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[Updated]

Even the sounds a buck as big as Megatron makes are different.

‘‘That big, they don’t grunt; they baa or brunt, something you never heard,’’ Jimmy Ellison said.

I hope I spelled that right.

Ellison, who grew up around Elwood, started bowhunting at 12 and arrowed his first deer at 16. He has a lifetime in the outdoors and with big bucks.

Megatron was different. Ellison had it on trail cameras for several years but never saw it. A neighbor found shed antlers several years.

‘‘On the sheds, you could tell it was him,’’ Ellison said. ‘‘But as he got older, he grew other things.’’

Bucks as big as Megatron are freaks.

Last week, Ellison, a masonry contractor in Morris, was hunting a farm in Hancock County and heard the buck he knew was Megatron running a doe.

On Friday, Ellison’s chance came. He arrowed Megatron with a crossbow.

‘‘I got a trail picture the day before I shot it,’’ he said. ‘‘The dream came true. I saw some big bucks, but he is special.’’

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A trail camera photograph of Megatron in Hancock County.

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It field-dressed at 235 pounds. Megatron had 20 points and green-scored at 190 5/8 inches, including a 19-inch spread and 17-inch G2s (second main tines). Racks must dry for 60 days before officially being measured.

Ellison caped the buck Tuesday. [Updated] It was taken to Cliff’s Taxidermy in Plainfield, where it was green-scored at 201.

‘‘He is a monster, I will tell you that,’’ Ellison said. ‘‘I put a lot of fricking time and effort for him in there.’’

This is a good time for a primer on scoring a trophy buck. The Boone and Crockett Club, the conservation group that keeps big-game records, has an online scoring calculator for green-scoring bucks. At boone-crockett.org, go to the BIG GAME RECORDS drop-down and click ‘‘Score Your Trophy.’’ Or click here to go straight there. (Pope and Young Club, keeper of archery records, has similar scoring.)

Measuring is done with a quarter-inch-wide flexible steel tape to the eighth-inch. Categories are number of points (at least 1 inch), tip-to-tip spread, greatest spread, inside spread of main beams, total length of abnormal points, length of main beam, length of normal points and circumferences.

† Illinois bowhunters had harvested 42,072 deer through Monday, compared with 40,670 for the same period in 2018.

In memory

Capt. Frank Novelli died unexpectedly Friday. Visitation is from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Carbonara Funeral Home in Melrose Park. Visitation is at 9 a.m. Friday (mass at 10:30) at Holy Family Church in Inverness.

Wild things

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Dozens of sandhill cranes standing in a patch of open water in Lake in the Hills Tuesday while waterfowl floated around them.

Provided by Tammy Fabis

Not all sandhill cranes pushed through with the historic cold front. Tammy Fabis photographed dozens Tuesday standing in a patch of open water in Lake in the Hills while other waterfowl floated. The count Tuesday at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, southeast of Valparaiso, Indiana, more than doubled to 11,231.

Stray cast

Deciphering the Bears is like watching a nuthatch feed.

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