Personal-best buck: Big 10-point buck in the wind earns BOTW honors

Ryan Merkel’s personal-best buck takes Buck of the Week honors.

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Ryan Merkel with his personal-best 10-point buck. Provided photo

Ryan Merkel with his personal-best 10-point buck.

Provided

Even with the winds Sunday, Ryan Merkel arrowed the buck of his life, a 10-pointer, with a crossbow in western Kane County.

“This buck and a four-pointer chased a doe by my stand, but were out of range,” Merkel emailed. “A few minutes later he circled back by himself and gave me a 15-yard shot. Wind was howling, but from a good direction for my sit. My most exciting hunt yet and my personal best buck by far. The rut is definitely going!”

A view from the field of Ryan Merkel and his personal-best 10-point buck. Provided photo

A view from the field of Ryan Merkel with his personal-best 10-point buck.

Provided

BOTW, the celebration of big bucks and their stories (the stories matter as this one shows) around Chicago outdoors, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times during the season. The online posting here at https://chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors goes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on the wide world of the outdoors.

Submit nominations by message on Facebook (Dale Bowman), on Twitter (@BowmanOutside) and Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com).

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