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 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.
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