Congratulations to Tim Roycraft, a plumbing foreman from our Altoona location, on an incredible whitetail taken with his bow!
Tim had been seeing plenty of daylight activity this season, with trail-camera photos of several target bucks—something that doesn’t happen often. After spotting a great 10-point buck checking scrapes on Tuesday evening, Tim knew it was only a matter of time before another opportunity presented itself.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tim returned to the same stand, getting settled in early along an active scrape line. The weather was unusually warm for this time of year, and as he enjoyed the quiet evening in the woods, things suddenly got interesting.
Around 5 p.m., Tim heard a deer trotting through the leaves directly behind him and downwind. Then, everything went silent. Thinking he might have been busted, Tim slowly turned his head—and there stood a stud of a buck just 15 yards away!
For the next 15 minutes, the buck stood nearly motionless, staring in Tim’s direction. Finally, the deer began moving toward a standing cornfield. As luck would have it, the buck turned right instead of left, giving Tim the shooting opportunity he had been waiting for.
With the buck entering his shooting lane at just 15 yards, Tim drew his bow, let out a grunt, and released the arrow. He watched his lighted nock zip right through the buck just behind the shoulder.
The big boy took off toward Tim’s ATV trail. Confident in his shot, Tim climbed down and immediately began looking for sign. He quickly found hair and blood and picked up the trail. Incredibly, the buck traveled more than 200 yards before finally going down.
For Tim, it was a short-and-sweet hunting season—and one he’ll never forget!
Congratulations, Tim, on a fantastic bow buck and your biggest whitetail to date! Way to represent the Altoona crew!
