Kerry Kills the King
by Kerry Schmidt

10/04 Hutchinson, MN

My name is Kerry Schmidt, I'm 16 years old, and I live in Hutchinson, MN. My dad introduced me to the sport of hunting when I was 6 years old and it has been my favorite thing to do ever since. I hunt almost anything that I can including ducks, geese, phasants, grouse, small game animals, white tails, and black bear. After shooting a couple of does with my shotgun, I thought I would start bow hunting so I got me a bow from one of my good friends Andy. The first year I bow hunted I didn't do so good, I lost 2 bucks, one a small 8 point, and the other a nice 10 point. I later found out that the 8 point lived and was taken durring slug season which made me feel a little better. While I was tracking the 10 pointer I shot, I asked a local farmer if he had seen anything at all and he said no but I could hunt on his land if I wanted to because the deer were destroying his crops.&! nbsp;
Later on that year me and my friend Andy went scouting on his land a found some huge rubs. I hung a stand in an opening in an oak grove and sat in it for the 2nd weekend of slug season in 2002. It must have only been 15 min. before a nice doe came about 10 yards away. Then I heard some grunts coming from over the hill. Once the buck came over the hill all I could see were antlers! He stopped at about 25 yards away to make a scrape. I slowly raised my 12 gauge and put the sights right behind his shoulder. I shot once and he got even closer so I shot again. The 2nd shot hit him right in the spine and dropped him about 15 yards in front of me. I then called my dad to come and help me drag him out of the woods. He was a 12 point buck that scored 149 3/8. I got him mounted and took 3rd place in state with him in my class.

Two years passed before I even saw another buck but it paid off. Earlier this year I got on some new land only a couple of mile from where I shot my 12 pointer that I had to go and scout out. While I was looking for a place to hang my stand I came up to a little corn field that had a ton of deer sign so I decided to hang my stand right on the edge of it. I hung the stand only 3 days before I actually hunted out of it. On 9/21/04 I got off of work early so I thought I would go bow hunting so I went home got my stuff and headed out to my stand. It was a perfect day for hunt, cool, light breeze, little bit of fog, and a really light sprinkle. I knew it was going to be a good night. It was about 6:45 when I looked over and saw a really nice non-typical buck standing about 8 yards away. For some reason he trotted out to about 30 yards and stood there. I then looked again and there ! was another monster buck stading only 10 yards away. I slowly grabbed my bow and began to pull back on the buck. I was shaking so bad that my arrow actually bounced off my rest and spooked the buck out to about 20 yards. I was shocked when he stopped, I was sure that I messed it all up. I then put the arrow back on my rest and drew back on him. I pulled the trigger and put the arrow right behind his right shoulder and I knew it was a perfect shot.

I then got down to get my arrow and called my dad to tell him that I got one and that he should come out and help me track it because it everything was wet and I knew it was going to be hard to track. After letting him sit for about 2 hours we bagan to track in the dark. It started out really slow with a little bit of blood here and there but it got much better as we went. After about 80 yards of tracking there he was. I was amazed by the size of him. He was a 14 point buck with a gross score of 165 1/8. For only being the end of September this buck was a monster. His neck was already 24 inches around and field dressed at 210 pounds.

My dad was happy for me but jealous at the same time. He has been hunting for about 30 years and never even seen a nice buck, were as I now have 2 of them hanging on the wall. All of my friends were just as amazed by his size as I was. I didn't think I would ever get a bigger buck than my 12 pointer but some how I managed to do it. I'm not going to say that I won't get one bigger than this but I will say that it is going to be really hard.