#59 RANDY STOLTE Top 100 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Bucks
#59 RANDY STOLTE
Randy's buck will be forever linked with Rich Kerri's buck at #69. As we talked during Rich's buck spotlight, this was the other buck shot that fateful morning that really started the trophy muley hunting on Santa Rosa Island-- Sept 1, 2003. Randy soon became great friends with our whole crew. Not only an excellent hunter, and gentleman, but he was an incredible shot. Case in point-- On his last hunt, he shot at a buck running away from him at full gallop at about 390 yards. He missed that shot, got serious, and then cold-cocked it at about 450 yards as it was now running even faster. He was not overjoyed by his fabulous shot. Rather he was quite irate at himself for missing that first shot. He said something to the effect, " I shoot squirrels at that distance, how did I flub that shot?!?! It was really the only time I ever saw Randy raise his voice and get perturbed. Yes, Randy was a great marksman. There is probably only one other person I would have even allowed to shoot at that buck in those circumstances. If I have my numbers right, Randy shot 6 trophy bucks with us, starting with this buck. This is the 3rd largest of his 6. Yup, he has two more bigger than this. It got the point with some of the crew that if we knew Randy was hunting that year, we knew it would be a great trophy quality year. In 2011, he not only was a client on a hunt, but he was my spotter/helper on the hunt right before his trophy hunt. I remember vividly helping pack out at management buck for Andy Wood on that hunt from the Box Canyon back over to the Wreck Road. He kept saying, " What did I get myself into?", but he always said it with a smile. After I write this, I'm going to call up Randy and see how he and his wife Linda are doing. Haven't talked with him in awhile...
