#24 RANDY STOLTE Top 100 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Bucks
#24 RANDY STOLTE Top 100 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Bucks
This is Randy's third and final entry into the SRI Top 100. As far as my guiding experience on the Island this buck won my personal competition for growing after it was shot. Randy and I saw this buck from a half a mile away. At that first glance, I thought we should go after it. Randy wasn't so sure. After a little cajoling, we set off after it. Two hours later of playing hide and seek with the buck, Randy planted him with a typically great shot. When we finally walked up to him, we realized how big he truly was. We knew he was tall, and had a couple small drop tines, but we hadn't taken into account his overall huge frame. He was so tall that we mentally adjusted our thoughts that he was about 24" wide. We also didn't realize that he had a 29" beam on one side and a 26" beam on the other. I think that this 29" beam was the longest that we ever witnessed on the Island. A nice thing about Randy was that he was a working man. He wasn't wealthy, he merely put all his efforts towards geting after big mule deer. His wife Linda was supportive of Randy, and she loved to be in the field and hunt mule deer too. There are times I wish I could focus on one goal like Randy does.
On this same hunt, Eric Johnason shot another great buck (#39) with me. Some times, things just work out!
Randy. congratulations, you shot a buck of a lifetime on this day in August 2005.
