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http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=1298504LINCOLN - Travis Smiley was just grateful to be included in the hunt when he agreed to walk a small draw by himself.
Travis Smiley, who farms between Red Oak and Emerson, Iowa, shot a buck that has three antlers.
It was opening day of Iowa's shotgun deer season, and Smiley, 27, who farms between Red Oak and Emerson, was among about a dozen hunters who made up this typical hunting party.
"There were 10 to 12 guys, including a few kids just getting started," Smiley said of the Dec. 4 hunt. "It's easier to hunt with a lot of guys. You post the end of a draw or ditch, then send a bunch of guys up the ditch to chase the deer to you."
Hunters in Iowa shoot shotgun slugs instead of rifle bullets, but safety remains the rule of the day during a party hunt.
"You know where everybody is because they're all dressed in orange so you can see them," Smiley said. "But you still have to be extremely careful. You have to know which direction to shoot."
Members of the group gathered in the morning and began to plan their hunt along Walnut Creek near Imogene. Most of the hunters wanted to walk the heavily wooded area along either side of Walnut Creek. But one small draw leading into the creek also needed to be walked out.
"One guy was asking for a volunteer to walk it," Smiley said. "Everybody wanted to walk the harder one. He finally asked me, and it wasn't a problem. I'm not selfish. This is my third year with the group. I'm just glad they let me hunt with them."
Smiley walked through the draw with ease and reached the bank of Walnut Creek far ahead of those hunters who were struggling through the dense timber.
"I stood there and waited for the other guys," Smiley said. "I could see the walkers on my side of Walnut Creek. Then I saw a buck come out of the timber about 250 yards away from me. He turned and went back into the timber near the other guys, but it was so thick that they couldn't see him."
Moments later, the buck reappeared and began to run directly toward Smiley.
"As he got closer," Smiley said, "I could tell he was getting bigger. He was standing about 50 yards from me when I shot."
Smiley expected to find a nice buck as he approached the dead deer, but he was not prepared for what he found.
Deerzilla. That's what Smiley's buck is being called now. It's a monster.
"It's a mess," said biologist Angi Bruce, Smiley's sister-in-law, who is the southwest Iowa district supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources' wildlife bureau. "It's almost ugly because it's so nontypical."
For starters, the buck has a third antler that has five points, including a 141/2-inch drop tine.
"There is skin between the bases of the two antlers on the right side, which makes it a completely separate antler," Bruce said. "It's very rare to see a separate third antler. And this is the largest third antler that most people have ever seen."
The deer's left antler has 16 points. The dominant antler on the right side has 14 points. The third antler has five points.
"That makes 35 points," Bruce said. "But two are too small to score, so it is a 33-pointer."
The antlers are palmated in some areas, similar to those of a moose.
"The antler on the left side has such thickness that it almost looks like a moose antler," Bruce said. "The rack looks like a big mess of branches. They look really scraggly."
The base of the left antler measures 73/8 inches around, while the base of the main antler on the right side is 61/2 inches. The distance between the two outer-most points is 251/2 inches across.
Deerzilla's rack looks like it was constructed by a committee, and a committee will be needed to score it.
"Boone and Crockett won't score a deer if a third antler is completely separate," Bruce said. "They call it a fluke of nature. So we'll probably give it a DNR score, and that's going to be done by a committee."
Smiley agrees that Deerzilla's rack takes a bit of getting used to.
"It's not a pretty thing to look at," he said. "but that just makes it more unique. He's definitely unusual."
The whitetail weighed 204 pounds after it was field-dressed.
"It's a little above average size," Smiley said. "It's a nice buck, but everybody thinks he should weigh 400 pounds since he's a 33-pointer. Everybody has the perception that the bigger the antlers, the bigger the body. But it doesn't work that way."
LINCOLN - Travis Smiley was just grateful to be included in the hunt when he agreed to walk a small draw by himself.
Travis Smiley, who farms between Red Oak and Emerson, Iowa, shot a buck that has three antlers.
It was opening day of Iowa's shotgun deer season, and Smiley, 27, who farms between Red Oak and Emerson, was among about a dozen hunters who made up this typical hunting party.
"There were 10 to 12 guys, including a few kids just getting started," Smiley said of the Dec. 4 hunt. "It's easier to hunt with a lot of guys. You post the end of a draw or ditch, then send a bunch of guys up the ditch to chase the deer to you."
Hunters in Iowa shoot shotgun slugs instead of rifle bullets, but safety remains the rule of the day during a party hunt.
"You know where everybody is because they're all dressed in orange so you can see them," Smiley said. "But you still have to be extremely careful. You have to know which direction to shoot."
Members of the group gathered in the morning and began to plan their hunt along Walnut Creek near Imogene. Most of the hunters wanted to walk the heavily wooded area along either side of Walnut Creek. But one small draw leading into the creek also needed to be walked out.
"One guy was asking for a volunteer to walk it," Smiley said. "Everybody wanted to walk the harder one. He finally asked me, and it wasn't a problem. I'm not selfish. This is my third year with the group. I'm just glad they let me hunt with them."
Smiley walked through the draw with ease and reached the bank of Walnut Creek far ahead of those hunters who were struggling through the dense timber.
"I stood there and waited for the other guys," Smiley said. "I could see the walkers on my side of Walnut Creek. Then I saw a buck come out of the timber about 250 yards away from me. He turned and went back into the timber near the other guys, but it was so thick that they couldn't see him."
Moments later, the buck reappeared and began to run directly toward Smiley.
"As he got closer," Smiley said, "I could tell he was getting bigger. He was standing about 50 yards from me when I shot."
Smiley expected to find a nice buck as he approached the dead deer, but he was not prepared for what he found.
Deerzilla. That's what Smiley's buck is being called now. It's a monster.
"It's a mess," said biologist Angi Bruce, Smiley's sister-in-law, who is the southwest Iowa district supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources' wildlife bureau. "It's almost ugly because it's so nontypical."
For starters, the buck has a third antler that has five points, including a 141/2-inch drop tine.
"There is skin between the bases of the two antlers on the right side, which makes it a completely separate antler," Bruce said. "It's very rare to see a separate third antler. And this is the largest third antler that most people have ever seen."
The deer's left antler has 16 points. The dominant antler on the right side has 14 points. The third antler has five points.
"That makes 35 points," Bruce said. "But two are too small to score, so it is a 33-pointer."
The antlers are palmated in some areas, similar to those of a moose.
"The antler on the left side has such thickness that it almost looks like a moose antler," Bruce said. "The rack looks like a big mess of branches. They look really scraggly."
The base of the left antler measures 73/8 inches around, while the base of the main antler on the right side is 61/2 inches. The distance between the two outer-most points is 251/2 inches across.
Deerzilla's rack looks like it was constructed by a committee, and a committee will be needed to score it.
"Boone and Crockett won't score a deer if a third antler is completely separate," Bruce said. "They call it a fluke of nature. So we'll probably give it a DNR score, and that's going to be done by a committee."
Smiley agrees that Deerzilla's rack takes a bit of getting used to.
"It's not a pretty thing to look at," he said. "but that just makes it more unique. He's definitely unusual."
The whitetail weighed 204 pounds after it was field-dressed.
"It's a little above average size," Smiley said. "It's a nice buck, but everybody thinks he should weigh 400 pounds since he's a 33-pointer. Everybody has the perception that the bigger the antlers, the bigger the body. But it doesn't work that way."
