Derrick Rygg's 20-point Monster

Every bow hunter remembers their very first deer killed with the bow. As for bow hunter Derrick Rygg of West Fargo, he will definitely never forget the first buck he wrapped his bow tag around.

            Sightings of this buck started in the summer of 2008. Derrick’s trail cam photos showed a good 7x4, big bodied, Pope and Young class whitetail. Although it was hunted hard throughout the season, this buck survived.

As the 2009 summer scouting began, Derrick began to see this buck show up again on the trail cams. And once again, he was frequenting the same areas and was seen often. This 7x4 had grown into a monster buck with long multiple tines and a heavy frame. Comparison pictures show the buck had grown additional tines on each side and gained mass and length. In actually, this buck had grown to be huge! However, as Derrick soon found out, these big bucks don’t get big by being stupid, as the bow season neared; the sightings of this buck became more and more sporadic. Then as Derrick stated, ‘He just seemed to disappear’.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
     
                                            
                Although being faced with this challenge, Derrick was determined to get a shot at this buck and felt if he put in his time, the buck would show.

As this 19-year old bow hunter climbed into his treestand on opening day, everything seemed perfect. The wind was right, Derrick’s PSE bow and Rage tipped arrows were ready; all he had to do was wait. And wait he did, day one passed, day two, day three and on the evening of day four Derrick would get his chance.

The wind direction had been consistent the past several days and Derrick felt the buck would approach from the upwind side. As we all know big bucks are not very predictable and this monster was no different.

Movement from behind Derrick caught his eye, and sure enough it was the monster coming from directly downwind. The only thing Derrick could do is wait and see if the buck would catch his scent. If not, he would let the buck get to the plot for the best shot. The decisions of this young hunter paid off to the fullest as the buck walked by, not having any idea Derrick was in the stand.

When first seeing this buck in the early summer photos, Derrick set his sights on harvesting this monster, now he was able to put his sight pin on this trophy. Fighting the adrenaline rush, Derrick let the buck get to the food plot. At 18 yards, the buck presented Derrick with a shot and the arrow hit its mark; the monster buck lunged and sprinted away out of site.

Shaken, but confident he had a good hit on the buck, Derrick did not want to push him. He decided to leave and return later to take up the blood trail. On returning with a cousin and friend, Derrick soon found the blood trail 30 yards from the stand and after a short search Derrick’s friend called out, ‘Here’s the deer’. The calmness in his voice soon turned to excitement and celebration. Derrick finally had the monster buck!

This buck was not just another non-typical whitetail, he was a true monster! Derrick’s buck had 12 points on the right and 8 points on the left.  With G-2s that measured 12” long, the buck green scored a whopping 201 7/8” non-typical.

What a first time trophy!