Larry Zach Wildlife Art

Dream Bucks III — The Midwest Monster features a spectacular, 28 point, non-typical buck taken by 24 year old Kyle Simmons of Spragueville, Iowa in Jackson County on October 16, 2008. Kyle's brother, Lance, found sheds from both sides of the buck the previous spring. Based on the location where the shed were found, Kyle developed a plan for hunting the buck with a bow. Even though Kyle had only bowhunted for a few years he had started gun hunting with his dad when he was 12. He had already learned a lot and his dad, Todd, was an experienced bowhunter, also.

Kyle had taken several bucks with a gun while hunting with Todd, including a nice 8 point buck, but decided to become even more selective as he bowhunted. The day the buck walked into view may have been the first time anyone had even seen the giant non-typical alive. Kyle had put out trail cameras in an attempt to learn more about the buck's movement patterns and got photos of six other bucks but none of the non-typical.

The monster buck has a 7x8 typical frame grossing over 230 inches and netting more than 218 inches, which is larger than the world record typical, a 213 inch buck taken by Milo Hanson. Adding several non-typical points brings the final net non-typical score to 275 5/8 inches, a new state record non-typical archery buck for Iowa.