An oversized white patch across the snout of a nine-point buck is what Bob Wenzel of Apple Valley first saw when the deer appeared in private woods northeast of Cumberland, Wis., at 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 30.

Wenzel’s son, Mike, had been rattling antlers from another stand 150 yards away. The buck stood motionless for 10 minutes. Then he advanced slowly toward the edge of a food plot, giving the elder Wenzel a walking broadside shot with a crossbow from 30 yards away:

“He was trying to figure out where the fighting bucks were,” Bob Wenzel said.