It was the first year Travis Cockburn used trail cameras on the Williamson County farm in Illinois he and his family hunts. What he saw in mid-August of 2011 changed the way the family would hunt come October 1st, the first day of Illinois bow season.
Many trail cam photos were taken of a giant “Booner” during the summer months that was quickly nick-named Ginormica by Travis’s eight year old son.
Travis, his dad, brother, and nephew quickly focused their attention on learning what they could about the big buck. The only problem was that the only photos gathered were taken between 2-4 in the a.m. hours. However, there was one sighting of the monster by a coon hunter in the wee hours of the morning.
Focusing on killing the book buck, the foursome started making plans as to where they could hunt.
Tired of being out done by shotgun hunters, Travis decided to take the gun out of the closest and connected on a big nine-pointer. The season was just beginning however.
Throughout the bow season Travis saw some Pope and Young class bucks, but no shots were presented. However, Travis was able to connect on a couple of nice does that made good table fare. Frustrated, still no sign of Ginormica.
Not giving up, Travis continued to scout for the big buck. After relentless scouting, Travis found two main trails that intercepted at a scrape the size of a small Volkswagen.
Thanksgiving Day came and went as Travis searched for a tree suitable for his Summitt Viper Climber Tree Stand. Unfortunately, a few years before, a bad storm toppled most of the trees on the farm. Travis was only able to find one tree for his climber. The topped out tree was 35-yards from the car size scrape and 20 yards from a nearby creek crossing.
Deciding not to hunt Thanksgiving day, Friday and Saturday came and went with heavy rains keeping the hunters home.
Sunday morning, November 27th, arrives and the Cockburn family makes their journey to church. Arriving back home, the rain has stopped and Travis has to decide rather to hunt, watch football, or take a nap. Fortunately, hunting won this day.
By the time Travis decided to hunt at 2:15 in the afternoon, the rain was all but gone. This would be the first time in the stand by the big scrape. The rain made the woods deafly quiet, allowing Travis to hear everything. Unfortunately, he was not hearing a sound.
Finally a big bobcat was spotted, and after five minutes of a stare off, Travis was able to wave the cat good-bye.
Being bored with no action in the area, Travis began to text his good buddy that was hunting a few miles away. This all begun at 3:45 p.m. However, things quickly changed for the hunter.
4:15 arrives with splashing sounds coming from the creek behind and to the left of Travis, the hunter slowly turned to see a huge buck knee deep in the water.
Twenty seconds passed before the big buck exited the water and presented a broadside shot at 15-yards. Still not knowing it was Ginormica, Travis settled his sights and released his arrow. With a loud thud the arrow hit its mark. Travis was able to keep an eye on the monster for about 50-yards, before he lost him in some thick brush.
Texting his buddy, Travis reported that he thought he shot Ginormeica. The good friend said some explicates that can not be put into print.
Being pretty certain that the shot was a pass-through, hitting both lungs, with good pink blood on the arrow, Travis returned home and went to church with his family. With the shot being played over and over in his mind, Travis quickly contacted his father and brother reporting the nights events.
Travis’s father promptly met Travis at 8:00 p.m. after church that night to resume the search. About 5-yards from where the buck was shot a good blood trail was picked up. Excitement quickly ran through the Cockburn family with anticipation of what they might see at the end of the crimson red blood trail.
After losing sight of the monster, twenty yards later, seventy yards from where the arrow buried deep into the lungs of the giant, the monster was recovered.
After all these months, Ginormica was recovered, and to say the celebration began is an understatement. After field-dressing and tagging the brute, the celebration began.
With four friends in tow, the five men were able to drag the once-in-a-lifetime buck out the thickets.
With numerous people counting tines, all with different numbers, the final count was 29 scoreable points. If it was not for a broken G-5 on the left side, it would have been the 30-point buck.
With bases measuring 8 ½ -inches and 7 ½ -inches, the largest deer killed in the United States for 2011-2012 deer seasons measured 261 5/8-inches. Travis’s persistence paid off, and I cannot think of a more deserving hunter. The largest tine measured 12 ½ -inches, and the smallest mass circumference was 5 ½-inches.
This deer was recognized as the top non-typical whitetail at the Pope and Young convention held in Dallas, Texas for 2011-2012 seasons, and at the time was the fourth largest bow-killed buck in Illinois history. I had the pleasure to visit Travis at his home and to hold this massive rack. It was an experience I will never forget.
Equipment Used
Real Tree Camo
Bowtech Alliegance
Carbon Express Arrows
G5 T3 Expandable Broad heads
Nikon Optics
Summitt Tree stand Viper
