How would you like to be 11 and very likely to have already gotten the biggest deer of your lifetime?





Hunter, 10, kills 20-point buck





By MAGGIE BORMAN
The Telegraph
November 20, 2007 - 10:57PM
Jaron Wittman with his big prize.



JERSEYVILLE — A Jersey County boy gave himself an early birthday present when he shot a 20-point buck Friday morning.

Jaron Wittman described his big moment Tuesday, a day after his 11th birthday.

Jaron (pronounced Jerun) was hunting Friday with his father, Tom Wittman. The youngster, who has been hunting since he was 8 years old, said he and his dad left to hunt about 6 a.m. and saw no deer from their tree stand until about 9:30 a.m.

“We saw a big buck walk into a hollow on the other side of the field from us, and Dad said when I was ready, he would go see if he could spook the deer toward me,” Jaron said.

The youngster said they got out of the tree stand and took their 4-wheeler back to their truck to shed some of the clothing they had donned for the earlier morning chill, then headed back on the 4-wheeler to a path through the hollow. Jaron settled into his spot as his father left to try to spook the deer toward the young hunter.

“I didn’t hear anything, but then I saw a big deer run toward the woods,” Jaron said. “I stood up and got ready, then the buck stopped about 10 feet in front of me. I didn’t even have time to think. I fired a shot and thought I had missed, as it ran into the woods.”

Jaron said he didn’t see any blood so he was sure he had missed the buck. But about five minutes later, his father came up to him and told him he had seen the deer — and it was dead.
“I was shocked, but we went up the path a ways, and it was lying right there,” Jaron said. “I was jumping up in the air, I was so excited.”

He said he and his father counted the points — all 20 of them. They then loaded up the deer, went to the nearby home of a relative and began taking photos of the buck.

“It is the first buck I have ever shot, and I am not sure what it weighed, but it looked big,” Jaron said. “But the first doe I ever shot was big-bodied, too.”

His mother, Melany Wittman, said she didn’t know the exact weight of the buck, either, but thought it was about 190 pounds.

“We are definitely going to see what we need to do to see if it is a record,” she said.

While the state does not yet have data compiled for this year’s hunting season, an 81-year-old hunter from Gilson also shot a 20-point buck in Knox County on the opening day of the 2007 Illinois firearm season.

Jaron isn’t concerned about whether he got a record buck.

“This one’s rack is going to be mounted on my bedroom wall,” he said.

The fifth-grader at St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Jerseyville said his parents had a photo of his buck on his birthday cake as a surprise for him.

“And when I blew out the candles, my wish was to shoot an even bigger one,” he said. “Shooting that 20-point buck was a real surprise, but I still want to get a bigger one next time.”

Jaron is the grandson of Jerry and Kathy Wittman of Jerseyville.