Skip Woodruff's Windham County monster 8-pointer features foot-long G-2s and a net score of 146 4/8 Boone and Crockett points. Photo courtesy of Skip Woodruff.

There's finally some big news out of Vermont! Last season a new state-record muzzleloader buck was harvested in the Green Mountain State, a state that has struggled in recent years to produce a trophy buck of any kind.

Maybe, just maybe, things are starting to change thanks to antler restrictions imposed several years ago. It sure is good to feature a story from this state about a new state record for muzzleloader hunters!

Skip Woodruff hunts in the same little town in Windham County that he has been hunting his entire life. He knows most of the great places to hunt and has walked just about every square inch of huntable ground there.

Woodruff's son, Chip, is also his best hunting buddy. Chip had been hunting an area where several deer had been working some apple trees on a regular basis. So, on Dec. 9, father and son headed to the area. They picked up the tracks of a buck in a few inches of good tracking snow. It seemed as if the buck had been making some rubs on this softwood hillside. Woodruff was convinced that deer were spending a lot of time in the area before making their way across a small brook and up onto a ridge. Unfortunately, the ridge was posted against hunting. So, Woodruff decided that the area near the ridge would be a great place to hunt first thing the following morning.

Although Woodruff does not consider himself much of a "sitter," he thought he could stand it for an hour or so the next morning. He and Chip headed to the woods and were greeted by warm, rainy conditions, with the snow mostly gone. The pair went to opposite ends of the hillside with a plan of sitting as long as possible. When they reached the end of their patience, they would get up and hunt slowly toward each other, a tactic they have used successfully many times in the past.

It was already full light at 7 a.m. as Woodruff worked his way quietly and carefully through some hemlocks toward the spot he had hoped to make his stand. He was nearly to the spot when he saw what he thought was a doe running off in the direction of the brook. He was disgusted with himself for scaring the deer and was sure he had blown any chance of seeing the buck. But at this point, he also knew he couldn't change his plans, so he stood still and looked around for a while.

Suddenly, his eyes settled on a huge set of antlers There was a great buck standing broadside about 40 yards away, apparently looking intently in the direction where the doe had gone with no idea Woodruff was standing there!