Growing up as a young boy in southeastern Pennsylvania Ryan Venkler (TCW Prostaff), was surrounded by a passion for the outdoors. His father and grandfather started introducing him to hunting and fishing at a young age. Ryan, as many of us, grew more and more appreciative of what it meant to be a woodsman. Ryan has countless stories of the days he has spent a field with his father. His father has been his hunting mentor and has taught Ryan the ins and outs of hunting. This story is one the two of them will never forget, and will always be grateful for.

It began in early June while Ryan was doing some preseason scouting with some of the guys on the True Country Whitetails Prostaff. Ryan is not just an advid hunter, he’s a well accomplished archery hunter which landed him on a well respected Prostaff in the Northeast(TCW Prostaff). After checking some trail cameras in Delaware, Ryan found a buck he immediately became obsessed with, and rightlyfully so, this was a special deer. Ryan named this buck “Knarls” and there was not a day he didn’t dream about getting an opportunity to harvest this animal.

Over the next couple months, Ryan continued to put in the work and miles patterning this deer. During the last couple weeks in July, Ryan’s heart broke a little bit. Knarls had disappeared and could not be found. Ryan tried desperately to relocate his buck to no avail. Ryan would begin his 2011 hunting season as scheduled. He spent the first two weeks in Delaware hunting and filming in the early archery season hoping for an opportunity at a shooter buck, unfortunately the weather conditions proved to get the best of the early September hunting.

Ryan would spend the next couple hunts with his father trying to fill a doe tag in the special regulations archery season in Pennsylvania. While the rest of his team was in Maryland hunting hard, Ryan had a feeling deep in his gut. He should head back to Delaware and give it another shot before PA’s buck season came in. Ryan encouraged his father to join him, and asked if he would film for him just incase Knarls showed up again. After a last minute wash of the hunting gear, and a quick load of the truck, Ryan and his best friend and hunting buddy were headed south down Route 1. They made it to the grounds just as it was getting light, Ryan knew they were running late and needed to hurry. They quickly settled in to their set up and prepared for what they figured to be an all day sit. It was September 17th and the winds were out of the north, which is a rare occurrence for southern Delaware. Just prior to climbing in to the stand, Ryan snagged the SD card from a camera leading to his tree. Around 8am when the anticipation wore off a little, Ryan popped the card in his view finder and decided to kill a little time.

Good thing Ryan wears a harness, as all hunters should, because surely he would have fallen out of the tree when a picture of Knarls appeared. He was finally back, and he repeatedly used that trail at or around 9:56am the previous few days. As Ryan relayed the good news to his father, his sails were filled with wind again! Be ready, be ready, he’s going to show up just before 10am he kept telling his father, who was still trying to figure out how to work a video camera (Rodney you’re still my buddy). The next 2 hours dragged on as Ryan wore his battery down checking the time on his cell phone.

As a small yearling made his way through, 10am was here and still no sign of Knarls. 10:05 still no sign. As Ryan turned around in his stand to sit down and try to gather his nerves, he caught movement. It was him, the famous buck named Knarls. As he approached Ryan tried to get his father’s attention, while not getting busted. He knew this was his only shot at his biggest buck to date. Ryan drew back and took steady aim, settled his pin, and released an arrow. Just prior to his release his father had noticed Knarls as well, and was able to see his son shoot the biggest buck of his life! Ryan knew his shot was spot on, and turned to his father. Emotion quickly took over the quiet woods of Sussex County, Delaware. Tears, hugs, high fives, and smiles followed as father and son celebrated that special moment.

This deer takes on a much bigger meaning then just some trophy on the wall. It’s a trophy on the wall for a father and son which will bring memories generations down the road. To harvest a deer of this caliber, that Ryan worked unGodly hard for, with his father by his side means the world to them. It is as much credit to Rodney Venkler for this harvest, as it is to his son for taking this trophy. A man who taught his son at an early age the appreciation of the outdoors, which stayed with him his entire life. It was only fitting this day be spent together.

Sincerely,
Damien Rexrode
True Country Whitetails, LLC.

Some side notes on this amazing story. Ryan and Rodney’s trophy is being mounted at Huey’s Taxidermy www.hueystaxidermy.com
They cannot wait for this beautiful animal to take it’s spot in their trophy room.

Ryan also had his buck scored and register with Monster Buck Clubs of North America. Please take the time to view the short video of the scoring. www.namonsterbucks.com