By Gary Caputi

In a day and age when many deer taken by hunters are shot from carefully staked out runs from the vantage point of a tree stand, it is pretty amazing to think that this past season a deer carrying the second-largest rack ever taken during gun season in New Jersey was shot by a hunter on foot. It's even more amazing when you learn that included in the party of hunters with him at the time were two current whitetail state-record holders.

Bill Brown is a 59-year-old retired Wall Township police officer who devotes all of his time to the outdoors. If he isn't hunting, he's fishing. If he isn't doing one or the other, he is either preparing for or thinking about it. Bill has lived in the municipality he served all his life and has been an avid hunter since the tender age of 10 when it was determined he was old enough to handle a firearm. He hunts all three deer seasons: bow, blackpowder and shotgun; he surf- fishes for striped bass and dabbles in freshwater fishing from his tin boat.

He lives in a secluded area of Wall where his neighbors aren't too close, but they aren't too far away, either. It's a place where his dogs can roam a little without bothering folks and where he can walk 100 yards into the woods or nearby gravel pit to sight-in his bow or train one of his gun dogs. It's not the stereotypical New Jersey scene, especially in these days of rampant development.

To get to his house, you travel down Hurley Pond Road, a two-lane street that runs along the backside of Allaire Airport, a small single runway facility that caters to private planes. A turn onto a smaller road and another turn down an even narrower one brings you to a mailbox at the roadside. Open places like this are becoming more rare, even in once rural Wall.

Talk with Bill Brown for a while and you learn that he's a hunter. There is nothing he enjoys more than time in the woods. He is pretty traditional in his methods. His camouflage suit isn't the fancy new stuff and his favorite deer gun is an old Fox side-by-side.

Bill Brown holds onto the rack of his big Monmouth County trophy buck. The 18-point rack is very symmetrical for a non-typical and boasts an impressive 26 1/8-inch inside spread! Photo by Gary Caputi

"Not one of them newer Fox shotguns," he's quick to tell you. "It's a 1910 Ansley Fox made in Philadelphia." It dates back to the days when guns sold under the Fox name were fine examples of the gun maker's art.

After we settled into chairs around the dining room table and talked a while, I asked how many deer he had taken this past season. He modestly said 11, adding that venison was his favorite meal. Then he walked into the living room and came back with "the" rack. My mouth dropped in amazement at the size of it. Just a few weeks before I had seen the rack of a 16-pointer shot not 15 miles away. It was big by any standard, but this rack was huge.

Brown's rack carries 18 points. The main beam was 6 4/8 inches around at the base, with an inside spread of 25 7/8 inches. That's the inside spread! The outside spread is an outstanding 29 1/8 inches! It was the former property of a deer that was estimated to be only about 3 1/2 years old that dressed out to a less than hefty 130 pounds. However, it is the second-largest rack ever taken during gun season since record keeping in New Jersey started. The Brown buck is eclipsed only by the standing state-record non-typical gun kill, which was shot over 55 years ago back in 1946. Bill Brown smiled when he told me there were a number of rumors circulating about the circumstances surrounding the kill.

"The tales I've heard range from one that says I found the deer struggling with its rack stuck in a fence and killed it with a 2x4," he laughed, "to one that claims I shot it out of state and dragged it home. What people don't realize is there are some mighty big bucks in this area of New Jersey. Friends of mine shot the state-record bow and the state-record blackpowder deer. There are a lot of deer running around here with genes from those bucks. This one was not particularly heavy, about 130 pounds dressed, but it was probably a lot heavier earlier in the fall. It was rutted out and didn't have an ounce of fat left on its body when we butchered it."

To put the rumors to rest, Bill told us the story of the hunt as witnessed by eight other hunters in the group that day, and later by two Wall Township police officers and a New Jersey conservation officer. Here's how it happened.

It was the first day of shotgun season, Dec. 9, 2002, when Bill Brown met up around midmorning with a large group of hunting buddies at a predetermined spot. Since this was shotgun season and each member of the group had been through the bow and blackpowder seasons already, no special preparation had been taken. They were all in familiar environs.

Each sportsman spent the early morning hours in tree stands in various locations before arriving at the predetermined meeting area, which is located in southern Monmouth County. Only one member of the group had a deer to show for his efforts that morning - a respectable 8-point buck.

The group of old friends included Charlie Borden and his son, Scott, who holds the current state record for a whitetail taken with a bow. Larry Morgan, who shot the 8-pointer that morning, was there along with his sons, Eric and Elliot. Harvey and Dave Keys were there, and so was Ed Eloe, who holds the current state record for a whitetail taken with a muzzleloader. It was certainly quite an illustrious group. It was about 10 a.m. as they discussed their next moves that would finish off the day's hunt.

They were all gathered at the edge of a field on a small, private farm of about 35 acres located in Wall, which is only a few miles away from Bill Brown's home. The group has longstanding permission from the landowner to hunt the property whenever they want. It was decided that several members of the group, including Bill, would go to the far side of the field and take up positions. The rest of the party would slowly walk through in an effort to push any deer that might be feeding in the tall stalks toward the stationary hunters.

Bill was positioned on the ground about 10 yards off the far side of the field in a stand of laurel and oak trees, his vintage double barrel under his arm while he stayed quiet and listened intently. The gun held a load of No. 4 buckshot in the first chamber and 00 shot in the second.

About 10 minutes into the hunt, Bill heard a shot, which he later found out was Ed Eloe shooting at a coyote. The owner of the land had asked them to kill any they saw as a favor because they had become a nuisance in recent years. Ed missed the shot, but what he didn't know was he had spooked a large buck with the report, which took off without being seen by the drivers.

About two minutes later, Bill heard a noise coming toward him in a big hurry, not from the field ahead, but from the laurels to his side. The animal was moving deeper into the woods coming from the general direction of the shot. It had apparently slipped into the woods and was headed deeper into the brush and trees angling toward Bill's position.

"I turned in the direction of the commotion and caught a glimpse of a deer moving fast headed diagonally across and in front of me," Bill explained. "I couldn't see how large it was at first because it was all hunched down close to the ground and really making tracks. I could see it was a nice deer with a big rack, but it was moving so fast I really didn't have time to give it a good once over."

Since the deer was angling toward him, Bill picked the spot where it would be closest, about 45 yards away, and trained the old Fox on the spot. When the buck hit it, he let go with the first barrel.

"The deer was moving so fast after the first shot that I thought I'd totally missed it, so I unloaded with the second barrel," Bill recounted. "The buck never slowed down, running headlong into a laurel thicket. I saw it go in, but kept watching and didn't see or hear it come out the other side. So I figured it must have gone down."

Scott Borden was soon on the scene after hearing the shots. Scott's name might be familiar if you follow deer hunting or are a regular reader of these pages. He has held the New Jersey state-record bow kill (typical category) since 1995 for a deer that scored 189 4/8 points. He was featured on the cover of the August 1996 issue of Mid-Atlantic Game & Fish and in a feature article that, by coincidence, included a picture of his deer with his dad on one side and Bill Brown on the other. Yep, Bill was there when the trophy buck was taken and it seemed only fitting that Scott should be here on this eventful day.

First on the scene, though, was Eric Morgan. Eric and Bill started toward the laurel thicket looking for a blood trail, keeping their eyes open in case the deer jumped up and took off. As they pushed deeper into the thicket, Eric was the first to see the deer lying dead on the ground ahead of him. He stopped with a look of total amazement and said, "Holy expletive." Bill saw the huge rack on the buck and had to catch his breath before he could mutter a word.

Moments later, Larry Morgan arrived on the scene. As he was approaching, he asked Bill if he had shot a deer.

"Yeah," came the reply. "An 18-pointer!" Larry retorted, "If you've got an 18-pointer, I'll kiss ya." To that, Bill replied with a smile, "Pucker up."

"It was the first, and hopefully, the last time I've ever been kissed by a man," Bill said. It was obvious he had shared a lot of good times in the field with these close friends.

Checking the scene more closely, they determined that after it was hit the deer ran about 30 yards into the thicket where it died. Bill would later find that he had connected with both shots. There was No. 4 buckshot in both the heart and lungs from the first shot, which he thought had missed because the deer hadn't slowed down. There was 00 shot a little higher in the shoulder from the second shot; the first shot was the fatal one. The three field dressed the deer, all the time looking at its huge rack. They then dragged it out onto the field and back toward the trucks. That's when the commotion started.

Waiting for them on the dirt road that ran around the field were two Wall Township police cars and the conservation officer's jeep. All three had responded to a call from one of the farmer's neighbors reporting hunters with guns were trespassing on private property. When the three uniformed professionals saw the deer, their eyes popped. It isn't every day you see an 18-pointer in the flesh.

The police relaxed almost immediately when they recognized Bill, since he is retired from the department, but they still asked to see the letter granting permission for the group to hunt on the farm. After the proper paperwork was produced along with everyone's hunting licenses and identification, the conservation officer, a young woman, turned to the deer. She was so impressed that she even posed with Bill and the deer for some pictures. She talked at length with Bill and his friends about his remarkable trophy.

"I'd run into her before and she wasn't exactly the friendliest conservation officer I'd ever met, but I guess when your job includes walking through the woods checking guys with guns, it's a good idea not to be too friendly," Bill said. "Once the formalities were over, she was as excited about the animal as I was and she wasn't afraid to show it."

As of this writing, the deer's cape has been tanned and the rack has been scored at an incredible 198 1/8 gross, with a net score of 191 1/8 after deductions. It is the No. 2 all-time non-typical ever taken with a gun in New Jersey, second only to Norm Taylor's 1946 Burlington County trophy. Carl Osterlund of All-Game Taxidermy in Neptune was preparing to do a very special mount for his friend Bill. Art Neilson, an official scorer with the state, did the scoring on this amazing buck.

In parting, Bill had some words of wisdom for our readers. "There are a lot of deer in the state in recent years, and the chances of bucks developing really big racks have never been better, as the gene pool that produced this one proves. This deer might have the second biggest rack shot in the last 50 years, but I wouldn't be surprised if an even larger one doesn't come along."