Fellow hunter rescues trophy antlers from an I-80 fate
When I started reading this story I figured that this was one lucky guy by what he had found on the highway that day. As I read further to find out that the mount was being taken to a son from a dad and then have it blown out of the back of a pickup truck was a “OH my god” feeling. Thanks to the finder being another hunter with ethics he returned the mount to it’s rightful owner. Very nice story indeed.
If not for the good instincts of a stranger, and fellow hunter, Randy Miller’s only keepsake of this whitetail would be this picture of the day he shot the buck from a tree stand in western Kansas. Once repaired, Miller’s dad plans to take the mount to Kansas in May, this time secured in the trunk of a car.
Mike Cvitak knows a nice set of antlers when he sees one.
Usually it’s from a tree stand during whitetail deer season.
But what he saw on the shoulder of Interstate 80 between Omaha and Lincoln was more than a good rack. It was a trophy.
Cvitak was driving home to Roca, Neb., from his pressman job in Omaha 11 days ago when he noticed the antlered deer head with its nose in the snowy I-80 median. Intrigued, Cvitak turned around at Waverly and drove back to check out the find.
The mount was impressive, although half of the rack was missing, there was a gaping hole in the skull, the jaw was scuffed and an ear had a case of road rash.
Cvitak later spotted the other half of the rack where it ricocheted down the road.
Someone will be missing this beauty, Cvitak thought, as passing traffic peppered him with gravel.
About that time, 60 miles down the road at York, Bob Miller of Rock Valley, Iowa, stopped to check the load in the box of his pickup truck. It was missing.
Earlier that day, Miller left Rock Valley to deliver a prized mount — Boone and Crockett scored at 157 points — to his son, Randy Miller, in Garden City, Kan. He packed it in a washing machine box and tied it into the back of his pickup.
Miller tightened his tie downs at Missouri Valley, Iowa. Snow flurried on a north wind gusting more than 40 mph.
Then somewhere between Greenwood and Waverly, wind caught Miller’s box and whipped it out of the truck without notice.
Miller retraced his route but found nothing.
“I didn’t think we’d ever see it again,” he said.
The mount came from a whitetail bagged by Randy Miller south of Garden City three years ago. Miller shot it with a bow from 30 yards. It had seven points on the right and a drop tine. The left antler had seven points.
Bob Miller’s taxidermist set the mount on a pedestal featuring western Kansas stones, sage and a rattlesnake tail. The rack rubs against a fence post.
The Millers advertised the loss in Omaha and Lincoln newspapers. Cvitak was watching. He already repaired the hide and remounted the broken antler.
“A deer like that doesn’t come around every day,” Cvitak said. “I knew someone would want it back. It’s nicer than any of the four I have on my wall.”
Wow, that’s a good story. What are the odds that someone would see the mount and then know what it was and why it should be saved?
I’m glad it had a happy ending.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Now that shows someone with ETHICS, don’t you think.
February 7th, 2008 at 11:35 am