Pat Sutter is a Wisconsin bowhunter who carefully manages his own land to grow dandy bucks like this one. Photo courtesy of Pat Sutter.

Pat Sutter knew he had just heard a big deer get out of its bed. What the veteran bowhunter from Blue Mounds didn't realize was that the approaching buck was a whitetail he knew very well.

"It was mid-November, late in the rut, one of the first years the early archery season had run right up until the Thursday before gun hunting," Sutter recalled. "I'd sat in that stand all day, and it was still late in the afternoon before the buck decided to move."

After rising from his bed, the monster 8-pointer moved slowly but certainly toward Sutter's stand, located in a funnel less than 100 yards away.

"He finally came in to 30 yards and put his head behind a tree," Sutter said. "So I drew, and when he stepped into my shooting lane I thought about grunting to stop him, but decided against it. I just shot him on a slow walk. I made a good hit, and the buck went down pretty quickly."

That buck -- which grossed 163 inches and went on to win the 8-point division at the Wisconsin Deer & Turkey Expo -- had been haunting Sutter for years.

"Even though he lived on our farm, he was almost invisible," Sutter said. "I live in the woods, between scouting and hunting, yet I rarely saw him. Actually, I'd passed a shot on him as a 3 1/2-year-old. Then, when he was 5 1/2, I had a chance to kill him with a gun, but I wasn't comfortable with the distance, so I passed on that shot, too, and instead videotaped him as he fed in a corn field. I showed that film to my buddies and they thought I was crazy for not shooting him. But we work really hard to grow mature deer on this farm, and I only take shots that I know I can make. Eventually, I was rewarded by being able to take him with a bow as a 6 1/2-year-old deer."

That hunt exemplifies Pat Sutter, not only as testament to his skill as a bowhunter, but in his commitment to herd management. Sutter, 44, is one of a handful of pioneers who helped Wisconsin hunters rethink how they killed deer.

"Those principles came to be known as 'quality deer management,' " he said. "But back in the 1980s when we started, all we knew was that we wanted to be able to hunt some mature bucks. My brother and I bought adjacent farms in Dane County, and there were just a bazillion deer on them. On opening morning of gun season, we'd see groups of 30 deer, mostly does and a few ratchet heads. If somebody shot a 2 1/2-year-old buck, it was a really big deal."

So Sutter, his brother and a small band of neighbors decided to toss traditional hunting practices out the window.

"It was simple, really," he said. "We just shot a lot of does and let young bucks walk. In a typical year, we'd shoot 30 to 40 does and three or four bucks. The result was a herd with a better balance between bucks and does, and the presence of more mature bucks."

And, Sutter noted, the movement grew in the immediate neighborhood and eventually statewide. While neighboring landowners joined the movement, Sutter traveled and gave talks to groups and sportsmen's clubs interested in quality herd management.