Either the one that got away or driving through a random state or just down the road or on your wall. what's your story that's engraved in your memory. Best guess or know what it'd score? Every hunter has a the biggest I've ever saw............ I live in one of the bottom of the barrel counties in the state for deer population so they are few and far inbetween. The largest buck I've laid eyes on was locked on doe laying in a bean stubble field 175yrds from a two lane state highway 2002 I think. Hunters set up in the closest cover to the deer, as one of us walked straight at him to just get them moving. I watched as the 50year old man (without a weapon) walked within 70yrds of the bedded buck. He froze when the deer stood up and turned toward its oncoming threat. The man said later , I was getting nervous when he didn't run. i didn't know if I should keep going or turn and run for the truck! I thought I was going to see a deer charge an unarmed man. I've never heard of it 1st hand but a big ass buck pumping full of testosterone could mess something up. the doe took off and the buck followed after the intense stare off. This deer was killed later on that year in Indiana with a muzzleloader about 4 miles away from where he was at that day. He scored 178 7/8. Not a dream buck for some but still the largest deer in my life so far......what's yours?
Everyone has the biggest buck you've scene alive story.........
- Thread starter Bowkills
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Spencie
Senior Member
The biggest I can claim for sure is on my wall. 178 5/8. November 2, 2006. Crossing a power line 125 yards away. Grunted him to 14 yards. I might have seen bigger but can’t confirm. I have had 2 on cam over 200”.... 204” and 202”. The 202 had a couple tines broken off.
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Ok.... I've got two.... Both occurred in Illinois... First year we hunted Illinois their legal shooting hours were based on sunrise and sunset... So opening day I'm sitting in a tree in a hedge row and just about legal quitting time a doe comes out in the field and comes across towards me (still a ton of daylight to shoot)... Next thing I see comming were horns.... Not sure how big, but big, definately a booner.... I glance at my watch and it's one minute past legal time... They walk by at about 40 yds. I never took safety off... I just looked on in awe.... I climbed down and headed out to my vehicle and didn't even need a light.... During this walk out shooting started on all the neighboring farms.... Seems no one else was obeying the law...
The next year they changed the law to 5pm....
Next event was a couple years later.... Again in Illinois.... It was the last day of archery season and I planned on not hunting, but instead was gonna move a few stands for opening day of gun season... My brother nagged me into at least hunting the morning and I gave in and said I'd hunt 2 hrs... Didn't dress warm or take any goodies to eat, after all it was gonna be a very short sit... So shortly after it started to get light, I hear what sounds like a guy clearing his throat down over the hill.... WTF....Shortly afterwards a doe comes up the hill being followed by A TRUE GIANT.... Every bit 200 inches... They bed down about 50 yds. out....My short 2 hr. sit turned into an all day sit till shortly before dark when they got up and headed back the way they came.... During this time I had numerous gorgeous bucks walk under me and get run off by the big boy.... Definately the biggest deer I've ever seen alive or dead.... Hunted that farm the next 3 days with the gun and never seen him.... Owner of farm never heard of anyone getting him.....
The next year they changed the law to 5pm....
Next event was a couple years later.... Again in Illinois.... It was the last day of archery season and I planned on not hunting, but instead was gonna move a few stands for opening day of gun season... My brother nagged me into at least hunting the morning and I gave in and said I'd hunt 2 hrs... Didn't dress warm or take any goodies to eat, after all it was gonna be a very short sit... So shortly after it started to get light, I hear what sounds like a guy clearing his throat down over the hill.... WTF....Shortly afterwards a doe comes up the hill being followed by A TRUE GIANT.... Every bit 200 inches... They bed down about 50 yds. out....My short 2 hr. sit turned into an all day sit till shortly before dark when they got up and headed back the way they came.... During this time I had numerous gorgeous bucks walk under me and get run off by the big boy.... Definately the biggest deer I've ever seen alive or dead.... Hunted that farm the next 3 days with the gun and never seen him.... Owner of farm never heard of anyone getting him.....
Sgt Fury
Sgt. Spellchecker
Biggest I’ve ever seen was in Saskatchewan. When we arrived at camp, it’s customary to shoot your rifle to make sure it wasn’t knocked off zero during the travel. They want you to shoot 2” high at 100 yards. When I shot, it was exactly where the outfitter wanted...he said it was the best shot from the entire season. He then wanted me to shoot again to prove it wasn’t a fluke...while all my buddies were breaking my balls. I shot again and put the bullet in the same hole. The next morning I overheard the outfitter tell the guide to take me to “the big field” at first light before taking me to my stand as the shots can be long but there’s usually a real good buck there. We cruised the field edge and between two hedgerows I spotted three does and a HUGE buck...had to be at least 200”. Just as I spotted them, the buck took off running toward the wood line but had disappeared behind one of the hedgerows. I yelled at the guide and when he stopped, he took out his binoculars and said “there’s no buck...only three does”...I started screaming “ the buck was with them...he’s running to the wood line RIGHT NOW”! The guide turned the truck around and sped to the end of the field. When he stopped at the woods line, I jumped out of the truck just as the buck cleared the end of the hedgerow and covered the last 40 yards to the woods before I could get into position for a shot. As I chambered a round and threw the gun up, all I saw was his white tail disappear into the brush. Had the guide not stopped and looked with his binoculars, I would’ve had a 100 yard running shot. The guide apologized profusely and told me and the outfitter (his dad) that it was the biggest buck he’s ever seen...and he’s killed a 180”. Hunter that field every morning the rest of the week and never saw him again. He was wide, tall and had great mass...real dark brown rack.
Mid 160's. Had a few close encounters. We had a very distinctive buck with a double main beam one year. A respected local hunter claims he had trail camera of the deer the last 7 years and had him guessed at 9yrs old. I had him bedded at 100yds during bow season one year. I would say 2011/2012 ballpark. I watched him get out of his bed. To witness the mature deer was an education. Every move was calculated. He would rub on a tree and stop mid rub to look. Never unhooked his antler. Just stopped running and turned his head a bit to look around. Then proceeded with rubbing the sapling. One he was done, his every move was slow and methodical. Always watching. Always scent checking. He walked out of my life. We never heard what came of him. He may have died of old age.
The other monarch is on my wall. Not a massive inch total but trail camera pics say 8-10yrs old. The day I killed him he had a death wish. Not a care in the world. Walked right across an open field and pretty much straight to my 20yd window. 22" inside spread. I think 142". I have video footage from 3 years prior when my son was hunting. He was tending a doe and running off little guys. Much more cautious and probably mid 150's at that time. Weird how he had zero cares the day I killed him. Almost as if he had gotten senile. Inches didn't matter on that deer. He will always be a trophy to me.
The other monarch is on my wall. Not a massive inch total but trail camera pics say 8-10yrs old. The day I killed him he had a death wish. Not a care in the world. Walked right across an open field and pretty much straight to my 20yd window. 22" inside spread. I think 142". I have video footage from 3 years prior when my son was hunting. He was tending a doe and running off little guys. Much more cautious and probably mid 150's at that time. Weird how he had zero cares the day I killed him. Almost as if he had gotten senile. Inches didn't matter on that deer. He will always be a trophy to me.
Second year of my bow hunting career I had an encounter with a nice buck. Back then a 120” buck was bragging rights for sure. I was on stand a couple weeks before gun season and had the usual doe and fawn parade that would come around mostly on a daily basis. I knew about the rut, read up on it some but never really hunted it like I should have. No internet back then just magazines and stories from older guys who’d been hunting their whole lives.
I’d been seeing a couple decent bucks from time too time but nothing close for a shot. Hunted outta a TSS wooden platform climber. So I had some mobility but where the bucks were going through had no trees big enough too put up in. So I just perched in hopes of catching one making a different route.
One afternoon I spotted a doe walking my way then caught movement behind her. My knees started shaking as it was the biggest buck I had ever seen in my life. I never really knew how too judge inches back then but it’d probably of been in the 170” range. I was shooting a Hoyt Game Getter at the time, probably zinging a 2413 at a blistering 180 FPS. Tipped with a satellite broadhead. I shot a tree stand sight. It was a pendulum style sigh that would pivot too make up for the difference in angles for the yardage. It good for 30 yards and under shooting and no real ground shooting possibilities. I would shoot pins throughout the summer and into fall then switch too the pendulum before season came in. All you had too do is be able too judge 30 yards and you were good too go at anything closer.
If the doe stayed on track, she’d walk within 20 yards of me. With the buck in tow! All I had too do was let her walk by, that is if she didn’t hear my knees vibrating the tree stand outta the tree. Seems it took forever for her too get too me. By this time my whole body was basically convulsing.
She’d made her way too about 40 yards and just did a 45 degree angle from me. Taking the buck with her. I watched in disbelief as that huge buck walked away. I contemplated just pulling a Kentucky windage on him at about 45 yards but that faded fast as it was too thick. Too this day that’s about the closest I’ve gotten too that caliber of buck. Really nothing I could of done differently. Wind was in my favor. They weren’t spooked, she just zigged instead of zagging.
Today, that would of been a shot opportunity for sure. But back then, my comfort zone was 30 and under with the equipment I had. The spacing between the 10 & 30 yard pins would have boggled your minds
Probably a half inch or more
I’d been seeing a couple decent bucks from time too time but nothing close for a shot. Hunted outta a TSS wooden platform climber. So I had some mobility but where the bucks were going through had no trees big enough too put up in. So I just perched in hopes of catching one making a different route.
One afternoon I spotted a doe walking my way then caught movement behind her. My knees started shaking as it was the biggest buck I had ever seen in my life. I never really knew how too judge inches back then but it’d probably of been in the 170” range. I was shooting a Hoyt Game Getter at the time, probably zinging a 2413 at a blistering 180 FPS. Tipped with a satellite broadhead. I shot a tree stand sight. It was a pendulum style sigh that would pivot too make up for the difference in angles for the yardage. It good for 30 yards and under shooting and no real ground shooting possibilities. I would shoot pins throughout the summer and into fall then switch too the pendulum before season came in. All you had too do is be able too judge 30 yards and you were good too go at anything closer.
If the doe stayed on track, she’d walk within 20 yards of me. With the buck in tow! All I had too do was let her walk by, that is if she didn’t hear my knees vibrating the tree stand outta the tree. Seems it took forever for her too get too me. By this time my whole body was basically convulsing.
She’d made her way too about 40 yards and just did a 45 degree angle from me. Taking the buck with her. I watched in disbelief as that huge buck walked away. I contemplated just pulling a Kentucky windage on him at about 45 yards but that faded fast as it was too thick. Too this day that’s about the closest I’ve gotten too that caliber of buck. Really nothing I could of done differently. Wind was in my favor. They weren’t spooked, she just zigged instead of zagging.
Today, that would of been a shot opportunity for sure. But back then, my comfort zone was 30 and under with the equipment I had. The spacing between the 10 & 30 yard pins would have boggled your minds
Probably a half inch or more
Spencie
Senior Member
I would love to go back to the 80s and 90s knowing what I know now. Also to see if some of those bucks were as big as I thought. I doubt it but those are great memories.
Yep, and have the equipment we have now
Range finder alone would been fantastic... No more tying string too a tree for measuring
Spencie
Senior Member
I actually had a range finder back then. It had a double image. You turned the dial until they became one. That was your distance. You had to calibrate it frequently.Yep, and have the equipment we have now
Range finder alone would been fantastic... No more tying string too a tree for measuring
Spencie
Senior Member
Here it is. Or a similar version
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I remember a friend had one of those range finders.... In those days you'd tie thin string across a trail, today you get a pic and time it was taken even get it sent to you from miles away... LOL
My dad had one of those, heck I probably still have it somewhere. It worked as long as you was good at lining up images.
My giant was out at deer creek, I have a farm across street from the park I can/could hunt. He was chasing a doe around a field 500yds+ out for a long time and finally the doe ran up the fence line and 10yds beside me and right on by, buck a few seconds behind. He finally makes it 10 yds broadside stopped and I let it fly a foot over his back, still have no ideas what went wrong. He was 180+ easily. Tall, wide and horns were like baseball bats.
I had 2 of these I would set the Sunday before I left camp to go back to work. I would think about those things all week til I could get back to check the time and direction
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Had this guy on camera once back in 2012. Never laid eyes on him and, to my knowledge, no one killed him. I looked for his sheds as well. He just vanished.
Some guys here will remember him as The Outback Buck because he looked like he a had blooming onion on his head. Also, he was living around a huge field we called the Outback.
Some guys here will remember him as The Outback Buck because he looked like he a had blooming onion on his head. Also, he was living around a huge field we called the Outback.
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Stevebenedetti
Member
My biggest I’ve ever seen with my two eyes, I shot. The biggest I’ve ever got on cam... I’ve attached the pic. Both were on my hunting property in southern Ohio and both in the same year. Got a few cam pics of the big guy and never saw him ever again.
Spencie
Senior Member
Bighoun52
Active Member
For a pa buck this about as good as it gets. Found him dead after hunting season. 169 inch
