Did you shoot the biggest buck you have ever seen?

Did you shoot the biggest buck you have ever seen

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schoolhousegrizz

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Just wondering how many people have shot the biggest buck they ever laid eyes on. I would think very few. I know I have not. Share a story if you would like.
 
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No. It was before the season. We were elk hunting. Somebody spooked a herd out of the timber and a buck followed them. He was bigger than the bull with the herd,
 
Nearly hit him.

I was doing about 70 in the middle of the night in far west Texas. Massive 5x5 was standing in the middle of my side of the road as I came over a hill. Slowed enough that I was able to use the other side of the road to go around him safely. Massive buck.
 
2019 I had a high country early rifle tag. Found a toad of a buck a month before the season. Day before the opener a Utah guy rolls into the same valley. No scouting, just a recommendation from a friend. Opening day he finds the big buck first and puts him down.
 
JBunn said:
2019 I had a high country early rifle tag. Found a toad of a buck a month before the season. Day before the opener a Utah guy rolls into the same valley. No scouting, just a recommendation from a friend. Opening day he finds the big buck first and puts him down.
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?
 
I think I may have seen a bigger one in a neighborhood in Boulder but I was new to mule deer and may have overestimated his size.

Otherwise I think this buck I killed is probably up there with the biggest I have ever seen. Jumped him out of bed and watched him run away.. He came back 5 min later and I shot him at 40 yards.

I have also seen a typical buck in town on western slope that was every bit of 200"

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Not a muley, but had a true 240" non typical(200" ten point with 10" double drops on each side) whitetail 10 yards under my tree in a pouring rainstorm, thought I could thread an arrow thru the branches, but that didn't happen.. At least I didn't make a bad hit and have him go off and die somewhere.
 
HIcountryman said:
I think I may have seen a bigger one in a neighborhood in Boulder but I was new to mule deer and may have overestimated his size.

Otherwise I think this buck I killed is probably up there with the biggest I have ever seen. Jumped him out of bed and watched him run away.. He came back 5 min later and I shot him at 40 yards.

I have also seen a typical buck in town on western slope that was every bit of 200"

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So cool. I can't believe he came back that quick.
 
No, saw a 200"+ mule deer, but my brother had first shot.
saw a 190+ mule deer in nevada on Muzzy hunt , didn't get a shot. Biggest buck i shot at, ... killed a 190 net.

ride low in the saddle and stay off the ridge tops
 
No way - great thread. I’ve seen some unicorns. One back in ‘98 bow hunting elk was biggest. Lord knows how wide???
Ran into him stalk mode in dark timber. Quick glimpse is all I got. Hid behind a tree and he ghosted me.
Another honker hunting with my son three years ago , epic snowy day big deep forked wide boss, a monster body with does over a saddle, but he had a doe tag.
Sure is fun!
 
I don't know if it was the biggest buck I ever saw but it was up there. I was hunting with my dad in Wyoming region K, probably late 80s, I was just a little boy. My dad spotted a giant buck at first light way out there. Took a few shots. The buck ran into some brush and the does scattered. It was late October and there was two to three feet of snow on the mountain. It was freezing cold. We jumped back in the truck and drove up the road parked and threw our warm clothes on. We searched all over through the brush couldn't find him or jump him out. We were about to head back and my older brother said let me run up here and see if he's hiding in this brush up here. My dad and I were about 30 yards below my brother. My brother about stepped on the deer and it exploded up out of the snow. My dad waited for the buck to get out and away from my brother. He shot standing up and then he tried to lay down get steady and shot until the gun was empty. I remember just waiting with such excitement waiting for the buck to tip over. He never did and I just remember watching his antlers continue to disappear cheaters and all over the crest of the hill. I was sick to my stomach. I wanted to throw up. I was so mad and sad. I felt like hunting the rest of the day was hopeless because we would never see a buck like that again. To rub salt in our wound we got back to the truck and it was dead as a door nail. In our excitement my Dad forgot to turn off the headlights. Even recalling the story right now I have a sick feeling in my gut. Man, crazy what a big buck will do to a man or a little boy!!! My dad felt awful.The One that got away, haunts us and keeps us going back for more.
 
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Hard to say. The ones you didnt or couldnt shoot always seem huge, but if you were to get them on the ground, who knows? Ground shrinkage is real, and our memories make it more real i think. Ive seen 3 big whitetails that im pretty sure are bigger than anything ive got, but i could be wrong. One was post season when i was lion hunting. One was during season but couldnt get near him and never saw him again. The other slow walked across the road in my headlights during the rut going from private to private in the dark in the wee hours of the morning. God i wish id had a dash cam to review that one. Looked like a magazine cover buck. Like i said, pretty sure they were all bigger than what ive got, but the minds eye plays tricks on a guy, especially after several years pass.
 
diablo said:
Anyone who answers yes to this question got really lucky once it hasn’t hunted much! ?
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I got really lucky, I guess. I've hunted and looked for muleys like CRAZY in the 18 years I have lived in their territory. I have seen a handful of giant bucks and I am truly grateful to have this one on the wall! May you be so lucky someday
 
I got lucky and shot the biggest I have seen in the wild. It is a whitetail though. I think most here have already saw pics of it in the whitetail forum.
I have saw a couple or so that would have came close to it though. Really doubt I will ever shoot one bigger.
 
Not even close. I've seen some giants, but rarely while I was hunting. I've killed most of the biggest I have seen while hunting, but on the winter range, or somewhere in the rut, I have seen some giants. I also have seen a few in the velvet that were huge. Saw a nontypical in CO once in August that had huge mass and tons of points, but not in my hunt area.

The mountains of western WY are terrible for this because you can see them scouting or even in the season,. but they are really hard to kill. On private ranches in eastern WY, it's a different story. Odds go way up of being able to get the big buck there.
 
Not even close. Was hunting the Sangres in southern Colorado with archery equipment. I believe the early, above timberline rifle seasons had not started yet ( mid 80s ). Saw one group of 9 bucks and 7 of those bucks I believe to be 180+. Every configuration of giant mule deer you can imagine: wide, tall, typical, nontypical. We were camped 800yds away and there was one typical, that without binoculars, you could see him when he turned his head with a rocky background. Weather turned ugly and could not get up to them for several days. Several years later, again with archery equipment, we saw 3 bucks bed near the top of peak. Once again, 1 had to be over 35 inches, another taller than I thought possible, and another just huge. Walked over that peak out of our lives.
 
I had given a buddy a starting place to hunt in an area unknown to him.
He hunted the last week of the season and told me of this big buck he'd shot at and missed the day before the closure.
I went up a month later and found him. Made the monthly trek to always check in on him.
Followed him through summer and come fall I now had the tag.
He was big, not the biggest but just fat and heavy.
I'd put my pack together the night before in a howling rainstorm prepping for a four day hunt.
Got up at 4am and started my hike.
I ran into some puddles along the way and there were big tracks throughout the mud.
It was starting to get light out and the rain had cleared but had a 15mph Northy blowing.
Not a half hour into sunup I had my pack on, rifle over my shoulder when I scanned the N facing slope directly below, it was real windy.
I look below and there's his rack and his ears laid tight back, and up he goes!
Unslung my gun as he was moving left to right headed for a canyon lined with some tall pines.
Found fur, pulled, nothing.
For some reason my senses cleared and looking through the scope was like slow motion. I'd found his shoulder, put the crosshairs right there and pulled, he disappeared over the rim.
My phone rang, it was my wife asking about some cheap ass dresser at a yard sale, I said do whatever you want.
She asked if I'd gotten anything, so I told her to hold on as I wasn't sure, but I was absolutely positive of my last optical through the scope.
Crested the canyon lip and found this.
image.jpeg

This hunt had a major impact on my life, because my long time hunting companion, my brother Jim had also drew the tag. We had planned this hunt for months together.
Jim killed himself a week prior to this hunt at the age of 56.
In Jims honor I used his rifle, backpack and even wore his boots during my successful hunt.
I sat with this buck for some time, speaking to him and crying like a child as to my tumultuous week came to an end.
This buck symbolizes my big brother in my mind, and oh boy how I'd wished like hell to have him there with me that day, he'd have been proud.
Not the biggest I'd ever seen by a long shot, but I'll take it and my memories to the bank anytime.
 
In 2007 I found the biggest buck I had ever seen and killed him (198”). In 2010 I killed the biggest buck I have ever seen (226”). And then in 2018 I killed the biggest buck I have ever seen (227”). So yes…..3 times.

Now if we start talking about elk I’m going to start crying.
 
I haven't even shot the biggest buck I've ever seen, that being Mule deer, Blacktail, Whitetail, or Sitka. That's what keeps me going. I have killed a 195 Mule deer.
 
<----<<< Technically, my Hoyt killed the biggest buck I've ever seen (my Avatar), but fortunately I was the one shooting it! Over 37 inches wide with an official net score that is just a few eighths of an inch shy of 260. I've been very fortunate to take animals of several species with my bow that were the largest I've ever seen.
 
Biggest buck I have ever seen on the hoof was when I was a little kid. Down in the Beaver grove, I think they named him big boy?...scored 230-240?. He now resides in one of the county buildings in Beaver.

As far as biggest seen on a unit while also having a tag to hunt. Nope. The year was 2019, I scouted him all year. Opening day of muzzleloader season I passed on the only shot opportunity I got. As I was sneaking in on him in the sage, he spotted me before I him. At 80 yards and beginning to bound away I contemplated pulling the trigger multiple times watching him in my scope. Figured I would get another opportunity, but never saw him again.
 
Biggest bucks I've seen are AI bucks... so they don't really count. My profile pic is one example.

But, while rifle deer hunting in 2004 in Summit County, I had spent half the day hiking 2 canyons when I spotted a tall, heavy 3 point laying 800 yards above me on a ridge, in the snow. Because my cousin had killed a 4x4 with a cheater 3 days earlier, I didn't know if I wanted a 3 point. I decided to get on the backside of the ridge and hike up towards him to get a better look. When I got high enough, I crept back over the ridge, and sure enough, he was in his bed, looking my way at about 120 yards. He was nice, but I just watched him for several minutes before he got up and slowly walked off into the brush... I turned to look back on the ridge side I had hiked up, and in disbelief, I see a buck about 400 yards from me, laying in the snow, facing down the Slope, but not in my direction. Even in my 10x binos, his rack was BIG. Biggest buck I've seen while hunting. I easily made out sets of very deep forks all around... I laid down, got a good rest with the 7mm and prepared to shoot. I was 23, no range finder, and had to guess. Put my vertical reticle on his vitals, and put the horizontal right across the top of his shoulder... Boom.!! In my 9x scope, all I see is an empty bed, and huge buck hightailing it. I know they look bigger going away, but big is big... and he was.

I hiked over there, found his bed easily, and the HUGE hole in the snow and dirt right at the front edge of it. Just a few inches higher and he'd be on my wall...
 
It's probably hard for any of us old guys to say "yes" given we grew up in an era where giant bucks existed in most mountains and we were hunting them with open sighted 30-30's
In my early 20s I watched a buck that had to be north of 250" run over a mountain one day. He had points going everywhere. He was way out of range (probably 700yds) so I didn't even shoot. A friend sent a few Hail Maries but to no avail. He was a giant.

I may have killed the biggest typical I have seen, but I don't know if that counts. I actually almost passed on him. I still shake my head about that one.

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Used to live in the springs and saw “Goliath” or whatever they called him on several occasions, pretty much ruined any chances that I would kill a buck bigger than him
 
littlebighorn said:
It's probably hard for any of us old guys to say "yes" given we grew up in an era where giant bucks existed in most mountains and we were hunting them with open sighted 30-30's
In my early 20s I watched a buck that had to be north of 250" run over a mountain one day. He had points going everywhere. He was way out of range (probably 700yds) so I didn't even shoot. A friend sent a few Hail Maries but to no avail. He was a giant.

I may have killed the biggest typical I have seen, but I don't know if that counts. I actually almost passed on him. I still shake my head about that one.

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This is literally my dream buck...
 
Not even close. I have seen some real hodads over the years, and some were seen during hunting season, but they all eluded me. i should probably quit hunting and play more golf!

Hawkeye
 
When I was a boy in growing up in Western Kentucky on a dairy farm, we had a pretty good hunting area on the place. It was an area that we dumped all our old equipment and had a few gullies running through it. A few trees, some bushes, and covered with honeysuckle and blackberry canes. I was around 14 years old, and on the last day of muzzleloader season, decided to go and chase up a deer and shoot it. Where I messed up was I decided to cheat and take my rifle instead of my old flintlock. I walked out to the dump and eased into it a few yards. A buck and a doe stood up about 50 yards away. As I got older I learned that bucks would take a hot doe to this spot to tend them. They both just stood there and stared at me. I still remember the disbelief I felt. Points everywhere. Browtines that were as tall as the rest of the rack. Massive bases. And I couldn't make myself shoot it. I remember so well thinking I wouldn't be proud of it. Still a very good memory. Those early days of my hunting were amazing. Dad didn't support me in my pursuit but he didn't discourage me either. I roamed those woods shooting squirrels, deer, coons, and looking for mushrooms and arrowheads.
 
Spotted the biggest buck I’ve ever seen on a scouting trip. Then spotted the buck again during my hunt. He was with the widest deer I’ve ever seen, but he was a 3 point with short tines. So I lined up on the big big buck and missed. Missed high, then low, then missed again. Just watched him trot over the hill never to be seen again. The next year talked to a hunter that said the previous year a young girl killed a giant in the same canyon I missed my buck in. Said it scored 212” if I remember right.
Oh well. It just made me want to get some big muleys that much more. Hopefully I can make up for it with my Nevada elk tag this year!
 
No, I messed it up on multiple occasions with giant bucks.
Wish I could have them moments back having the knowledge I’ve gained over the years.
 
This is the biggest buck I didn't shoot, the ole boy was laying in my back yard in the city limits. I even had a buck tag at the time he was bedded down. He had been eating apples on my neighbor's tree for a couple of days, just showed up. Someone shot him just out of the city limits.
Big Buck 200+.png
 
Back in 2000 we hunted Idaho unit 78. Saw a 37’’ buck, steep down hill 15mph wind 540yds. Watched him about an hour then he laid down in the brush out of sight. To late in the day to go down after him. He was gone the next day when we went after him. Next season 2021 I could not get there for the opening weekend. Another hunter shot him in almost the same spot we saw him the previous year. Still haunts me…..
 

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