Moby Dick

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

A couple years ago I was blood trailing a doe I had shot and paying close attention to the ground and not so much what was ahead, out of nowhere up jumped the biggest buck I've ever seen on the hoof 40 yards away. He was a 12 point typical with mass like you see on bass pro displays, an easy Booner. He was heavy enough that I could feel him hit the ground his first 2 leaps. He was gone before I could get an arrow nocked and haunts me to this day. That was the first and only time I've actually caught a glimpse of him in person or on camera, but I've seen what I'm pretty sure are his tracks early last season because of the size and age of the tracks. He's my great white whale, let's hear about yours and hopefully see some game camera pictures of them if you've got them.

 

[robby denning]

When you feel the ground shake, you're close and he's big.


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[elkyinzer]

It's the ghost bucks that haunt me. I have this area where the past two years a buck has been tearing up dozens of trees around 6-10 inches in diameter. Just massive rubs and everywhere. This guy's disposition seems to be really aggressive. Way back in a really wild area. It's an hour North of me so I don't get up there as much as I would like but I've spent several days in the tree in his area with no sightings. I am going to setup a camera there this summer, I really hope he survived and I can finally lay eyes on him and hopefully stick him with a FMJ.

 

[Superkodiak38]

I have had a few over the years including one at less than 10 yards in a thicket in the rut that I couldnt get a shot at. I can tell you I have bounced up a buck like that and gone back about 10 days later and seen them around the same time of day close by almost in the same spot. They are there for a reason and if you dont chase 'em out there is a chance to find them there again.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

When you feel the ground shake, you're close and he's big.


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Close enough to give me the shakes and I wasn't even drawn

I have had a few over the years including one at less than 10 yards in a thicket in the rut that I couldnt get a shot at. I can tell you I have bounced up a buck like that and gone back about 10 days later and seen them around the same time of day close by almost in the same spot. They are there for a reason and if you dont chase 'em out there is a chance to find them there again.

I've been back to the same area many times and I've never laid eyes on him again. If someone else took him I'd have heard.

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[maninthemaze]

This guy showed up on my trail camera, once and only once, never to be seen again.

Here's a blown up picture of him. I'd hate to guess his score, or how much he weighed. Looks heavy for a whitetail.

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[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

This guy showed up on my trail camera, once and only once, never to be seen again.

Here's a blown up picture of him. I'd hate to guess his score, or how much he weighed. Looks heavy for a whitetail.

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That's a nice one for sure. Lots of body mass on him.

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[Sodbuster]

These two were on Conservation land last year. I thought I would get a chance at one as soon as season started.
Nope.Never saw either one of them.

 

[Sodbuster]

CasNed,
That had to be exciting. Maybe he is still alive.

 

[Sodbuster]

maninthemaze,
Nice buck for sure.Stud body and looks like bladed brow tines.I like those.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

There's got to be more of you out there that have stories of the one that got away.

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[Superkodiak38]

Here's one, had him under 20 yards with a beech tree limb covering his vitals only time I saw him in daylight

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Here's one, had him under 20 yards with a beech tree limb covering his vitals only time I saw him in daylight

Good lord that's a monster!

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[orionsbrother]

The biggest deer I've ever seen was in a Cook County Forest Preserve outside of Chicago where no hunting is allowed. My buddy and I figured it'd be fun to see if we could find his sheds. We skipped lunch to hike around where we knew his bedding area was. He hadn't dropped his rack yet. There were three retired guys with binoculars who were shadowing that buck from a distance, all day long, each day, waiting for the moment.

I don't know which one got the prize. We realized we didn't stand a chance and abandoned the idea. We had no desire to dedicate a bunch of time and we had no desire to be racing to try to beat someone to some sheds that just hit the ground. That deer ended up being killed by a car, an ignoble end by my accounting.

 

[TheCougar]

I was driving down from Flagstaff on I-17 at night on my way back from a deer hunt. My headlights hit an obscene buck just standing on the side of the highway. It was comical, the amount of points he had and the height. It was only for a few seconds, but that horse with velvet covered antlers is still the biggest muley I have ever seen.

 

[BruinPoint]

When I was in high school we leased an alfalfa farm for the hay. I worked it all summer and saw some deer but nothing special until the night before opening day of bow season. I was picking up bales in the dark so I could hunt the next morning and as I made the final turn to get the last row there was a buck in the headlights that looked like he had a juniper on his head. I can't say I've ever seen a 250" mule deer alive but if I have that was him. 18 years later that image is still engraved on my memory. Hunting wasn't part of the lease...

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[alecvg]

I was guiding a mule deer/elk combo hunt in Idaho, we had been focusing on mulies, and had a few blown opportunities on good bucks early in the hunt. The last few days of the hunt, we got dumped on with snow, I mean like 2 1/2 or 3 feet of snow, and I was pumped, it was just what we needed, but against my protest, my boss said all the deer had moved down overnight with the snow, and we had to go hunt lower country.

So down we went into some lower country, with more hunting pressure, and my hunter shot a 140" or 150" buck he was thrilled with.

The next day we headed back into where we had been the first part of the week, and where I had wanted to go hunt the day before, but now we were in search of elk. Headed up a burnt ridge that we still hunt up to get to where we like to hunt, I see a buck standing at 90 yards or so, and I don't give him too much though, as we are following elk tracks in the snow; but when I take a second look my jaw drops. I have no clue what he would have scored, but he was a HUGE three by four that I figure was a minimum of 36" wide. He just turned and casually walked out of our lives. He made the 180", 28" wide buck we saw 15 minutes later seem like a dink.

Like I said, I don't know what he would have scored, I've probably seen higher scoring bucks, but he was the most impressive I have ever seen.

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[Lostinthewoods]

This guy still makes me loose sleep at night because I believe he is still alive.










He's a typical 10 that is the mack daddy on public land I hunt out west.
He just had everything you could possibly ask for in a WT.
Huge spread, super tall tines, mass, and he was mature.
I had killed a 158" typical 10 out there the year before and this guy made it look like a baby.
Figured he was around 175-180"...... I hope to find him this year....

 

[Blacktail_Packer]

Thought I’d revive a dead thread.
I got a call from my wife one morning as I was pulling into work. She told me she had just let the dogs out and they jumped the biggest buck she’d ever seen 20yds off our pack patio. I stopped on my way home and bought an A zone tag for the first time. (My wife grew up in the sierras and was used to mule deer so I didn’t need any more info than that)
I caught a quick glimpse of him the following season on the afternoon of the Monday after the rifle opener, again dogs jumped him from just off our back patio.
Fast forward to the peak of the rut the following season and I finally get my first good look at him. A raven on the side of the road 40yds from my driveway caught my eye and I knew it was him as soon as I saw him
Has to be top 10 coastal bucks I’ve ever seen

 

[Blacktail_Packer]

Ever shot the wrong buck, it happened to me
One morning 90% of camp was lolly gaging so one of my partners walked out of camp alone to get to somewhere to glass before light. We all had coffee and eventually caught up to him. We saw nothing, he saw 13 deer feed across this bottom 1 for sure high racked buck fed into that bush that looks like a molecule and never came out. The plan was made the pawns were laid out and set into motion. 3 men with dogs put in at strategic locations to prevent said buck from slipping out of said molecule or any other bucks from slipping out the back door while we pushed in down and towards the molecule.

I’ll never forget this hunt because it is the single best laid hunting plan I’ve been a part of and a lesson I hope to never forget.

With signals from 2 guys across canyon I made my way to the molecule, with heart rate high and rifle ready I struggled to see anything inside the brush ball. After probably seconds I heard 2 animals explode from the far side and bound down the ridge but back into our net of noses and rifles. Knowing they would have to come past me to get out I moved laterally to a finger ridge that was clear from fire the previous year. Tucked into a half burnt manzanita I waited for the net to be closed around me. Now we started this take with 3 dogs but by this point my dads beagle has relieved herself of hunting duties and is now reporting the whereabouts of the Jeep and expressing her frustration that nobody thought to leave water and treats there to reward her.
I start to hear something moving towards me in the dry rocky soil finally a buck steps out from the brush to my left with a quick glance through the burnt manzanita I se a fork high on his right side, rifle back to the vitals he stops and I make a perfect shot. The other 2 hunters and dog join me we guy him and start packing him up the hill. We get about 100yds up the hill and my partners cow dog starts to yip somewhere in the brush and then there’s a lot of movement. Rifles slung over heads wrestling a buck up hill quickly becomes hail marry shots at probably the biggest buck I’ve ever knowingly been that close to...