The scene – several years back, oldest boy then 16, he, a buddy and I were returning from a dry run of deer hunting (seeing any, that is). It was there I saw it, the biggest buck I've ever seen, standing in and at the edge of sapling thicket, next to a field road on the left and a blueberry field (with knoll) to the right, and a coniferous thicket to the rear, of which opened to a corn field 300 yards beyond. At only 50 yards, my Lord he was big – stood there so majestically, antlers almost like an elk, and with 4 inch pans. This was a whitetail. Had seen him at a distance a few times before (after dark).

Anyhow, I jumped out, popped a round in the old 30-30 and fired dead on for a chest kill. Much to our amazement he turned as though never struck and virtually trotted back into the thicket like a moose. He should have fell in his tracks. My son then circled up into the blueberry field, my buddy down the field road to the left, and onward to the corn field. I ventured straight in. Not finding him in the thicket, I figured one of the other two would catch sight of him and make the final shot. In the meantime, I went back to inspect the area he stood in when I took the shot (the sapling area). I looked high and low, but could not find a sapling that received the bullet.  I knew my shot was on, so then proceeded to where the others had met up. It turns out this humungous beast had totally fled the area, crossed the old abandoned railway bed, and then the highway, and to parts unknown. We never did find that deer, and I have never since seen a whitetail rack like that. I seriously doubt it could have been paralleled on this continent.

One Shot

really wish you'd got him! would love to see a photo.