One of our readers recently sent the following story about a whitetail he shot at Hunts of Hopes and Dreams. What a monster whitetail! Congratulations Robby.

“I was hunting on a ranch in Central Missouri in late October of this year for a typical 200″ whitetail. It was a 50 degree rainy afternoon in the Ozark Mountains where I was hunting in a forest of Oak trees. The morning hunt in a deer blind had yielded nothing so at 3:30 we took off in a Kobota driving through 8″-10″ deep flowing streams which a four-day rain had caused. We drove down steep valleys and high terrain and we came upon a nice 190″ class typical which I passed up. Later we saw what I came to hunt which was a 200″ typical but my guide noticed that the big bucks were really moving that afternoon so suggested that I may want to be patient. I never thought I’d pass on my “dream buck” but I did and even passed on a probable 210″ and a 220″ because it was still early and I was into only the first day of my hunt. My guide Doug told me that they had seen a very large non-typical early last year and since their was a lot of movement early, let’s try to spot him for we can come back and find a 200″ later or even the next day. I was all game so I chambered my trusted .270, 9-power scope and kept the safety on.

About 5:00 p.m. we came over a ridge and saw him bedded down 140 yards downhill but all I had was a neck shot. I turned my Sony video camera on and handed it to Doug as he zoomed in. I put my bi-pod down on the hood of the Kobota and sunk down to my knees for stability. We watched for about 10 minutes and as he rose I tried to keep myself calm. Three thoughts went through my mind:

1. He is very big
2. He has lots of non-typical [points] and…
3. His antlers are white

We watched and waited as the rain fell for him to go broadside and he did. He took two steps left and I squeezed off a shot which entered the top of left backstrap and lodged in his right shoulder. He fell and lay motionless.

As we approached him all of the “HOLY CRAPS ” started for the Rancher had no idea he had 300+” class deer on his property. That evening the taxidermist came by and as the four of us field scored him we gasped as the 200″ mark passed for we knew we still had antlers to count. 109 6/8″ more. All in all he field scored 309 6/8″, had 38 points, went 28 1/2″ inside and weighed 265#. After the 60 day “drying period” he will be officially scored both B&C and SCI by a master scorer. From all that I have read in the record books for the past 4 weeks, he may qualify as the biggest non-typical ever taken by a firearm in the world.”

See our whitetail hunts

*There are two larger in the record books, a 328″ B&C and a 318 B&C but one was found dead by the side of a highway in 1981 and the other was hit by a train in 1940. Neither was felled by a hunters’ bullet.
by Robby DeLeon of Corpus Christi, TX