During the waning moments of the season an ancient eight-point buck appeared out of the snow. I pointed my 6.5 Creedmoor Ruger M77 FTW Hunter in his direction, found the deer through the Trijicon AccuPoint scope and placed my crosshairs on him. I pushed the rifle’s three-stage safety to fire, let out all my breath and gently pulled the trigger sending the Hornady Precision Hunter 143 grain ELD-X bullet toward its intended target. At the shot I saw the buck shudder, fully aware I had taken a quartering shot at the big bodied Alberta whitetail, but before I could bolt in a fresh round and get back on target, something I normally do extremely quickly, he disappeared into the trees and was gone.

I felt assured he would not go far. A couple of minutes later I found where the buck had been standing when I shot. A broad blood trail, quite obvious on the snow, lead into the trees, down a deep ravine and up the other side. As I topped out, I spotted an antler which was attached to my buck. I was ecstatic and ran to its side. He had a huge body complemented by a massive, reasonably wide rack. I ran my fingers over his tines, said a prayer of thanks, and then immediately placed my tag on his leg.

Even though it had come down to the waning moments of the season, my hunt with my old friend Ron Nemetchek of North River Outfitting had been nothing short of fabulous.

For the past week I had hunted essentially all day looking for a mature buck and in the process had seen more yearling bucks than I had ever before seen on a hunt.

As it was the last night in camp, I was telling my story for the tenth time to those who remained, I recounted the many yearling bucks I had seen and the several truly interesting bucks before and after camera light. We had filmed my hunt for an episode of our DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’s Moon television show, which appears during the latter half of the year on Pursuit Channel, as well as on Pursuit UpTV and our YouTube channel, Trailing the Hunter’s Moon, year around.

“Larry, I think next year you should come back without the camera. We can hunt together and possibly get you a chance to finally shoot a big Alberta whitetail. I know you’ve been trying for many years. And, I know you saw a couple of really good bucks this year, but there wasn’t enough light for the camera, even though there was still 20 minutes of legal shooting light left.” Said Ron, then stated before I could respond, “You can’t come back next year unless you leave the cameraman back home!”

I really liked how my old friend thought. I do not get to hunt without a cameraman and I loved the idea, so it would be.

Now fast forward to the last week of the 2019 Alberta whitetail season. Ron and I spent some mornings cruising properties he hunted, then immediately afterwards headed to a stand to spend the rest of the day, or, Ron would pick me up and we would again cruise properties.

It was an interesting late November in Alberta. Temperatures which normally should be single digit and well below zero unfortunately hovered near the freezing mark. By Texas standards it was cold, but by Alberta standards it was a heat wave.

In spite of warm weather during the early morning forays, we spotted two really good bucks, one a 10-point easily in the high 160s B&C. The second buck was a massive long-tined nine-point easily scoring near 170 B&C. Big bucks by any standards, but I was determined to take a true Canadian monster or go home with my tag unpunched.

Hunting throughout the day sitting in a heated deer stand overlooking a barley field, right next to a dense river bottom, I too had again seen a considerable number of yearling bucks from spikes to small basket-horned eight-points, several two-year old bucks in the 140s and one, which I saw several times that was in the low 160s. I was really glad I did not have a cameraman with me, otherwise I very well may have shot the 160s 10-point because of the necessity of “getting a show”. I have to admit it felt really good passing that buck. The same day I passed on that buck, I called in a gorgeous red fox using my natural voice — talk about fun!

Several of the hunters in camp shot really nice bucks, including Trijicon’s Chuck Wahr, who’s a genuine pleasure to share camp with, as well everyone else in camp. Several of the hunters had been in camp with me the previous year and each evening there were many tales told of great stags bested, but also the many that had gotten away.

Although I had booked extra days beyond the normal hunt schedule, thanks to Ron and his gracious wife, partner and out of the world camp cook, Maria, my hunt seemed to pass all too soon.

On the last morning, Ron and I made a fast trip through his hunting area then headed back to camp. I grabbed a thermos filled with coffee, a couple of sandwiches, chips, apples and some candy bars, then headed to the stand where I had previously seen one of the better bucks.

Sitting in the stand watching a couple of does on the far end of the field, easily 400 yards away I reflected upon the rifle I was using. This hunt I was using a gorgeously wood-stocked Ruger M77 African in 300 Win Mag, topped with a Trijicon 4–18x50 AccuPoint scope. Prior to heading to Alberta I had spent time at my range near where I live in Texas, on property that has been in my family for over 150 years. My range is set up to shoot out to 400 yards. I had sighted in my rifle to shoot dead on initially at 100 yards, then dialled up so it was spot on at 200 yards using Hornady’s 200 grain ELD-X Precision Hunter loads. I knew that would put me about seven inches low at 300 yards, which would easily keep my shots within the vitals of big Alberta whitetails at that distance. At 400, if such a shot was needed I would be about 20 inches low. Depending upon the situation presented, I could either hold over or if time permitted, dial up on the Trijicon according to the range card Tim Fallon of the FTW Ranch had prepared for me. The bottom line was, I knew I could essentially hold dead on from mere feet out to essentially 300 yards without making any adjustments.

Slowly the day dragged by and the shadows became longer, stretching across the field. Clouds moved in and the temperature dropped. I had seen young bucks at 12:30pm, but now it was now 15:30, and half hour before sunset and an hour before the hunting season was over.

Nothing showed in the field until about 3:55pm, when does and young bucks came into the field from four different directions. A few minutes after 4pm, I saw movement coming into the field out of the river bottom to my right, a big bodied deer with tall tines and massive beams. He strode boldly into the field, there was no doubt he was a shooter. Up came my rifle and I tracked him through the scope, crosshairs on his shoulder. I pushed the Ruger’s three-stage safety to fire, but waited. I wanted him to get into the middle of the field. If for some reason I missed, or, he did not drop from my shot, I would have a chance for a quick follow-up shot.

He walked right to left about 125 yards distant. I concentrated on keeping the crosshairs on his vitals and told myself to not look at his antlers, for I knew if I did, excitement would run rampant and possibly bring on a worse case of buck fever than I was already experiencing. The buck’s pace slowed, so it was time to shoot. I released all the air in my lungs and started putting pressure on the trigger, with my crosshairs settled firmly on his vitals.

At the shot he bucked high. Immediately I bolted in a fresh round and was on him as he started to run. I was just about to shoot a second time when he fell. I planted my crosshairs on the downed buck, if he so much as wiggled I intended to shoot again, but being carefully not to shoot his antlers. I stayed on him for a full minute watching for any movement. I grabbed my phone to take with me for a few quick photos. It was 4:13pm and the season ended at 4:30pm.

I knew the buck was big but I was about to discover how big he really was. I walked to where he lay, reached down and grabbed his left antler. There were four very long massive points, a brow tine and the back tine was split, although the split was broken off. The points, shy of the brow, appeared to all be 10-inches long or longer. The mass easily over five-inches at each of the four measurements. I raised his head and noted he did not have a very wide rack, likely around 15-inches inside. I pulled the head upward and noticed six long basically typical points, plus a seven-inch kicker pointing forward from near his massive base. Too, he had a mutual base point from his front tine. I ran my cold fingers over his rack and could hardly believe what I was seeing. No doubt the buck would easily make the all-time Boone & Crockett record book, probably as a non-typical. Having scored many whitetail racks in the past, my immediate impression estimate that he would likely gross 210 B&C.

In the past I had taken some really good and big antlered whitetails, including some that would make the B&C record book, but I had never entered them. This buck was different, he was one I would have officially scored and entered into the book.

That night there was quite a celebration in camp. I think Ron was as excited about my buck as I was. We had talked about taking a big Alberta whitetail for many years and now finally we had finally accomplished just that.

The following morning, the day after the season closed, we shot photos, took care of the meat, found the spent bullet, caped my buck, cleaned and boiled the skull for my trip back to Texas and then finally scored him. We came up with a gross score of a bit over 212. Net scoring would be done in time by an official B&C scorer, Jerry Baker.

I knew the net score would depend how and where measurements were taken and if one of the primary tines would be considered a typical or non-typical point. As for me, I was thrilled having taken a buck that grossed over 200, and one that was extremely massive and handsome.

Before leaving camp to start my journey back to Texas I gave Ron and Maria a deposit for 2020. With all the yearling bucks I saw in 2019 I can’t wait to see what the 2020 season will bring. My buck was a three-year old and all those yearlings seen in 2018 will be three-year olds in 2021!

Back home after dropping my buck at Double Nickle Taxidermy, I had him officially scored. He netted 207 2/8 B&C non-typical. I’ll definitely be back in Alberta with North River Outfitters this coming fall to look for another fabulous whitetail as big or if not bigger!

Photo credit: Larry Weishuhn Outdoors