Well, yet another whitetail season has come and gone...yesterday being the end of it all for another year. My Dad was the only one in our family who had yet to fill his tag, and having missed the largest whitetail buck that he's ever seen in his 60 years, was eager to get out and find the elusive giant that was able to dodge his bullet Friday afternoon.

We knew the vicinity in which this buck was living, being pushed there by intense hunting pressure for the last 3 weeks. A piece of property riddled with swamp, scrub brush, hawthorn bushes, and red willow...not a fun property to perform a traditional deer drive on. But as luck would have it, we've had a lot of cold weather this fall, so the swamps were froze over enough to permit my brother's and I enough footing to drive the section to our Dad waiting on the other side of the property.

Just as I was getting about 1/2 way through I heard the old man's rifle, a Tikka T3 bolt action spring to life with three very quick shots. It almost sounded like a semi-auto he banjoed them off so fast! Luckily the third shot hit true, a little far forward, but solid enough of a hit to put the buck down within 30 yards of where he was hit. We then regrouped, positioned shooters on the edge of the property in the direction the blood trail led, and my oldest brother and I started to track him through the knee high snow. Within 80 yards we jumped him when my brother put another shot into him as he ran off...making it another 50 yards where he dropped. At this point another finishing shot was administered to insure a humane kill.

Scoring will be performed Friday, but a rough estimate would be a gross of almost 150", my Dad's largest whitetail buck ever...it sure does make a guy proud to be able to be with his Dad and brother's when such a magnificent animal is harvested!

Great whitetail and an even better story. Nice work.