Dave Diel of Berryton, Kansas, was plenty happy with the great 8-pointer he arrowed in the north-central part of the state last Oct. 31. The chunky Halloween buck has a gross score of a little over 160.

Late on the morning of Nov. 29, 2003, Doug Atkins of Stokesdale, North Carolina, returned to his home area after a fruitless hunt in Virginia. Upon his return, Doug decided to try his local hunting spot for the afternoon. At around 4 p.m., Doug saw a big-bodied buck that had previously been seen only on nighttime trail camera shots. After Doug squeezed the trigger of his Browning .300 Win. Mag., the trophy fell right in his tracks. Doug knew that his dad, Grady Atkins, was hunting in a nearby field. Doug found his dad and told him “Dad, I just killed the biggest deer I’ve ever killed.” Upon seeing the deer, hunting buddies Keith Boggs and Eddie Simpson, thought the wide Guilford County 9-pointer had been killed in Virginia. The 4 1/2-yar-old buck had an inside spread of 21 1/8 inches, and his net typical score was 141 7/8.

Before shipping off to Iraq as a military policeman, Pennsylvania resident William Frioni sharpened his shooting eye on this monster buck in Ohio. The hunter got his muzzleloader trophy on Dec. 13, 2002. Thanks to great tine length and an inside spread of 20 5/8 inches, the rack has a gross score of 150 and a net of 142 1/8.

“You’d Better Take This One!” That’s what Justin Morin’s dad, Craig, told him when this 14-point, 200-pound Texas buck showed up in the area they were watching on the morningn of Dec. 28, 1995. The father-son team had been observing several other bucks when this brute stepped out and scattered the subordinates. Justin made a heart shot from 100 yards to anchor this great trophy. “We’ve had some good hunts together, but this was the best ever: a perfect father-son hunt,” Craig noted after the kill.

When Steve Liverett headed to Illinois for his 1998 bowhunt with Pike County Trophy Outfitters, the weather at home was warm. It was considerably cooler when he reached his destination, and that had rutting bucks in a frisky mood. On Nov. 25, the fourth day of his hunt, Steve made a 30-yard double-lung shot on this 142 1/8-inch 15-pointer.

During the 2000 Oklahoma muzzleloader season, Broken Arrow resident Kenny Day decided to hunt from a stand his family calls “The Magic Tree.” The young hunter is glad he did, as he ended up shooting what was to that point the biggest buck of his career.

Nov. 24, 1998, proved to be the big day for Brett Bomar of Norwalk, Ohio. That’s when he used his compound bow to down this super 14-point non-typical. Brett arrowed the hefty deer at 4:45 that afternoon. The rack has a 19-inch spread, and the animal dressed out at 190 pounds.

Probably figuring all of the hunters had left the woods for lunch, this 114 4/8-inch 8-pointer decided to chase a doe over a hill in Perry County, Tennessee. What the buck failed to account for was that Lavergne resident Jerry Hudgens was spending his lunch break in the woods. Jerry’s successful gun hunt took place in Nov
ember 1994.

George Lapan Jr. of Athens, Tennessee, went home to Maine to hunt with family and friends in Nov. 2001, and his reward was this bruiser of an 8-pointer. The deer fell just short of making the 200-pound dressed weight widely considered to be the benchmark for “big” in Maine, but with the rack having a gross B&C score of 150 7/8, George wasn’t complaining.

Gary Young has arrowed a lot of big Ohio bucks over the years, one of them this 146-inch 10-pointer taken on Dec. 25, 1995. Gary’s “unwrapped” his “present” at 8:05 a.m., at the chip-shot range of just eight yards. Although the deer wasn’t at his peak weight, he still dressed out at a hefty 192 pounds.

Nov. 18, 2002, was opening day of shotgun season in Little Valley, New York, and Gregg Kaczmarczyk made the most of it. As Gregg waited in his tree stand under near white-out conditions, he saw this buck approaching. A frontal shot at only 25 feet dropped the deer, which was looking up at the hunter when the trigger was pulled. Gregg’s trophy officially scores 161 1/8 net inches. Not bad for a guy’s second-ever deer!

Eric Perkins was just 17 years old when he shot this monster 10-pointer in Carter County, Kentucky, on Nov. 9, 1996. After putting doe-in-heat scent on his boots and hiking up a ridge to watch a scrape line, Eric realized something was following him. When he turned to look, he saw this great buck following right on his trail! The young hunter dropped the deer at 60 yards, using a 7mm Rem. Mag.

Nov. 18, 2001, was Jim Pedretti’s 41st birthday, and he celebrated in high style. At 4:40 p.m., Jim used his Remington 1187 12-gauge slug gun to dump this big 8-pointer on his father’s 38-acre farm in LaPorte County, Indiana. The buck was cruising for does between two bedding areas when he detected the Tink’s 69 scent Jim has placed in canisters. The 158 1/8-inch trophy has two tines at least a foot in length.