Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get your hands on some of the world's biggest whitetail racks?
NAW editor in chief Gordon Whittington tapes a profile of Neil McDonald's Nova Scotia non-typical from 1945. Photo by Josh Viste.
I can tell you it's some serious fun. You see, through my involvement with North American Whitetail for nearly a quarter-century now, I've had that opportunity on a number of memorable occasions. The most recent was this past week, in Springfield, Missouri. There, NAW Television editor Josh Viste and I spent two days videotaping "Big Buck Profiles" at the Wonders of Wildlife American National Fish & Wildlife Museum (www.wondersofwildlife.org), which is home to many of the greatest bucks ever seen.
Bass Pro Shops, whose headquarters is adjacent to the museum, actually owns these racks. However, they're on loan to the museum, which is administered by non-profit Wonders of Wildlife. The Archery Hall of Fame and Fred Bear Museum are also part of this huge, historic display.
Some of the outstanding bucks in the museum were once in private collections; others came directly from hunters who wanted their trophies to be seen by far more admirers than could have been the case otherwise. Regardless of how they got to the display area in Springfield, they represent the finest collection of whitetail antlers ever assembled, and they're well worth going out of your way to see.
Museum staffer Terry Snowden struggles to hold up the rack of the Jerry Bryant buck, which will be featured on NAW Television. Photo by Gordon Whittington.
How many super whitetails are there? While only a fraction of the total inventory is only display at once, there still are dozens of mega-giants to gawk at. Some, such as the James Jordan typical from Wisconsin (206 1/8 Boone and Crockett) and the spellbinding "Hole in the Horn" non-typical from Ohio (328 2/8 B&C) rank among the most legendary of their kind. Indeed, the late Larry Huffman's Legendary Whitetails collection forms the backbone of this incredible array. It's literally a "who's who" of monster bucks.
We've profiled a number of the museum's show-stopping bucks on our TV show these past three years. So when our inventory of profiles started to run low this spring, I knew just what to do. Fortunately, when I asked Wonders of Wildlife executive director Tony Schoonen about coming back for another round of profiles, he immediately said yes.
For me, walking through this museum again was almost like a class reunion; everywhere I looked were great deer I practically consider old friends. It's always good to see the original "Hole in the Horn," though I walk past a replica of the same rack in our office each day. When we taped a profile of the 304 3/8-inch Jerry Bryant buck from Illinois, I reflected back on the weekend I spent with Jerry and his taxidermist, Ron Meinders, displaying the great animal at the 2003 Illinois Deer & Turkey Classic. In profiling the 269 7/8-inch Randy Simonitch non-typical from Missouri, I recalled visiting with the bowhunter and having him show me where he stalked the buck in a bean field. Other wonderful trophies brought similar memories streaming back to the front of my mind. So many of these world-class whitetails have graced the pages of our magazine over the years that I almost feel a part of me is locked in their antlers.
The American National Fish & Wildlife Museum in Springfield, Missouri, is home to many of the world's top whitetails. Photo by Gordon Whittington.
As you might guess, setting up a video shoot of more than two dozen monster bucks takes time, effort and space to work. It also takes help -- and the folks at the museum went out of their way to provide it. Huge thanks go to museum staffers Terry Snowden and John Hernandez, who went above and beyond the call of duty to lend a hand. We couldn't have begun to do it without them.
I can't yet tell you which of these deer will be on which episode of NAW Television this year, but I can guarantee you they're all amazingly big. So keep an eye out for our show, which premieres on June 28.
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