The author, one of the founding partners of North American Whitetail, has taken many fine bucks in his long and successful trophy hunting career, but this "second chance" Booner is definitely one of his most memorable. The awesome buck is a direct result of intensive management.

Years ago when I was editorial director of North American Whitetail magazine, longtime friend David Blanton called to ask me if I would let a cameraman go with me to video an upcoming hunt in Canada for the popular "Realtree Outdoors" TV show. David was and is executive producer for Realtree Productions and one of my favorite people. There aren't many requests he could make that I would say "no" to. But saddling me with a cameraman lugging 75 pounds of ungainly camera gear did not seem particularly conducive to improving my odds of shooting one of the giant Canadian whitetails that made braving the bitter cold tolerable.

Thoughts of "Don't shoot -- I can't see him," or "Wait -- I need more footage," or "Hold off -- the light's not good," and a dozen other such hand-tying phrases, flashed though my mind, along with the vision of a heavy-racked buck disappearing unscathed back into the snow-laden poplars.

Reluctantly, I answered, "David, you know I love you, but . . . no. A cameraman could cost me inches of antlers I'm not willing to give up. I like big antlers too much."

"Well, I can't argue that, but let's look for another opportunity down the road."

That opportunity came a few years later in 1995 after I retired from the magazine business and moved to Montana. Eric Albus and his family own and lease a long stretch of country along the Milk River in eastern Montana. Eric had called and asked if I would be interested in putting together a small group to hunt his property. After quizzing him awhile, I remembered David's earlier request and thought this place might be ideal to take David up on the opportunity to have a Realtree cameraman come along on a hunt. A call to David put it all together, and in late October 1995, Bill Jordan, David and cameraman Mike McKinsey joined me and a couple of other hunting buddies on my first video hunt for TV.

I was after a record-class 10-pointer that had been seen earlier on one of the many alfalfa fields along the Milk River. By noon on the fourth day, I had seen a couple of 160-plus bucks, but the giant 10-pointer had not shown up. The Realtree team had to leave the next day after lunch. When Mike and I climbed into the tree stand that last afternoon, I felt the pressure of the camera. About an hour before dark, a 150-class buck joined the other 30 or so bucks in the alfalfa field, and I rationalized the way you tend to do with a camera in attendance. He'll look good on camera. . . . Light's perfect. . . . Plenty of time for the recovery. . . . Mornings are slower. . . . Better take him and get the show. With that, my one and only Montana tag for the year was filled . . . with a buck 15 inches smaller than I had already passed up.

Now, 10 years and dozens of filmed hunts later, I can confidently assert that all the paraphernalia, activity and requirements associated with professionally videoing a hunt can and often does cost inches of antlers, and maybe even the whole deer! How much a camera might hamper success depends largely on the mode of hunting. With stand-hunting, cameras pose less of a problem, but in active forms of hunting, cameras are more limiting. And the skill of the cameraman makes a big difference. I've hunted with a couple who should have stuck to weddings, and I've hunted with some of the best, like Glenn Garner and John Tate. And it was with Realtree's John Tate that this story has its beginnings.

It was mid-December in 2004 when John arrived, accompanied by David Blanton and his cameraman, Mark Womack, on my 3,000-acre El Cazador Ranch in Deep South Texas. John and I had a five-year record we hoped to keep intact. Every year during that time, we had teamed up on my ranch to take a buck on film grossing over 170 B&C. One was a Boone and Crockett 12-pointer netting 172 that was the first record-book buck ever filmed by Realtree cameras. Now our sights were set on another giant whitetail, one that I hoped would be our second B&C buck. My wife, Debbie, and I had seen the wide, heavy 10-pointer the previous February on a Tecomate Max-Attract food plot. I judged him then to be 5 1/2 years old and well over 170 gross B&C. Typically, antler size peaks at 6 1/2, so I had every reason to believe he would be a record-book buck this year . . . if I could find him!

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