Keith saw the Niagara Giant in early November while he was bowhunting, but he could not get a shot. Several weeks later on Nov. 20, 2007, the long-tined 22-point monster stepped out into a wheat field at 40 yards while Keith was doe hunting with his muzzleloader.

On June 22, 2007, my wife Jackie and I put a new trail camera out in a bedding area off a bean field on some private farmland that we'd been hunting for the past 15 years near Pendleton, New York. We'd mostly turkey hunted on this property in the past, but occasionally we'd done some bowhunting for deer as well.

I like to put my cameras out around summer food sources because the deer are concentrated in those areas at this time of year. At the time, we were living in Niagara County, New York, but we have since moved to Bloomer, Wisconsin, in search of better whitetail hunting.

On June 27, five days after putting out the camera, I checked it and discovered that I had over 200 hundred pictures. I had just purchased a new Moultrie 4.0, and I was excited to see what kind of pictures I had and what types of bucks were in the area. After I'd reviewed about half the photos and had seen a lot of pictures of does and smaller bucks, a gigantic non-typical buck in velvet suddenly appeared on the screen.

Although it still had a lot of growing to do, the buck's rack was unbelievable! Having lived in this area for a number of years and being fully aware that heavy hunting pressure was a fact of life and that the deer herd was poorly managed, I was in shock. I couldn't get to Wal-Mart fast enough to start printing pictures of the monster!

I had over 20 photos of this incredible buck. From that point on, Jackie and I, along with my buddy Mike Wasik, decided to dedicate our entire 2007 season to hunting this buck. We got permission from the farmer who owned the land to put up some posted signs. We mostly bowhunt, and we already had stands set up around bedding areas and funnels between the bedding areas. Now the waiting game began.

A FULL-BLOWN GIANT
I pulled my camera and did not put it back out until the end of July, when I placed it under an apple tree. After three days, I retrieved the camera and rushed home to view the pictures. This time there were over 300 pictures on the card. The first 200 pictures included numerous shots of does and a few nice bucks. Scanning through the rest of the photos, I began to worry that we were never going to get another velvet picture of the Niagara County giant. Near the end of the pictures, though, my heart began to race as a giant rack peeking out from behind a tree once again came into view.

As my heart raced even faster, I continued to scan through even more photos of this incredible buck. In all, the camera had captured seven more pictures of the giant velvet buck from several different angles. By now, he had exploded into a 200-inch-plus non-typical with extremely long tines and a massive rack.

WAITING FOR THE RUT
We decided not to bowhunt the area until Nov. 1. After sitting all day in different stands based on proper wind direction, Jackie and I each saw a few smaller bucks, but neither of us saw any sign of the big boy. Then a week later, on the afternoon of Nov. 8, I finally saw the Niagara Giant, as we'd dubbed him. He was following a doe at 45 yards in very thick cover, and he never stopped or offered me a shot.

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