By Gordon Whittington
A buck can get publicity and yet still be underrated and/or overlooked. That’s happened with many of them over the years, including some honored with being on the cover of North American Whitetail magazine.
The Jack Davidge non-typical, shot on Nov. 20, 1967, near Whitewood, Saskatchewan, fits that description. A studio shot of the mount was on NAW’s Feb. 1986 cover, and Dick Idol’s in-depth feature on the buck made many people aware of him. But as has often occurred with great bucks taken before the trophy whitetail boom began, the deer eventually just faded from the hunting community’s collective brain.
Jack shot the buck at 300 yards with a .30-06. In so doing, he downed one of the top non-typicals ever taken in the southeastern part of that huge province. With a net score of 238 1/8, the 28-point rack makes the B&C record book with ease. In fact, it still ranks among the top few dozen Saskatchewan bucks of all time, which is saying something.
But as great as the score is, it falls far short of his impressiveness. No one’s saying the rack was measured incorrectly, but there’s way more bone here than you normally see on a buck scoring in the high 230s; in fact, he has the heft of a rack that easily could have surpassed 250. The inside spread is 22 inches, and the rack is so massive and uniquely shaped that it’s hard to fully appreciate from any one angle. The extremely dark color further accentuates this glorious crown of bone. Those who’ve studied the Davidge buck “up close and personal” know he’s a special trophy from a province renowned for them.
