New Ontario No. 1: Largest Typical Buck Taken by Hunter

Anyone who has had the experience of hunting an individual buck for any period has learned the importance of keeping a positive frame of mind. Lifelong Ontario, Canada resident Dearl Hill always carried such a mindset, firmly believing that one should always “dream big.” He lived by that motto, and his approach to deer hunting was no different.

In the pre-dawn darkness of Nov. 4, 2021, Dearl parked his vehicle along a field approach that gave access to 200 acres of private land he had permission to hunt on. He was close to his hometown of Sarnia, Ontario, which made this property one of his favorite hunts, and it gave him ample time to do diligent scouting. It wasn’t by chance that Dearl chose this location to hunt during the early days of the Ontario firearms season. A great-looking 10-point buck ran this area, and Dearl was hot on his trail.

“Throughout summer and fall, I had several trail cameras hanging on the property,” explains the soft-spoken Dearl. “For three years, I had been getting pictures of a thick-antlered 10-point. The deer was mostly nocturnal, but I was optimistic he would show up in the daylight sometime during the late pre-rut or during the rut.”

Dearl figured the “Big 10” was a 5-year-old deer. This year, the buck grew a set of antlers that were undoubtedly big enough to grab a person’s attention. “The day before the firearms opener, I had spoken to another hunter who watched a big buck dogging a doe in an open field less than a mile from my spot. I figured that buck must have been the big 10-point I was looking for,” says Dearl.

That conversation had lifted Dearl’s confidence; he convinced himself that the big 10 would soon visit the does living within his hunting area.

Dearl had hunted hard through the early archery season and the weeks leading up to the firearms season. His number one buck was the big 10, but despite covering a lot of ground through trail cameras, roadside glassing and countless hours in a tree stand, Dearl had yet to lay eyes on the elusive buck. “I had already done a lot of scouting and archery hunting before the firearms season began. I had already spent many hours sitting in trees without seeing the buck. Not seeing him was somewhat frustrating, but at the same time, it was not seeing him that had me hunting so much. And I didn’t mind that at all,” explains Dearl.

The morning sky was pink in the east as Dearl began walking to the far end of a picked soybean field. Earlier in the week, he had seen several does feeding there and figured it should be an excellent spot to watch. A brush-filled fence line ran parallel to the bean field, giving him perfect cover as he still-hunted towards a corner where the fence line met a grove of trees.

It was well after daylight before Dearl had still-hunted to within shooting distance of the corner near the tree grove. There, he stood for some time, listening intently and watching ever so close for any movement or the slightest stir. It was a quiet morning, and he naturally questioned whether he had made the right choice for the morning hunt. He figured he should have seen a doe by now. Looking at his watch, he saw it was only 8:30. Stay still, he told himself. Stay still.

Dearl had no more than lifted his gaze from his watch when he heard a twig snap, and in that instant, a mature doe came running out of the tree grove and into the picked soybean field. The doe ran into the open field, stopped broadside of Dearl, and looked behind her. With that, she squatted and peed, then took off loping down the bean field. Dearl recounts: “She ran about 60 yards parallel to me into the beans and stopped to look back. I could tell she was tired and breathing hard, and I knew what that meant!”

Dearl looked back in the direction the doe had come from just in time to see a buck with a giant set of antlers break out of the tree grove and into the open bean field, hot on the trail of the doe! “This wasn’t the big 10-point I had been hoping for; this deer was much bigger,” says Dearl. “I had never seen this deer before. Wow! I didn’t know how big he was, but I knew he was the biggest typical I had ever seen!”

Dearl fought the urge to shoot at the buck, as his logic told him to be patient. The deer had his nose on the ground and was tracking every step the doe had just taken. The wind was perfect, and everything said the buck would stop where the doe had stopped. Sure enough, and as if the buck were following a written script, he stopped broadside at 60 yards and buried his nose into the spot where the doe had urinated. “He walked head down on her same trail, and I knew he would surely stop for a sniff! I didn’t have to snort to stop this one!” Dearl exclaims.

That is where the buck suffered a fatal shot from Dearl’s Savage Model 220 20 gauge shotgun. The repercussion of the slug hitting the buck’s vitals caused it to kick high in the air with all four legs going straight out. Then, in an instant, the buck was running hard! Dearl was confident the sabot had hit its mark and done its job. He watched as the buck ran through the open field, then ran and disappeared into the bush’s edge. A second later, Dearl heard the buck crash to the ground 15 yards inside the edge of the bush.

As the realization of what had just happened began to settle in, a strong surge of adrenaline was simultaneously hitting his veins. Dearl says: “I thought my heart would burst right out of my chest! I hadn’t gotten this excited about a deer in quite a while. I kept telling myself I had to relax. I decided to make myself wait 20 minutes so I could settle down. That excitement is another reason why we hunt!

Dearl continues: “Taking those 20 minutes allowed me to reflect on how much the Lord has blessed my life and how I’m fortunate in so many ways. I’m very blessed that I get to hunt when and as much as I want to. I’ve hunted all over North America, and I’ve also hunted in Africa. There isn’t anything out there that compares to hunting a big whitetail.”

After calling his wife, Elizebeth, and sharing the news with her, Dearl slowly made his way to his trophy of a lifetime. “My other bucks always look bigger when alive,” Dearl states. “Which is why many bucks suffer ground shrinkage when we get up to them. But not this one! The closer I got to this buck, the bigger he seemed to get. I was basically speechless! This was the first time I had seen typical antlers this big. I knelt, put my hand on his chest, and thanked the Lord. He knew the day this animal was born that He would allow me to harvest him today!”

This magnificent buck has it all, and what a trophy he is! The buck was aged at 6 1/2 years old and weighed 275 pounds live weight. The antlers are nothing short of phenomenal. The 6x6 typical frame grosses 200 1/8 inches, landing it in elite company. The Boone & Crockett scoring system finds deductions of 9 5/8 inches, of which 4 3/8 inches of that deduction are abnormal points.

The Dearl Hill buck’s final record book net score is 190 4/8 inches, which makes it the largest recorded hunter-taken typical antlered whitetail from Ontario. This score narrowly tops the former hunter-taken record typical killed during the 2009 season by Harry Brown, which scored 190 3/8 net inches. The Dearl Hill buck’s score is topped only by a 194 2/8-inch typical that was picked up by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

I’m so happy to have him,” said Dearl, “Yet I’m so sad to see him gone. These are animals that I truly respect, and I’m also very grateful to be able to share this incredible experience with you. I pray his genes spread out there and get passed on for others to enjoy!”

When asked for any hunting tips he could share, Dearl quickly mentioned that having fun is always essential. “You have to ‘out-smart’ the does if you want to harvest the bucks during the pre-rut season. Mature does are more weary and constantly aware of their surroundings since they always have to look after their fawns. Also, you have to let the medium-sized bucks pass in order to get the big ones,” says Dearl.

Dearl’s best tip of all: “To always dream big.” That’s sound advice from a deer hunter who has been “fortunate enough to shoot a few Boone & Crockett bucks.”

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