kshunter

Good Post.

Buck of a Lifetime. To me it's notonly the size. It's killing a deer with a history. Or killing a deer you've worked extremely hard for. Being able to harvest a monster buck you've scouted for a season or 2, have a few sightings of, or game camera pictures of.

Being able to harvest a big buck, like that, is a buck of a lifetime, to me. They don't come around often, but when they do, you'll recognize it.

Trembow

I think it's not as much of a personal image we imagine unless someone asks us though.

It's more of just an exclamation that people use when describing a particular big buck that they, or more often someone else has killed...

"That's a buck of a lifetime!"

Which if you think about it, might simply mean that they don't believe they could do better... which I often take a smidgeon of offense to in my heart when I hear someone say it. Not that they have said it to me!

Dipsnort

I consider the one in my avatar to be the buck of a lifetime. It's the biggest one I have ever seen in person (body size and antler size). I am certain the antlers were larger during his prime years and I got him in his old age. The meat was well cared for, as always, but it tasted horrendous![&:]

For comparitive purposes with a small buck...

r33h

I second that! Everyone's will be different...deer in certain areas will get bigger than deer in other areas.

quiksilver

It's definitely more than just the size of the rack. It's the hours you've logged glassing fields, staring at topo maps andtalking to your hunting partners. It's the rain-soaked clothing, the miles on your boots, the sweat in your hat - it's your fingernails chewed into the meat,the gunmetal on your release worn to silver. It's aboutall the people who said you were nuts for hunting through a downpour - certifiably insane fordriving a half hour after work just to change clothes in the car and hunt for 30 minutes...

It's about going into overtime with a week of archery season to go and your tag feeling ever-so-empty, moving stands, re-hanging, relocating, thinking, relocating some more, and finally pulling the trigger.

That's what brings me back every year. Mynext buck is always my buck of a lifetime.


GREAT POST, QUICKSILVER!!!

HuntinGUS

Very well put quicksilver. That is exactly how I feel!

Finch

I bet that was a bear to get loaded in there? How much did he pull on the scales?

huntingson

To me, the score of a rackmeans absolutely nothing. I know that sounds like lip service, but it is true. I feel that it is rediculous that I could shoot a mature deer with 6 great points on one side and the other side is broken off from a fight or something and it scores diddly-squat. What is a buck of a lifetime to me is the one that I have the most fond memories of... like many others have said. Honestly, I am looking forward to my son's first buck. That will be my "buck of a lifetime".

Dipsnort

No idea what he weighed in at, but what I DO know is that my brother was in the next drainage and not readily available to help pack him out and I just about killed myself doing it myself even though it was all downhill. Same thing happened a couple years ago when I got a moose.

I really need to learn to keep a short leash on my brother while we're hunting.

Ohiobuck25

A "Buck of a Liftime" to me is one that scores > 170" typical or >195" nontypical, in other words qualifying for the all time"Boone and Crocket" record books. Having said that, I do understand that a person may go his or her entire life and never seea B&C class buck. Whether that's due to their geographiclocation or b/c of poor genetics in the area, B&Canimals are hard to come bywhereveryou hunt. However, there are somepeople every yearwho manage to harvest an albino, piebald or even a melanistic deer. It's rare trophies like those that make hunting so exciting.And gives everyone an opportunity at harvesting their very own"Buck of a Lifetime"