I decided to wait. As I sat there, four more does came by, and then Joe and Rocky suddenly appeared, having come over to see what I had shot. By now, it was around 10 a.m. and we decided to follow the trail. There was very little sign at first, but soon blood in great quantities appeared on both sides of the trail.

A WORLD-CLASS TROPHY
The buck had traveled about 150 yards before he piled up in the snow. The heavy bullet had gone through both lungs, and the buck had probably died within a minute of being shot.

Upon examining his antlers, though, it became evident that this was not the big 10-pointer I had been after. This buck was considerably larger!

My buck officially scored 191 2/8 typical Boone and Crockett points. The rack is almost a perfect 5x5 with only 4 4/8 inches in side-to-side deductions. On May 6, 2005, The National Muzzleloading Rifle Association recognized my buck as the largest typical whitetail ever taken in Ohio with a muzzleloader, and the third-largest typical whitetail ever taken in North America. (The ranking world-record muzzleloading typical whitetail scores 193 2/8 inches and was taken in Saskatchewan by David Wilson in 1992.)

Looking back, the whole experience seemed ironic. If I hadn't been hunting the big 10-pointer, I'm sure I would have settled for a lesser buck. And if that had happened, I'd never have had the chance to take such an incredible whitetail.

When it comes to hunting whitetails, you never know what lies ahead!