B&C World's Record - Non-typical Columbia Blacktail

The World's Record non-typical Columbia blacktail deer rack hung on a hunter's garage for several years before someone suggested it should be measured by the Boone & Crockett Club.

I started hunting in the Black Rock Mountain area near Valsetz, Oregon when I moved from Washington to the Beaver state. A friend of mine, who's a logger, had hunted that area for years with good success. During that time he took some nice blacktail bucks  (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus). I hunted there the first year after my move, just to check it out, and found the area to be as great as advertised.

The area was about an hour’s drive from home, so I’d go down for the weekends. I went down three times during the first season and always saw deer. I got a nice three-point that year and saw a couple of dandies.

Stormy weather dominated my second season in Oregon. As the season dwindled I hunted despite the weather and poor visibility. To combat the weather I hunted slowly on some fairly open deer trails. 

One day I spotted a couple of does approximately 65 yards in front of me. They didn’t see or scent me, so I knelt down and watched them. They seemed nervous. At first I thought it was because of me, but then I noticed they were looking uphill to the right. It must have been 10 or 15 minutes before the does started moving away.

Almost immediately, a tremendous buck came into view, walking down to the trail. It stopped, looked at the does, and that’s when I shot. The buck walked a few yards to the trail and collapsed. 

In approximately 50 years of hunting blacktail deer this was the largest buck I shot. I hung its rack on my garage for two or three years until someone told me that might not be wise. I agreed and had the antlers officially scored—today the buck stands as the largest non-typical blacktail ever recorded by the Boone and Crockett Club.