How many 180+ Whitetails have you seen while walking?

[ResidentSpokesman]

I find as I get older I seem to have less patience to sit every year. For the past 30 years my motto has been "the best way to kill anything, regardless of the species is to figure out where he's going to be and get there first". I've killed some awesome bucks from a tent or stand over the years. But lately I want to get out and stroll around more.

So my question is how many of you guys that still hunt every year see big mature bucks this way? I've bumped into tons of 130 and down while hanging stands / scouting / sneaking in etc. But I can't ever recall seeing a shooter this way. Even while Elk or Moose hunting I've bumped into everything but a 180+ Whitetail.

[Slicktricker]

2 biggest whitetails I’ve shot was walking one went 177 other grossed 182 netted 168

[LJalberta]

I've never seen a 180 whitetail alive. One of these days hopefully...

[Kurt505]

I have had success with spot and stalk but I can't say how many I've seen while walking around because I've never shot one while I was walking (one 180+ that is), I do know that I've seen some cankers while walking but haven't had time to get a good shot off.

I haven't shot a 180+ deer walking, sitting in a blind, sitting in a tree, driving down the road, still hunting, or any style of hunting for that matter, at least not yet anyway. I've killed a bunch between 160-178 though.

As you (ResidentSpokesman) already know, the best way to get a good shot at a good deer is to be waiting for them to come to you. Still hunting isn't the best way to kill a big buck, but it's by far my favorite.

[Dick284]

None.
Zero
Zilch

[FCLightning]

None


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[whitetail Junkie]

saw one 180+ while walking in northern Saskatchewan in 2001 was the year...he was about 700 yards from me and we both spotted each other at the same time.we both stood still and eyeballed each other for about a Minute before he finally hightailed it into the thick timber...The height of his tines and think main beams are still etched into my head.

Lots of bucks in there prime (if they even live that long) won't crack 170 let alone 180+.....But like the OP I can't handle sitting all day in the same spot,I mix it up with walking,ground blinds,cut lines,bush pushes,scouting new spots and visiting/coffee time with landowners and fellow hunters...all proven successful for us at one time or another.

[fishnguy]

My cousin's first whitetail netted 182 or 188 (I can't recall, but those were the numbers). Still hunting. His next was 170 something gross, but netted at 157. Still hunting as well.

Personally, I have not seen any whitetails that big. I have not shot anything worth measuring yet. Last year's buck was probably 140 and a little bit. I actually kind of regret (well, maybe not, maybe just on the fence of regretting) shooting him because the guy had a great spread and tines and came from a genetically very good area. I am almost confident he would be a monster buck in a couple of years.

Now mulies is a different story. I have seen at least a dozen that were that and bigger. But who has a tag? It is two more years for me to get one, hopefully. Unless things change drastically in that area during this time.

Still hunting is the way to go, IMO. I cannot sit in one place and even 30 minutes is pushing it. I killed a cow elk on a field this year and that was the most boring hunt for me so far (I only have few hunts under my belt though). And even here I did not get to sit more than 5 minutes, even on the field I chose to move and walk like a ninja . I scouted there quite a few times earlier and spent an hour or so a couple of times at that field. The only reason I was able to spent so much time there is a huge number of mule deer there, so it was fun watching the young ones run and play, calling them in to within meters - the closest I got was just under 2 meters. That was fun.

[north american hunter]

2, northern Alberta, one 6x6 and one 7x7 that would have gone over 200"

[DJS]

2 I’m pretty sure. Both while moose hunting. One I was lucky enough to sneak up to and get an arrow into at 7 yards. It’s my biggest WT to date. Grossed 199. The other was meandering through a cut block late in the afternoon but stayed way out of range.

[pikeman06]

Down in my parts an honest 165 is a jaw dropper. The real big ones get down in the stuff you can't get them out of or they are in some ones yard pretty much the whole season or at least call posted land home. Plus they are nocturnal and there's some that don't partake in the rut hardly at all. For all its worth it's best to sit and wait just in the cover as they tend to hang up and let the does do the watching till its dark. If you get a nice dump of snow with a good buck track heading into a smaller bush with a ring of willows I might walk but it's never the 180. Alot of guys think a 160 is 180 no use kidding yourself. Never seen one on a walk...I think they know you are there before your boots hit the ground out here.

[dfrobert]

4-5. Most of them were actually after the peak rut in the beginning of December running stupid across a field along our back roads. Growing up in the Edmonton bowzone in the 90s before hunting became "cool" it wasn't uncommon to see a great deer every winter kicking around our families acreage that bordered big bush and prime farmland.

And here I though hockey and girls were more important in those days...

[Bub]

I have seen one last year and I still have no idea what exactly it was. The buck had a huge whitetail rack and mule's behind. I have only seen him for 15-30 seconds while still hunting in the bush. I followed him for quite some time that day but have never seen him again. I had never used trail cameras before but bought a few since; yet I have not been able to take his pic. I am more than positive that that guy was way over 180 and had one of the most symmetric racks I have ever seen. The body mass on him was out of this world.

My cousin have also taken a whitetale that netted over 180 while still hunting. He put him down within 200 yards of a hardly used quad trail, but he still had to take him out by parts because there was no way to drag him out of the bush he was in. He said he saw just the tips of the antlers and it took him forever to find a shot. He put one through his neck and the buck remained where he was, didn't even get up. It was a cool story and every time I am in his house and see that rack, I think holy **** to myself. The meat, though, was crap I hear

[pikeman06]

[QUOTE=Bub;3649344]I have seen one last year and I still have no idea what exactly it was. The buck had a huge whitetail rack and mule's behind.

That's a mule with a forward facing rack then. Picked up a dead head that I thought was the most typical long tined whitetail ever no matter how you looked at it. But it was a mule. It was 188 with 2 inches deduction looked like a perfect 5x5 whitey with shortish brow tines that made me wonder from the start. My buddies swore it was whitetail but if they get that big out here the brow tines are usually huge. I believe we counted teeth or something to settle the score. It was a mule. This was 15 years ago before DNA was a big thing.

[35 whelen]

When I was in my twenties hunting around Drayton Valley just walking up a cut line looking down at some coyotes s*** I looked up and it was the biggest whitetail I've ever seen double drop time probably 2:30 75 yards away took an offhand shot missed came back the next weekend and seen it again never got a shot still have that picture in my head from 30 years ago

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[ROA]

Zero

Biggest bucks I have seen I have been driving around usually not hunting at all. Never had a 180 plus stand there and give me a chance to shoot it, doesn't matter if I am walking, sitting, road hunting, calling/rattling, day dreaming, taking a ****. Don't matter how I hunt I've never been given the chance.

[Twisted Canuck]

Never while walking. Once while driving, and he was so hot after a doe I could have walked up and clubbed him with a brick...Biggest WT buck I have ever seen, a genuine 5x5 typical with beams on him as thick as coke cans. I still have nightmares. Was just south of Le Glace, on the way to work. I stopped van, and watched him dog this doe all the way across the field, and cross the highway 50 yards in front of me. I was tempted to put him down with the van, throw him in the back, and tag him when I got home....*sigh*

[sns2]

None.

I may only have ever seen one live buck that would go 180. They don'y grow on trees.

[Don K]

I've seen one in Saskatchewan and 2 or 3 on a place we used to hunt out east. There were big deer out there but always on the run as it was primarily a bush pushing excercise. It's been overrun by hunters and hasn't ever been the same. Sigh...

[Battle Rat]

I have two that gross 182.
One is a very typical.
I have screwed up on many that I would suspect in the ballpark of that size.
Mostly in the past when I walked too much and too fast.

[hunted]

When walking many deer look like 180 running away but once on the ground turn to 150’s. Hardest thing about shooting a 180 is they are very rare to begin with but not shooting a 150 first.
Still hunting changes this in Your favour.

[Kurt505]

I didn't realize how common 180+ deer are until I read this thread, I gotta find some better hunting grounds.

[58thecat]

Had one encounter with a gagger while walking a down a trail In a river valley, Hawkins in hand, got a weird feeling, stopped and looked back and there he was 40 yards right behind me, well I cocked the hammer, found the front trigger, swung around bead set on chest...when the smoked cleared...miss!

[hiway mike]

I walked right up to a 186.... After i arrowed it out of a stand.

[Bushrat]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

I didn't realize how common 180+ deer are until I read this thread

Neither did I, thinking I need my eyes checked cause some of the guys who hunt the same area as me see 180" deer all the time, even some 200 inchers.

[The Spank]

None but was 25 yards from a mulie at work yesterday that was definitely over 200”.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

I didn't realize how common 180+ deer are until I read this thread, I gotta find some better hunting grounds.

The number of sightings need to be qualified with the amount of time hunted, and where.

In over thirty years I have seen four confirmed 180+ whitetails while hunting.
Two were while driving, both were occupied by does.
Two were while walking, one on a very foggy early fall day, still in his bachelor group.
The other was simply outsmarted. We worked many days to finally get a shot at him. It took two guys to pin him, one guy would never have done it.

Three of these bucks came from areas with heavy hunting pressure.

[MartyT]

A 180 is a BIG whitetail. Closest I have ever seen Was first thing in the morning maybe 2 mins into legal light, fog was super thick and he jumped the fenceline onto the cutline I was on and wasnt sticking around for long. About 75 yds away and My mental process went like this: Rifle to shoulder, deer in crosshairs..... hey look at those antlers!!!!...... bang! MISSED. spent all morning hoping to see a spot of blood in the snow with no luck.

[EZM]

I think deer get bigger the longer times goes by, just like fish. lol.

Another member here and I stalked/hunted a "record monster" a few times with thick and long tines, plenty of width, excellent symmetry, etc... We would often describe it as a 180's deer. We would never get close enough to it (bow zone). That deer was far smarter than we were.

Both of us took the measuring course through AFGA, and participated in our local clubs annual trophy measuring event - so it's not like we had no idea what makes up a good deer compared to a trophy.

Unfortunately another hunter harvested that deer a year or two after we began our quest and had it measured at our association event. Measured in the high 160's and likely shrank down quite a bit from there.

Just goes to show you, it pretty darn hard to size up a deer in the field.

A 180's typical whitetail would likely make the AFGA's banquet on most years. That's a big rack.

[oilngas]

In 45 years of hunting in a zone that produces a good share of big Whitetails I have harvested two at 160 - 165 measured by BnC person. I chosen not to harvest anymore deer that size. Those two on the basement wall are just old decorations it's the memories I cherish. I have passed up on a few in that category, and again it's the memories that I cherish.
I believe I have seen another two that were significantly bigger, I was driving on a foggy morn, they were together in a slough bottom about 50 m off the road and 100 m from a farmhouse with no one at home. I watched them for a few minutes before they disappeared like phantoms in the fog.
Ground shrink is an amazing thing, there is lots of it around. As other have said if you wanna 180 +, you are going to have many years before you see one, and likely many more before you can harvest one!! Although I supposed one could pay for one, I'm sure that some outfitter has one "lined up", but a 180+ would take an enormous amount of scouting or luck!!