The likelihood of a hunter not harvesting a buck netting 170 inches is significantly higher when they don’t pass on bucks that gross scored in the low 170’s.

Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin

On a chilly, cloudy, dank morning in early December, my good friends David Shashy, Marc Lubin, and I were making a round on the Piloncillo Ranch located in Dimmit County, the heart of the Golden Triangle.  David had already taken a buck that gross scored 162 inches, but I had yet to see a buck that made my trigger finger itch.  However, I did see a number of bucks that would gross score in the mid-160-inch range, which elevated my optimism of taking one of those rare jewels of the brush country—a booked deer.

A 160-inch class free-ranging buck is an incredible trophy, and I have had the privilege of taking a few of them, so I set my sights on those bucks that put on extra inches of antler with minimal deducts that would breach the benchmark of 170 inches.  I had taken a buck in 1993 that entered the all-time Boone and Crockett record book, plus a number of deer that gross scored higher than my booner, but asymmetrical traits prevented them from entering the reliquary of trophy bucks—the all-time Boone and Crockett record book.

As a result, I acquired a mind-set that I couldn’t harvest a buck that would net 170 inches if I didn’t pass on bucks that gross scored in the low 170’s, forcing me to become extremely discretionary before pulling the trigger.  It was unquestionably a gamble knowing that I could hunt an entire season without seeing one and go home empty handed, but it’s the risk I was willing to take.

************************************************************************
To read more, click here to SUBSCRIBE