The Biggest Bucks of 2025

The top of the calendar yr implies that most of America’s deer seasons have additionally come to an finish. And as we shut out 2025, it’s a very good time to look again on a number of the greatest and finest deer looking tales we’ve revealed at Out of doors Life. Listed here are eight of the largest whitetail bucks we’ve shared with readers this yr, together with transient summaries of the tales behind the hunts.     

The Dawn Buck

It had give up raining the earlier night in Pierce County, Wisconsin, and Tiler Hunter figured deer can be on the transfer that morning, Sept. 19. As he was strolling to his stand earlier than daylight, he noticed a giant buck standing close to a discipline edge 30 yards from his stand. Read the full story here.

Tagging a 26-Pointer “Simply Like My Grandfather Did”

It was windy and chilly in Northeast Maine’s Lincoln County on Nov. 4 when Robbie Flint stepped into the woods that afternoon. The 29-year-old was taking a break from his business fishing job, and he was sitting on the bottom subsequent to a tree, looking like his father and grandfather had taught him. All of a sudden he seen a deer simply 10 yards away. Read the full story here.

Wisconsin “Metro Season” Booner

Steven Loomans had been bow looking all yr. However on Dec. 10, it was the final day of the prolonged “metro” gun season in Dane County, Wisconsin. So, he modified issues up and grabbed a .30-06 rifle.

Searching from a ladder stand, he noticed the buck bedded down at 50 yards. Loomans yelled loud sufficient for the buck to select its head up, after which he fired one shot together with his rifle. The deer by no means stood up. Its rack inexperienced scored at 191 7/8 inches as a typical 12 pointer. If that rating holds, it could possibly be Wisconsin’s new No. 5 typical within the Boone and Crockett ebook. Read the full story here.

The Buck We Drove Again Dwelling For

Jason Taylor was fowl looking in Wyoming when he acquired a notification from one of many path cams close to his Kentucky house. The photographs confirmed {that a} large buck he’d hunted for 4 years was again. Taylor and his buddy drove straight again to Kentucky. Exhausted however excited, Taylor settled into his stand together with his bow the following morning, on Oct. 2. Read the full story here.

Kansas Slammer with 9 Kilos of Headgear

Veteran Kansas bowhunter Danny Williams had monitored a McPherson County, Kansas buck for 3 years. He says the deer’s antlers drew 40 inches this autumn, and he knew it was time to take the buck.

Searching situations weren’t precisely perfect the afternoon of Oct. 21 when Williams acquired right into a field blind together with his scoped crossbow. The blind was arrange on the sting of an open pasture with rolling hills and cedar bushes.

Williams seen the buck standing solely 18 yards away as he raised his crossbow and shot. He thought the arrow flew true, however the blood path was faint. To be secure, he known as a buddy with a monitoring canine, which discovered the deer lifeless simply 80 yards from the place it was shot. The 5-year-old buck had a 21-point rack that tough scored 221 inches. Its antler base circumferences are 8.25 and seven.5 inches, and the cranium and antlers alone weighed 9 kilos. Read the full story here.

Looking for “Krabs” within the Warmth

Michigander Craig Meyers had hunted the east-central Ohio buck for 3 seasons earlier than lastly getting an opportunity at him on a small meals plot on Oct. 3. He’d patterned the buck utilizing path cameras and, when the wind lastly shifted in his favor that afternoon, he headed to his blind. It was brutally scorching and sunny that afternoon, and he even used ice packs on his physique to remain cool whereas he waited for the double drop-tine to indicate. Read the full story here.

Ready Years for a Heavy-Racked Wisconsin Buck

Mitch Piepenburg had many shut encounters with this ghost-like Sheboygan County buck, and he practically tagged it a number of instances in the course of the a few years he hunted it. Circumstances had been perfect the afternoon of Sept. 28, when Piepenburg headed to a small meals plot close to a tangled swamp on personal land. It was lifeless nonetheless that night and the temperature was dropping when Piepenburg noticed the deer simply 15 yards from his tree stand. Read the full story here.

The Quest for “Cactus Jack”

Luke Beaty spent numerous hours attempting to outwit a large buck with distinctive stickers he’d nicknamed “Cactus Jack.” After enjoying cat-and-mouse with the buck for years, Beaty concluded the deer was rutting on a 140-acre personal farm in southwest Missouri. Earlier than daybreak on Oct. 9, with temps within the 20s, Beaty climbed into his stand. He noticed does and small bucks instantly, then noticed Cactus Jack at 100 yards. Read the full story here.