I saw this great picture yesterday and it reminded me of the visit I made to Milo’s house in Saskatchewan one day in November 2013. It had always been a goal of mine to see the world-record typical buck in person, and hear the story from Milo himself. Here are excerpts and snippets of what he told me; my entire interview with Milo aired on BIG DEER TV last fall:
It was 1993, and the big buck had been seen several times, “he was known around town.” On Monday night it snowed, and the next day a guy saw the buck go into patch of willows. He got Milo and a small group of hunters, and “we devised a plan to push him out.”
With one guy pushing the bush and the others flanking and posting, they jumped the buck and Milo got a glimpse of him. “He looked like an elk, to this day I still have that image in my mind.”
The buck got away, and they kept pushing in the new snow. They jumped him again, and, “I was just lucky that he came out on my side.” Milo fired and hit the buck high in the back. “He staggered and ran into a patch of brush; I ran up there and shot him again.”
Milo walked up to the new world record and, “I just couldn’t believe it.” His buddies came over to see the deer–“none of us could believe the size of it.”
Milo, who hadn’t smoked in years, was shaking, and he asked a buddy for cigarette. “The only bad part about shooting the buck was that I smoked again for another 5 years.” (I thought that was one of the best lines from our interview and so I included it in the first draft of the show; but the network had us cut it out for the final, not PC I suppose.)
They hauled the great buck back to Milo’s shop. It didn’t take long for the word to get out. “Cars and trucks came from all over and people lined up to see the buck. A DNR guy came out and, ‘You know, that buck might be a record, you’d better lock it up.’ We are country folks, and we had never heard of such. We’d never locked our doors or the shop. But then we started getting paranoid, so I hid the rack in barley piles and behind bales, kept moving it around.”
In the years that followed, many outdoor shows and conventions down in the U.S. paid for Milo to come down to their events in late winter, display a replica of buck and talk with hunters as they came by to see the record rack. “My wife and I got to see a lot of the U.S. that we never would have seen, and we really enjoyed that.”
The hoopla of the Hanson buck has died down, but hard-core deer hunters like you and me are still interested. “We’ve had people from all over the U.S. and Canada stop by and want to see the buck; not so much now, but pretty regularly for years.” Milo always obliged, and still does. “We enjoy it.”
He paused in thought and gazed again at the stunning rack that hangs on his basement wall, like he has done millions of times since that cold, snowy day in 1993. “You know, I still can’t believe it. And I sure can’t believe it’s been 20 years ago.”
I remember when the circus began.
I also remember looking at the pix and story on the Jordan buck with a pix of it hanging in a barn with Jordan beside it and the deer dwarfed him. Nothing like a truly huge monster deer to take your breath away.
Still blows my mind that this buck has stood as the record for 20 years even with all of the QDMA practices that now are applied to properties and people trying their hardest to grow that next record. Mike how much mass does the buck have? In the picture it looks like he’s not as heavy horned as a lot of other Canadian bucks I’ve seen. This is one AMAZING buck and the fact you got to see it in person is awesome!
Like a pretty woman…I could just stare at it for hours
I can not believe it was 20 years ago, feels like four or five year ago…how time flies.
Still a very impressive Whitetail to look at, great story and way to go Milo.