The end of the calendar year means that most of America’s deer seasons have also come to an end. And as we close out 2025, it’s a good time to look back on some of the biggest and best deer hunting stories we’ve published at Outdoor Life. Here are eight of the biggest whitetail bucks we’ve shared with readers this year, along with brief summaries of the stories behind the hunts.
The Daybreak Buck
It had quit raining the previous evening in Pierce County, Wisconsin, and Tiler Hunter figured deer would be on the move that morning, Sept. 19. As he was walking to his stand before daylight, he saw a big buck standing near a field edge 30 yards from his stand. Read the full story here.
Tagging a 26-Pointer “Just Like My Grandfather Did”
It was windy and cold 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 commercial fishing job, and he was sitting on the ground next to a tree, hunting like his father and grandfather had taught him. Suddenly he noticed a deer just 10 yards away. Read the full story here.
Wisconsin “Metro Season” Booner
Steven Loomans had been bow hunting all year. But on Dec. 10, it was the last day of the extended “metro” gun season in Dane County, Wisconsin. So, he changed things up and grabbed a .30-06 rifle.
Hunting from a ladder stand, he saw the buck bedded down at 50 yards. Loomans yelled loud enough for the buck to pick its head up, and then he fired one shot with his rifle. The deer never stood up. Its rack green scored at 191 7/8 inches as a typical 12 pointer. If that score holds, it could be Wisconsin’s new No. 5 typical in the Boone and Crockett book. Read the full story here.
The Buck We Drove Back Home For
Jason Taylor was bird hunting in Wyoming when he got a notification from one of the trail cams near his Kentucky home. The pictures showed that a giant buck he’d hunted for four years was back. Taylor and his buddy drove straight back to Kentucky. Exhausted but excited, Taylor settled into his stand with his bow the next morning, on Oct. 2. Read the full story here.
Kansas Slammer with 9 Pounds of Headgear
Veteran Kansas bowhunter Danny Williams had monitored a McPherson County, Kansas buck for three years. He says the deer’s antlers drew 40 inches this autumn, and he knew it was time to take the buck.
Hunting conditions weren’t exactly ideal the afternoon of Oct. 21 when Williams got into a box blind with his scoped crossbow. The blind was set up on the edge of an open pasture with rolling hills and cedar trees.
Williams noticed the buck standing only 18 yards away as he raised his crossbow and shot. He thought the arrow flew true, but the blood trail was faint. To be safe, he called a buddy with a tracking dog, which found the deer dead just 80 yards from where it was shot. The 5-year-old buck had a 21-point rack that rough scored 221 inches. Its antler base circumferences are 8.25 and 7.5 inches, and the skull and antlers alone weighed 9 pounds. Read the full story here.
Hunting for “Krabs” in the Heat
Michigander Craig Meyers had hunted the east-central Ohio buck for three seasons before finally getting a chance at him on a small food plot on Oct. 3. He’d patterned the buck using trail cameras and, when the wind finally shifted in his favor that afternoon, he headed to his blind. It was brutally hot and sunny that afternoon, and he even used ice packs on his body to stay cool while he waited for the double drop-tine to show. Read the full story here.
Waiting Years for a Heavy-Racked Wisconsin Buck
Mitch Piepenburg had many close encounters with this ghost-like Sheboygan County buck, and he nearly tagged it multiple times during the many years he hunted it. Conditions were ideal the afternoon of Sept. 28, when Piepenburg headed to a small food plot near a tangled swamp on private land. It was dead still that evening and the temperature was dropping when Piepenburg spotted the deer just 15 yards from his tree stand. Read the full story here.
The Quest for “Cactus Jack”
Luke Beaty spent countless hours trying to outwit a massive buck with distinctive stickers he’d nicknamed “Cactus Jack.” After playing cat-and-mouse with the buck for years, Beaty concluded the deer was rutting on a 140-acre private farm in southwest Missouri. Before dawn on Oct. 9, with temps in the 20s, Beaty climbed into his stand. He saw does and small bucks right away, then spotted Cactus Jack at 100 yards. Read the full story here.
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