Montana’s Largest Whitetail Deer Surprised Even the Hunters Who Harvested Them

It’s hard to find a state quite like Montana. Comprised of untapped natural beauty, sweeping vistas, and epic mountain ranges, the Big Sky state gives a sense of what North America was like thousands of years ago. With its diverse selection of fauna, including 117 species of mammal, Montana also provides ample opportunity for hunting.

One of the most commonly hunted animals in Montana is the whitetail deer. Spread evenly across the state’s expanse, this species prefers living in highly vegetated areas near a water source, like a river or stream. They also live in forested areas to hide from predators. Still, whitetail deer are harvested every year by eager hunters. Sometimes, those deer set big game trophy records.

Are you ready to discover the largest whitetail deer ever harvested in Montana?

On November 23, 1974, the last day of the hunting season, Thomas H. Dellwo and his wife were driving down a snow-covered road near Seeley Lake in southwestern Montana. Upon turning around, Dellwo noticed large deer tracks snaking through the snow, so he got out of his car and followed them. He quickly caught up with the buck and fired. It didn’t kill the deer, however, so Dellwo followed it deeper into the forest where he made his fatal shot. The next day, he returned to the site and dragged the massive buck home through the snow. At the request of a relative, Dellwo had the buck scored.

The buck was scored using the score chart for typical whitetail deer from the Boone & Crockett Club, which sets guidelines for and maintains trophy hunting records for big game animals. Antlers on a typical whitetail deer follow a standard pattern, defined by symmetrical tines and evenly spaced points. A score above 170 is in all-time record territory.

To Dellwo’s surprise, his whitetail buck with a score of 199-3/8 was the biggest typical in Montana state history, beating the former record by 1/8 of an inch set by Kent Petry in 1966.

Seven years after he shot the record-setting buck, Dellwo sold the mounted head and antlers to a collector for $4,000 who negotiated the low price over several shots of whiskey. Later, Dellwo learned that the mount sold for a whopping $12,000. Regretting the impulse sale, Dellwo said “I’ve been kicking myself ever since.” Currently, this record-holding mount hangs on the wall next to other record-setting mounts at the Bass Pro Shops flagship store in Springfield, Missouri.

Bass Pro Shops’ Missouri store also features Montana’s non-typical whitetail deer state record. Non-typical antlers deviate from the standard in quite dramatic ways. The Boone & Crockett score sheet provides rules for counting abnormal points on a whitetail deer rack, and a score above 195 gets you official recognition from the Boone & Crockett Club.

Frank Pleskac had his eye on this buck for many years, but it had always managed to elude him. Finally, in November 1968, Pleskac got his shot while hunting along the west fork of the Milk River near his home in Hill County, which is located on the Hi-Line, a region in the northern part of the state.

The non-typical rack scored 252-1/8, pushing a 1960 record set by hunter George Woldstad to the No. 2 spot for a few years. Pleskac’s mount was sold for $30,000 to Bass Pro Shop in 2010.

Both Dellwo’s and Pleskac’s racks are impressive, to be sure, but the world record scores for the two categories of whitetail deer are jaw-dropping.

Hunter David Beckman found it—yes, found the non-typical rack—on November 15, 1981, in northern St. Louis County, Missouri, shortly after he bagged his own deer. Unlike many other record holders, this whitetail deer had already perished upon discovery. It scored an incredible 333-7/8.

The typical record belongs to Milo N. Hanson who harvested his buck in November 1992 while hunting on his own property in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada. The antlers were scored 213-5/8 in 1993.