It seems like every family has a story about a monster buck that their dad, brother, uncle, or grandfather shot back in the day. This story will highlight a monster buck that my great-great-grandfather took back in the fall of 1941. My great-great-grandfather owned a jewelry shop in downtown Provo, Utah. On his time off, he and his family enjoyed spending time in the central mountains of Utah. They typically spent time around Strawberry, Scofield, and later Joe’s Valley Reservoir.
On a Fall Fishing Trip
On an October day, he and his wife headed up to the Scofield area to fish. Now I may never know why they decided fishing was the best thing to do while the deer hunt was going on but that’s what they did. For the overly sensitive that was a joke, I love fishing, but I love deer hunting more.
After catching two limits of fish that morning, they loaded the car up and headed back down Spanish Fork canyon. On the way down they decided to stop at the sheep creek turn off and have lunch. They made the turn and drove for 2 or 3 miles up sheep creek road before finding a good spot.
While eating lunch, great-great-grandma spotted a big buck working its way across a nearby sagebrush flat. She grabbed grandpas arm and pointed at the buck. At that point, he had to reach into the back of the car and get the rifle out and load the gun. While loading the rifle, in the mayhem, he jammed the rifle with some loose change. He cleared the jammed rifle and amazingly the buck was still within range. On the first shot, the buck just stopped and stood there. (We will get to why in a bit). The second shot knocked the buck down but a 3rd shot was needed to anchor the monster buck. At that point, they cleaned the deer and loaded him onto the car full body.
Tying the World Record
The monster buck that my grandfather had taken was so wide that they contacted someone to officially measure it and see just how wide it really was. At that time so many big deer were being taken that deer needed to be quite exceptional to get much fanfare.
This buck, however, was quite impressive. The monster buck’s antlers measured an incredible 47 1/2″ wide, sadly this buck may have even been wider. Remember during the story above how the buck just stood there on the first shot? The buck most likely did that because it was dazed. On the first shot, my great-great-grandpa shot off what they figure was about 2″ – 2 1/2″ off of the widest point of the buck’s antlers. Even with the missing tip of the antler, this buck was challenging the record for the widest mule deer ever taken.
Many local sportsmen came and measured the head and looked it over and at least two newspapers took the time to cover the monster buck back then. Several people contacted Jonas Brothers Taxidermy out of Denver to inquire about the record for the widest mule deer. Jonas Brothers wired back information stating that at the time the 47 1/2″ wide buck would now be tied with another buck for the world record width. Grandpa spoke to both of the newspapers about the monster buck and made it know he planned to look for the shot-off piece of antler.
“I’m going to scour that 40 acres of sagebrush flat where I shot the deer and see if I can’t find the missing piece.” – William Everret Mitchell
Despite grandpas best effort he was never able to turn up the missing antler piece. After all the excitement regarding the deer, it spent the rest of its days in the family home.
Lost or Stolen
As stated above the monster buck head stayed with the family until the passing of great-great-grandpa. During the clean-up of the home, many of the items were moved to a storage unit. The family story goes that they left a pile of items including the monster bucks head sitting in front of the storage unit door while they ran back to the house to get more items. Once the family returned all the items were still there except for the bucks head.
It’s hard to say for sure what happened, the head very well could have been stolen. It was a giant buck and it would have drawn some attention. I wasn’t around at the time and unfortunately, all I’ve ever seen of this monster is family photos and newspaper clippings. Likewise, I’ve only ever heard this story from my great-grandpa who has been gone for quite some time.
As stated above so many of our families have incredible stories and many are not just about hunting. With all our technology we should try our best to preserve these stories the best we can. Sit down with your parents and grandparents and let them tell you some stories, record them if you can. They can have so much value and their emotions do way more justice to their stories.
You can hear more about this buck as well as others by checking our newest podcast about old bucks and their stories by clicking here. Likewise, you can read about other monster animals by clicking here.
What did you think about this monster buck story? Do you have your own old-school hunting story you’d like to share? If you have a story send us a message via our social media we’d love to hear about it.
