I think I was nineteen when I first heard those words spoken to me. I was home from college over the Christmas holiday and had harvested a rather nice ten point at the ranch. One of the neighboring ranchers and his family had stopped by our place to drop off some bacon and hams and exchange Christmas greetings with our family. Mom and Dad would visit their ranch over the holiday and reciprocate with cuts of beef produced on our ranch. It was the way things worked in Texas ranch country when I was a young man. It still works that way to this day. Some traditions never die.
The owner of the neighboring ranch was giving the buck I killed a painstaking inspection while I and my brothers stood respectfully behind him. He turned to me and said "Son, I don't know if you realize this, but you just killed the buck of a lifetime!" Of course I just beamed with pride over my accomplishment. At the time I thought his words were gospel. Surely I had reached the pinnacle of deer hunting. But I was very young. And of course, I was also very wrong.
Over the course of the next forty years I would hear this saying many times. Every time I would harvest a major mature whitetail buck someone would utter those words. It was always nice to hear. But over the course of time I came to the realization that the "buck of a lifetime" was always just over that next hill, always in that next cornfield and always eluding me.
I like to think I am a little wiser then that nineteen year old kid who killed that "buck of a lifetime" over forty years ago. I like to think that the buck of my lifetime is still in my future. And I hope to continue thinking that until the very day I am no longer able to pursue that buck.
Your buck of a lifetime is also over that next hill. You know this. It is why you continue to go out there with a weapon in your hand time and time again. It is the reason you put up with getting cold and wet.
After you harvest that big buck and someone tells you that you just killed "the buck of a lifetime" smile at them and just say "thank you."
We both know the real "buck of a lifetime" is still over that next hill.
A very young Mike P with a ranch ten point.
I hope your right Mike. I arrowed my "buck of a Lifetime " on 11-04-06 in Jackson County, Ohio and it measured gross 124&1/8th. A almost typical 8 pointer with 8 & 7/8th G2s. If this is my "Buck of a Lifetime" which others have commented to me that it is, that will be fine with me. Don't hunt much any more as I"m 70 now and the wife forbids me from climbing a tree, even tho I sneak and do it every once in a while. It seems I get colder and wetter than ever before and most of my two or three friends are still working and I just don't like going alone in case I ever need some help. No cell signal where I have to hunt until I climb a steep ridge so I know I would really have to work to get a even better deer. I still have the urge to get out and hunt as I always probably will, and when I go it is not in the dark and it's at a much slower pace. So wish me luck in the Pop-Up.
if i didnt live across the country ied sneak you away from the wife and put you up in a stand ther has to be someone on this forum that lives close that would go out with ya 
. I killed my "buck or a lifetime" a little over a week ago but that could very well change next week in Texas. I was 8 years old when I watched my dad take down a beautiful 8 pointer in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. That buck is hanging on the wall in Tyler's room and every time I look at it I can go back to that moment in time. I remember asking dad " how long will it take me to kill one that big Pop?" Dad grinned and assured me that my day would come. Dad went on to kill several more nice bucks and some of them were bigger than the big eight but he always referred to that buck as his "buck of a lifetime" 
. We leave for Texas next Thursday and I pray that Tyler will be able to come here next week to tell you all about his "buck of a lifetime" 
