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.
![Image](http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y276/mobicPhobia/Youngbuck-1.jpg)