By Verlin Hale, as told to Dave Hurteau I've always been into handguns. As soon as I turned 21 I got my permit, bought a .44 mag. Smith & Wesson, and shot my first deer--a 161-6/8-inch buck that at the time was the third-biggest handgun buck in Indiana. The only problem was that after that, I got it in my head that I needed to take something bigger. I spent the next 21 years trying, passed up a lot of good bucks, and was half ready to give up on the notion when I first spotted this buck last fall. Verlin Hale






