Since 1993, the world record typical whitetail buck has remained a 213 5/8-inch giant taken by Saskatchewan hunter and farmer Milo Hanson. The deer—a clean, 14-pointer with an inside spread of over 27 inches—shattered an 80-year record and set the deer hunting world on fire. This week, Hanson passed away at age 81, leaving behind a Boone and Crockett record and one of the most enduring legends in big-game hunting history.
The buck was first seen by a school bus driver just north of Biggar, Saskatchewan, before the deer season opener in 1993. It was feeding in Hanson’s alfalfa field. In the weeks that followed, several other people saw the buck on neighboring farms. They all knew it was big, but no one thought it would be a world record.
On November 23, 1993, a group of hunters met at Hanson’s farm and came up with a plan for a deer drive. Hanson’s friend had seen what looked like the buck run into a thicket of willows. The hunters decided to post up around the thicket while one member of their party went in and pushed the deer out.
In describing what happened next, Hanson has called himself lucky, as he was the one to hit the deer with his 308 Winchester Model 88. The driver pushed the buck from the thicket once, and several hunters shot, but no one connected. They kept after him until the deer eventually ran in front of Hanson. Hanson shot, hit the buck high in the back, then ran up and shot again to finish him off. When the hunters all arrived at the buck, they were astounded.
News spread around town quickly, and soon, there were people flocking to Hanson’s house to see the deer. When a Saskatchewan wildlife official came to see the buck, he suggested Hanson might have a record on his hands and that he should safeguard the rack in case someone tried to steal it. For about a week before that, Hanson had the deer in an unlocked barn. He spent the next few weeks hiding the antlers in grain piles and moving it around his farm. Roughly two months after Hanson killed the buck, the rack got an official B&C score of 213 ⅝, cementing the Hanson Buck, as it came to be known, as the world record.
In the years that followed, Hanson became a deer hunting celebrity. Outdoor publications rushed to break the story of the new world record typical, and Hanson toured outdoor shows and conventions talking to hunters about his deer. The town of Biggar, Saskatchewan built a sign displaying a jumping buck and declaring itself the home of the world record, and deer hunters made plans to hunt the cold Canadian province in hopes of shooting a buck as big as Hansons.
You could say it’s surprising that Hanson’s record has stood for this many years. But it took 80 years for Hanson to unseat the previous 206-1/8 world record, set in 1914 by James Jordan of Wisconsin. The record was almost threatened by Mitch Rompola, who claimed to have shot a 218 5/8-inch buck in 1998. But Rompola refused to have the deer officially scored, and many think his buck was a hoax.
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What’s more remarkable is how, in an age of growing big deer and using the latest technology to hunt them, Hanson’s record buck was taken via one of the most old-school methods possible—the deer drive. His humble story remains in the back of many hunters’ minds come opening day across North America, that you never know what might walk in front of your stand.
