By Gene Hornbeck

Any teenager who has the urge to hunt deer will dream of bagging a big buck. So it was last season with Heather Kovash, 16, of Dickinson, N.D. While it's true that her dream came true the first year she hunted, success didn't come easy.

It isn't only the teenagers who wish for big bucks. Numerous Great Plains hunters caught up to their dream bucks last season. Here are the stories behind some of those hunts - Heather's first.

"I was hunting opening day with my dad Perry, along with uncles Russ and Monte Kovash and my cousin Jeff, when we saw this nice buck," Heather said. "We decided the buck was out there about 150 to 200 yards, but I was shooting a .22/250 and had a 3-9X scope on it, so we figured I could hit him.

"I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and shot," she said. "The buck went down and was still kicking when we got up to him. We were all excited and the next thing you know the buck jumped up and everyone started yelling at me to shoot him again! By the time I reacted he disappeared over the hill.

"The buck was a big mule deer; I really felt bad about him getting away. We did hunt the area for him, but never saw him again - until the last day of the season."

"On the last day Dad and I had hunted another area in the morning, and then in the afternoon drove back to where I had knocked the buck down. We spotted this nice buck on the same hill that I had shot at the one before. We circled around the hill and came up the backside so we would be looking down on the deer. He was still there and the shot was about 200 yards this time.

"I laid down on the ground, put the cross hairs on the buck, took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. He went down, but as we were going toward him he got up and began to run again, so I shot the second time - and I got him!"

Bill Young and John Simons watched this West River whitetail spar with a South Dakota mule deer for a few minutes before the whitetail took his does and bedded in a canyon. Young decided to wait him out; the plan paid off with this 159 7/8-inch 4x4. Photo courtesy of Bill Young

The father-daughter team decided that her kill was the same mule deer she'd shot that first day. One back tine was missing on an antler, which could have been from her first shot; it must have stunned the animal. When the Kovashes butchered Heather's buck they found an almost-healed wound high on its neck that they presume was from her bullet also.

The buck, a 5x5 mule deer, had a 25-inch spread. Perry said a friend measured the typical rack (unofficially) and it scored about 165 under the Boone and Crockett system.

Last fall there were a number of trophy bucks taken in South Dakota - most, of course, by resident hunters. However, two visitors said they had the best hunts they had ever experienced while in the state.

Bill Young of Greenville, N.C., has been hunting South Dakota's West River for about 10 years with guide John Simons of White Owl. He's taken some nice bucks, but none quite as nice as the one he got last fall.

"We had been hunting three days when we spotted this whitetail buck along a rocky hillside about 500 to 600 yards away about 8 a.m.," Young said. "He was with some does, and as we watched, a mule deer buck came up out of a draw and the whitetail challenged him.

"The two sparred around for a few minutes and the mule deer gave up and left," said Young. "The does moved down a gully out of sight, so we moved to intercept them and did spot the deer again about 9:15 in a draw about 200 yards away. We could see all but one doe and the buck, and we watched the does bed down. We were certain the other doe and the buck were in the draw too.

"We decided to camp on them and wait to see what the buck's next move would be," Young said. "We had decided he was a heavy-beamed 4-pointer (4x4) and worth some effort, but we didn't expect how much.

"The temperature was in the 20s with a pretty good wind, which was in our favor," said the hunter. "We watched and waited for the deer to move. We waited one hour, then two; then it stretched into four and five. It was 4 o'clock when the does got up and began moving up the hillside again.

"We saw the buck and decided that he had to top out on a little ridge at the head end of the gully for a decent shot. He did - and I finally shot and had my trophy."

Young was shooting a bolt-action rifle chambered for the 6.5 Remington Magnum, which spits out a 125-grain slug at about 3200 fps.

"I really like the rifle," said Young. "It's great for hunting the open country in western South Dakota. The buck is a great trophy. I've taken bigger heads that scored more, but never one that took more patience.

"When I think back on it, we must have been crazy to spend eight hours on one buck with nothing to eat but one Snickers bar. However, it was worth it. The head scored 159 7/8, and had a 21 1/4-inch spread. The mass of the very symmetrical rack was very heavy. It's the best 4x4 I have ever taken."

Lee Moore and buddy Ron Wright, of Auburndale, Fla., flew into Sioux Falls on Nov. 14 for the South Dakota deer season opener on Nov. 16. Having gone to South Dakota ahead of the pair for some pheasant hunting before deer season, Ron's brother Don also lined up a deer hunt for the three of them along the White River bottoms south of Kennebec.

"I was excited about the hunt," Lee said. "I'm just a good ol' boy from a small town, and this was my first deer hunting trip away from home. The Wrights had told me about the big whitetails in South Dakota, and they really got me pumped up for the hunt. As it turned out, it was even better than I thought it would be.

"We scouted the area we were going to hunt on Friday before the season, and we saw some does and a nice buck, maybe in the 140 class," Moore said. " The next morning we got up to find everything fogged in. We even got lost going to our tree stands.

"About 9 o'clock it began to clear up and we finally found our stands. I jumped a little buck and a doe on the way in to mine.

"It was about 10 a.m. when I saw two little bucks come out of some plum brush along the river, and they were chasing a doe. I watched them for a while and was hoping that the buck we saw the day before would show up.

"It was about 10:30 when I saw movement in the brush again. I about fell out of the tree when I saw there were four deer, and all were bucks - and nice ones, too! They were about 200 yards away and I picked out the biggest one, lined up on him with my .270, took a couple of deep breaths, and pulled the trigger.

"The buck went down, but got up and stumbled into a patch of plum brush about 40 yards away," Moore said. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked up to him. I had never seen a buck as big as he was. He had 5 points on one side and 6 on the other, and the rack was really heavy. My hunting buddies agreed it was the biggest whitetail they had ever seen. When we took it into town there were quite a few local guys around that said it was the biggest one they had seen taken in the area for a long time.

"When I finally had him measured he scored 174 5/8. Now, that's one heck of a typical whitetail buck for a good ol' boy from Florida to bring home! I know for sure there just isn't much of chance to take a Boone and Crockett whitetail in Florida. I've been hunting about 15 years and the best I've ever seen or taken, if scored, would maybe go 115 or 120.

"Our hunt was a huge success. Donnie got a whitetail carrying 11 points that probably scored about 140, and Ronnie shot a nice 4x5 mulie. The only thing that was missing on the hunt was snow. I've always wanted to hunt deer in the snow. Maybe next year!"

John Henderson is a 39-year-old machinist from Ashland, Neb., who loves to hunt deer - and last year he scored big!

"I got this whitetail buck about 8 a.m. hunting out of a tent blind just a couple of hundred yards behind my house," he said. "I live out in the country about 10 miles northwest of Ashland, and have hunted there for about 10 years.

"The season opened on Saturday, Nov. 16. I saw a pretty decent buck on Saturday and another one on Monday, but I didn't get a shot at either one of them.

"On Tuesday I got in the blind about daylight, and along about 8 o'clock I saw something move in the trees about 30 yards in front of me. When I saw how big it was I couldn't believe my eyes.

"I don't think I had time to get a case of buck fever. I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and touched off the shot; he went about 20 yards before he piled up.

"When I got to him I saw he was carrying 5 points on one side and had 9 on the other," Henderson said. "You talk about big! I've been hunting about 15 years, and this buck is the biggest I have ever seen, let alone killed. When we got him to town there were a good number of people who said it was the biggest they had seen as well.

"When we had the deer butchered there was about 80 pounds of scrap for hamburger and sausage. We weighed one ham, and it scaled out at 23 1/2 pounds. Needless to say, I had the head mounted."

Henderson said he was shooting a .270 outfitted with a 4X scope.

In north-central Nebraska, a 16-year-old deer hunter from O'Neill has to be wondering what's in store for him when he goes afield this fall.

Tyson Chohon, a junior at O'Neill's St. Mary's High School, had hunted two previous seasons with his dad. He killed a 3x2 whitetail the first year and what he called a "so-so" 5x5 the second. Last fall he bettered both marks considerably.

Tyson was hunting with his dad Pat and uncle Mike Lueken of Pierce from tree and ground blinds they'd built while scouting for a couple of days on the land where they had permission to hunt.

"We went into separate stands about 6:30 the opening morning," Tyson said. "I got up in a tree stand, and it was about an hour later that I saw a whitetail fawn coming down the hillside about 75 yards away. It was followed by a doe, and then a few yards back I saw this buck come over the hill.

"When I saw that the buck was big and had a good rack, I put the scope on him," said the teenager. "I touched off a shot from my .270 and he stumbled like he was going down. Then he turned and started back up the hill. I shot again and dropped him.

"I got down out of the tree stand and ran up to the buck. He was a lot bigger than I thought he was. He had 6 points on one side and 7 on the other. He made the 5x5 I got last year look pretty small.

"We had a 4-wheeler with us, so I went and got it and tied a rope around the buck and dragged it out to the road, where I gutted it and waited for my dad to show up. He didn't come out for about two hours, and I met him to tell him I got a medium-sized buck - he didn't know I was pulling his leg until he saw it."

The young O'Neill hunter said he entered the buck in two local big-buck contests and won both of them. The head was a non-typical and scored 181 7/8 points.

"Now that I look back on my three years of deer hunting, the deer have gotten bigger every year." Tyson said. "I really wonder how I can do better than this last one - he was huge. However, I'll be out there this fall hoping for a better one."

Ron Wolford of Junction City, Kan., likes to hunt trophy whitetails. He says he and his hunting buddies, including his neighbor and landowner Jack Swenson, have a longstanding rule: They can't shoot a buck with less than 10 points during the first couple of days of the season.

"We have hunted together for about 15 years, and we hunt the big ones first and work our way down from there," Wolford said. "I saw a nice buck along with a doe in the brush from my stand the third day of the season, but never enough of him to get a decent shot.

"On the fourth morning of the season I was in the tree stand, and it was about 8:30 when I heard some rattling and scraping in the brush and saw a really nice buck in an opening about 75 yards away. I don't know where he came from - he was just there.

"I put the cross hairs on him and touched off a shot, and he just stood there, so I cranked another round into the rifle and shot again, and he dropped," said the 53-year-old hunter.

"When I got to him I saw he was a 5x5 with a really heavy set of horns. The rack was a typical, and it scored 189 5/8 and is currently seventh in the Kansas record book.

"One of the neat things about me getting the deer was that I got it about a quarter of a mile from where my hunting buddy, Jack Swenson, got a record-book buck in 1997. That one scored 187 0/8 and ranks 12th in the Kansas record book."

Wolford was shooting a .30/06 with a 3-9X scope set at 6X. He said the buck had been hit twice - once in the front leg and once behind the shoulder.

"I don't know which shot hit where, because it's hard to believe I hit him in the leg first and he just stood there," Wolford said. "Anyway, I'm happy that things worked out the way they did."

That's how things worked out for some Great Plains deer hunters last season. Maybe this will be the year that things work out for you and your dreams of big bucks!