T.J. Rempel is the first to admit he’s no diehard trophy hunter. “I’m not the guy who dreams of giant whitetails when my head hits the pillow,” he told Field & Stream. “The smell of smoked backstrap smothered in black garlic butter is what keeps me motivated to be in the woods.” But when a friend sends pictures of a buck like this, everything changes.
“I was actually sitting, frozen in a deer stand, when he sent me the pics,” Rempel recalled. “When I got back to the truck and thawed out, I looked at them and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.” Rempel eventually connected with his buddy, who told him that his son had spotted the buck in a field and taken photos of it for 20 minutes. Luckily for Rempel, the son had tagged out a week prior. Summoning his courage, Rempel asked his friend if he could have a go at the buck. “Unbelievably and completely selflessly, he said “˜yes,'” Rempel said.
The green light meant Rempel had to swing into action, but there was one other hurdle to clear. “The next ‘yes’ was the hardest, as that had to come from my wife. But she knew how special this deer was and took on all the chaos of our life (including 3-year-old and 3-week-old babies) while I packed the truck.
Rempel had a 5-plus-hour drive assess his situation. Although his friend had given him the go-ahead to chase the buck, Rempel still needed to get access from the landowner in a popular hunting area, with only three days left in the season. “I figured that when the opportunity at a buck of many lifetimes falls in your lap, you have to try,” he said. Rempel reached the area at prime time to watch 40 deer feeding in the field, but the big buck never showed. He wasn’t able to connect with the landowner where the deer was last seen, but he did gain permission to hunt the adjacent property.
The next morning, Rempel arrived at the field well before first light and, as dawn broke, spotted the towering rack of the giant whitetail. “That first look through the spotting scope was unforgettable,” he said. “I saw the unmistakable frame of his rack towering over his dark body, which was backlit by snow and early morning light.” Rempel watched as the monster buck encountered a big 4X4, then started walking toward the property he was hunting. Rempel grabbed his rifle and followed the buck as it walked to the north. “There wasn’t a stitch of cover between us,” he said. “The buck had so many options he could have taken that would have saved his life, but he took none of them.” As the big whitetail was nearing Crown land, Rempel got his rifle on the bipod, found him in the scope, and settled the crosshairs. “I knew my shot wasn’t perfect and that I would give him some time before pursuing, but also needed to calm myself down” he said. “After an hour, I was following the blood trail when the buck exploded from a bed only 40 yards away.” Rempel dumped the trophy with a single shot.
Rempel said that when he walked up to his buck, “it was so big, I didn’t realize how big.” The main-frame 9-point sported G2s well over 12 inches, with 24 inches of abnormal points, 62 inches of main beams, a 22-6/8-inch inside spread. It tallied a green-gross nontypical score of 220-â… inches. “I Face-Timed my wife first to thank her for saying yes, or at least not saying no, and it felt great to tell her I was coming home early,” Rempel said. “The second Face-Time was to the most amazing friend in the world!”
THE 1871 CLUB
