| Story: Jim Kilfoil Buck
Back in the 1930s, there roamed one of the most
magnificent mule deer ever seen. This huge buck found its home on a federal game reserve
ranch that was owned by the Francis family in Morgan County, Utah. However, in 1938 the
ranch was released from the federal game reserve.
Jim Kilfoil, the family hired sheep herder, was herding
sheep in Lost Canyon during the spring and summer of 1938. On several occasions he
encountered a buck that appeared to be growing a stupendous rack of horns. Because he saw
deer every day of his life and lived on venison most of the time, Kilfoil was not
accustomed to thinking of deer as "trophies". This one, however, was something
special even to the old sheepherder, and he couldn’t get that rack off his mind.
Opening day of the 1938 deer season, Kilfoil met the huge
deer for the last time and harvested this unbelievable trophy mule deer in Francis Canyon
with his trusty 25-35. The antlers were simply amazing with an outside spread of 47 1/2
inches and 21 total points. Gilbert Francis was in the canyon that day, saw Kilfoil
hauling the buck out in his pickup and gave him $25 for the rack.
Considered by many to be the greatest trophy deer ever
taken in Utah, the Kilfoil Buck ranks number 58 all-time in the Boone and Crockett record
book as a non-typical, but stands almost in a class by itself as truly one of the greatest
mule deer of all time. |
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