| 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.  |
