MT Hunter Bags Giant 200-Inch River Bottom Whitetail

An elk and mule deer hunter's Mecca, Montana isn't typically mentioned as a trophy whitetail state. But hunter Bret Pullman found an exception to that rule in November 2023 when what looked like a 200-inch whitetail showed up in the river bottoms on his family's ranch near Cardwell. After chasing the deer for two seasons, Pullman finally got a shot on it late last month, dropping it from nearly 500 yards away as he was headed up the mountain to do maintenance on his nearby elk hunting cabin. If its 200-inch green score holds after a 60-day drying period, it could be the first Montana whitetail of its caliber entered into the Boone & Crockett record books in nearly three decades.

"We don't normally have deer like that," Pullman tells F&S. " I've never seen one that big in my life up there." After finding the deer in 2023, Pullman logged countless hours glassing the mile-and-half stretch of river bottom from two separate bluffs on his family's property. He says he only managed to spot the buck in person one time, and that was before legal shooting hours during the 2024 bow season.

"I got several pictures of him moving around at night last year," Pullman says. "But he didn't show up on the camera during daylight hours until this September." Pullman's September photo shows the buck in full velvet cautiously approaching a willow thicket along the river. Though still sporting its summer coat, its body is noticeably large, especially by Montana whitetail standards.

Pullman didn't see the deer again until the day he shot it-November 16, 2024. "I spent that morning glassing the river bottoms like I'd been doing all season," he recalls. "About 45 minutes after first light, I decided to head up into the mountains to check on a solar panel system I'm installing at our cabin."

As he was driving to the cabin, Pullman saw the giant whitetail bust out of the river bottom brush chasing does, about 200 yards away. With his rifle in tow, he wasn't about to let the chance encounter slip away, he says. "I hopped out of the truck, threw my pack on the ground, and took the shot," Pullmans says. "Later on, I ranged the ridge he was standing on at 482 yards away."

Pullman says his father-in-law, a taxidermist in Whitehall, green-scored the deer at exactly 200 inches. It has a 20-inch inside spread, 23 1/2-inch main beams, and a total of 17 scoreable points. The last time a hunter got a 200-inch whitetail into the B&C books was 1996. That deer was taken by Levi Mitchell and scored 200 3/8 inches. Montana's state record whitetail measured 252 1/8 inches. It was shot by Frank Pleskac in 1968.