A buck for the ages

On the first evening in the ground blind during the 2011 deer bow season, sixteen year old Seth Bisbee of Bensen County would witness a series of events that would end a day later in the harvesting of the largest whitetail buck recorded that was taken with a bow in the great state of North Dakota.

Seth began this evening as his seasons before, full of anticipation and excitement. He and his dad Charlie had pre-season trail cam photos of several good bucks, including several photos of one monster main frame 5x5. This jaw-dropping buck had extremely long tines, long beams, good width and even a couple of cheater points. This buck had been seen the prior year and both Seth and his dad had opportunities during the gun season but were not able to connect with this elusive beast.

As this first day’s sun quickly settled in the western sky, Seth caught a glimpse of the monster walking straight toward his blind. This buck had grown much larger than his 155” frame from last year and now was bearing down the trail facing straight-on to Seth. As the buck close the distance, Seth tried to control his nerves and readied himself as he drew his bow, but big bucks are hard to beat, and this buck was no exception. The wily buck spotted the slight movement and spooked away. Day one done, monster gone.


On the second day of hunting, Seth was hoping to again cross paths with the monster and he would not be disappointed as this evening would turn out to be more exciting than the first.

Late in the evening a beautiful 6x6 velvet buck strolled into bow range. This was a great buck and since he has always wanted to take a velvet buck, Seth excitedly drew and released his arrow, only to watch it sail harmlessly over the back of the unsuspecting beauty. This excitement and following disappointment would last only 10 minutes before the monster buck, partnered with a smaller 5x5 would once again track directly toward Seth’s blind. As the bucks cautiously approached, the big buck would raise and lower his head trying to detect any danger. At 17 yards, the buck lowered his head and Seth drew his Diamond Bowtech bow tipped with Steelforce broadheads, settled his pin on the buck and smoothly released the arrow. The buck darted away. Although the shot looked good, Seth was not going to chance tracking at night, so with darkness falling, he left the buck to trail for the next morning.


The buck’s trail was easily found in the daylight with pools of blood and at the end of the blood trail laid the monster buck.

With all the trail cam photos and a close-up real life view, the view that looked the biggest was the buck on the ground, no ground shrinkage here.

What a marvelous buck this was! This giant had a 5x5 frame with an additional point on each side making it a 6x6 monster. The inside spread measured 17 2/8”and outside spread measured 19 2/8”. It had a gross score of 193” and netted a whopping score of 178 5/8”. The New North Dakota State record typical bow killed whitetail!



Congratulations Seth!