West Virginia hunter David Miller has had much success over the course of his hunting life, taking 10 Pope and Young whitetail leading up to the 2011 season. But it’s his 11th that’s getting all the attention. It could challenge the state’s top spot for typical whitetail. 

First captured by one of Miller’s trailcameras in early September, the giant 12-point buck vanished just before the start of the 2011 deer season. Desperate to find the buck again, Miller and a friend placed three more cameras in the vicinity of the camera that first captured the elusive giant.

What they discovered was that the buck had gone completely nocturnal, expanding what they believed to be his home range in the process. Miller proceeded to hunt the buck anytime the right conditions were given to him but was met with little luck.

On November 14th, Miller’s persistence would pay off after one of his trailcameras captured the buck feeding in an oak flat along with two other bucks. Two days later, after hunting the previous day with no luck, Miller took the deer just after sunrise.

Bowhunter David Miller used trailcameras to locate what could become West Virginia's greatets typical by bow.

"I made a grunting sound, and he stopped," Miller said during a recent interview with the West Virginia Gazette. "I settled the [sight] pin on his shoulder and squeezed off the shot."

The buck would end up traveling another 60 yards before falling.

The main-frame 12-point buck has a gross green score of 178 5/8 inches, nearly three inches greater than current state record buck taken by Mark Lester in 1998.

The buck, and Miller, will have to wait the mandatory 60-day drying period required by Pope and Young before the buck can be officially measured.