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Big Buck Profile: The Dustin Huff Buck

The evening of November 4, 2021 changed the life of Indiana native Dustin Huff when he harvested the second largest typical whitetail in the world.

Huff tells Brownfield he watched the monster buck tip over after he made a perfect 40 yard shot with his crossbow, but he didn’t realize just how gigantic the deer was.

“When I saw the deer and I pulled the trigger, in my head I was thinking it was a 170 or 180 inch deer,” he said. “We had never seen anything of this caliber on this property.”

Huff was way off on his estimate of the buck’s rack as it officially scored 211 4/8 net typical in the Boone and Crockett Club’s record book, just shy of the all-time record Milo Hanson buck that was killed back in 1993. The Hanson buck officially scored 213 1/8.

“I still can’t believe it,” he said. “At that time, I was getting on Google and typing in ‘Indiana State Record’ and ‘World Record.’ When those numbers were coming up to the numbers that me and my buddies were getting, we were like ‘we have to get this thing in a safe.’”

Huff says his family had no idea the monster buck existed, but he soon learned the buck had been seen on trail cameras by other hunters miles away.

“The adjacent neighbor, who I hadn’t met until I killed this deer, had three years of history with this deer,” he said. “He had trail camera pictures of (the buck) on mineral sites. There was a guy eight miles away that we have confirmed that has trail camera photos (of the buck) for three years.”

The buck was determined to be 5 ½ years old. Huff says the whole experience has changed his life.

“I didn’t even know there were deer shows and expos where they book me to bring my deer to talk with other hunters around the country about this hunt and about this deer.”

Huff says he’s just a typical guy who loves to hunt that happened to get lucky on one unforgettable November evening.

AUDIO: Dustin Huff on Brownfield’s Outdoor Adventures 3-18-2023