This story, “Jack O’Connor’s Last Hunt,” originally ran in the March 1988 issue of Outdoor Life. The whitetail buck was enormous, bigger than any I’d ever seen before. Though I’d hunted around the world many times, I’d never been as excited as I was at that moment. The buck’s rack was high and heavy, with at least 12 points on each side, and his brow tines were each easily one foot long. As an official Boone and Crockett Club measurer, I knew that the deer was an easy candidate for the record book.