Freerange you are right. I wanted to get more pictures but due to circumstances and honestly not realizing truly how big he was I settled for a few quick pictures and then took off to guide my compadre who had just arrived to hunt.
He took the pictures for me and is 74 years old and couldn’t really crouch down to get good angles. He took about 5 pictures and showed them to me and all were bad with tongue hanging out so I fixed that then helped him get down to a sitting position then after a few more helped him get back up.
The Taxidermist in the picture above was hunting with us and he immediately saw what kind of deer it was but by then it was skinned in the cooler.

If the score is correct and holds up he will be in top couple or 3 ever and for sure biggest from Texas. As they say it all seems surreal at this point.

Deserves to be surreal. I cant imagine killing the biggest freeranging 8 point in the history of Texas. Texas should be proud, the Region should be proud, the landowner should be proud, the lease members or Ranch manager or biologist or whoever should be proud, the good Lord should be proud, certainly you should be proud and the buck postmortem could be proud. Im glad you didnt take my photo critique the wrong way--I figured someone would bash me for raining on your parade(which wasnt my intention) so maybe they wont now.
I wouldnt fault you for a new photo op with the horns atop a different dead bucks body. At minimum you can retake with the shoulder mount and pose so you cant tell its not a fresh kill. Good job on the tongue. Thanks a lot to your friend for getting the photos you got.

Wow! Great story and a beautiful buck.

Biggest 8pt I know of was killed in Illinois a few yrs ago..it netted little over 183 IIRC. There was a big one killed in South Texas about 10 yrs ago..some pics were on here and the man who killed passed away right after that. Not sure if he was LF or HF though.

Actually your post above is dead on.
The landowner is a very serious old school deer hunter and is very passionate about developing the best habitat possible for all wildlife but mainly deer. For example this ranch has miles and miles of roads and all have water lines run down them with water tanks with floats every 1/4 mile or so. He doesn’t like high fence but has some run down the property where it runs along the highway.

I told him that once it’s scored and mounted that I would also have a duplicate made for him or I was not against putting it in the large trophy room at the ranch.

I just can't get over the tree trunks for bases on this deer! The mass is incredible. Congratulations on that once in a lifetime buck!

Truly a GIANT and the buck of my dreams without a doubt. I love giant 8s!
Congrats.

But, obviously this deer was about 20"+ above your 'pay grade' so I guess you are tagged out for a while and guiding for free for a few years now! lol

Congrats again on a true giant

I wondered about the pay grade size issue as well. I assume Dstroud did no wrong.

Bomber for sure

I didnt add up a guess, but im sure if I did it would have been way off. Im just not used to looking at deer of that caliber!

What a hoss. Congrats!

Here is a link with pics of the 183" buck killed in South Texas. Not sure if he was LF or HF though or is was gross or net score. Scroll down to posts by cameron00.
https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/5636203/2
Both 8pt are huge. I would take the DStrouds due to mass and browtines though.

Awesome deer!

Incredible. Thanks for posting.

It’s official.... headed down tomorrow to sign B&C and Tx BIg Game and mail’em

Excellent, David!

Fantastic buck!

Nearly 181 before deductions, I was pretty on with my estimate of 180-185 first out...

A net B&C 8 point is a rare animal.. Congratulations.

Kinda blows the cull eight points outta the water doesn't it.

Yes you were which surprised me as pictures don’t do justice to the mass.

Incredible! Congratulations on your buck!

i tried to find the texas record not much luck but ther is a 174 and change 8 killed in duvall co in 1975 buy a guy named ingram dosent say if low fence or not, that aside what a buck,great job pics or not

There was a upper 170's net killed by a young man a few years ago that a pic of it was posted on here. IIRC it was low fence and the young man pasted away a few years after he killed that buck. IIRC it was from Maverick County or maybe Dimmit County.

Unbelievable buck!!! I have no doubt that there are very few on here that haven't dreamed of a big 8 just like that!! Congrats just seems insufficient

Happy to add another picture or two