Bowhunter Tags Massive Alberta Whitetail
John Cassimus, a passionate hunter from Birmingham, Alabama, developed an obsession with whitetails, which later transformed into a love for mule deer when he began hunting in Alberta around 2006. On August 31, during the last few minutes of shooting light, he couldn’t believe his fortune when he spotted a unique whitetail with a muley-like body and impressive antlers approaching his treestand. Could this deer be the perfect combination of both species?
A single 20-yard spinal shot brought the buck down, followed by a finishing shot to ensure its demise. Cassimus, a 55-year-old entrepreneur and pro staffer for Hoyt, had successfully harvested the whitetail of a lifetime.
“I sent Isaac Aleman of Black Rifle Coffee Company a picture last night, and he said, ‘Man, that is an incredible muley!’ I replied, ‘Isaac, dude, that’s a whitetail!’ and he couldn’t believe it,” Cassimus tells Outdoor Life.
Cassimus devotes significant effort to on-the-ground scouting for his Alberta deer hunts. After tagging a 212-inch mule deer buck there last year, he was hoping for a similar success this season. However, despite traveling 2,500 miles from Alabama to Alberta and scouting for 12 days, he couldn’t find a mule deer that grabbed his attention. Nonetheless, his whitetail camera produced a few shots of this muley-like buck.
“He wasn’t consistent in his behavior. Sometimes he would enter the field from one end in the evening and then from the other end. I couldn’t establish his pattern,” Cassimus explains. “I hunted him twice. The first time, he arrived right around dark, about 300 yards away from me, so I didn’t have a chance.”
By the end of the week, Cassimus had abandoned his search for mule deer and returned to the same stand for a final night’s sit. The evening was almost over when he decided to call for a ride.
“It would take about 20 minutes for them to arrive, so I turned to my friend, and we started talking. It got quite windy. We were in a small stretch of woods between some alfalfa and peas. Then, I looked up, and those deer were running through there,” Cassimus recalls. “I’m not sure if something had startled them, but they jumped the fence. Within 30 seconds, I had shot him at 20 yards, right beneath the tree stand.”
It was only when Cassimus approached the deer that he realized its size. And this deer was not merely overweight.
“He was immense. He stood as tall as an elk. His lower leg from the joint down was over 27 or 28 inches, which was ridiculously long. It didn’t even look normal,” Cassimus explains. “Based on our camera footage, we estimated the deer to be around 160 to 165 inches, but we didn’t realize it would weigh exactly 300 pounds. It was so massive and tall that when we approached it, we were in awe… especially with its impressive mass. The deer had over 53 inches of mass.”
Although Cassimus is an avid big-game hunter with a long season ahead, this whitetail will always hold a special place in his memories. The velvet buck ultimately measured 187 1/4 inches.
“I was incredibly fortunate,” Cassimus concludes. “It was an amazing experience.”
“I was incredibly fortunate,” Cassimus concludes. “It was an amazing experience.”
A skilled hunter, dedicated conservationist, and advocate for ethical practices. Respected in the hunting community, he balances human activity with environmental preservation.