Dallas deer hunter Chris Dwyer's first buck was a monster, no doubt. The 5 1/2-year-old Bosque County buck grossed 207 B&C points and weighed 160 pounds! Photo courtesy of Chris Dwyer.

Late last November, Chris Dwyer just wanted to shoot a buck on a Bosque County ranch so he could put some venison in his freezer before having to return to classes the following morning at the Health Science Center in San Antonio. And if he scored, it would be his first deer ever.

Dwyer, 24, and a resident of Dallas, said he had more than enough gun to get the job done: a 7mm Remington Magnum. Dwyer said he had been invited to hunt on the RSP Ranch west of Clifton by a friend, Jeff Watson, whose grandfather owns the ranch.

Dwyer not only got his venison on that cold, sunny Sunday morning just after Thanksgiving, but he also got his name listed in the Texas Big Game Awards program records book. That first buck of his was the largest free-ranging buck ever taken in Bosque County -- an incredible 17-point, non-typical whitetail that grossed 207 Boone and Crockett Club points and had a net score of 201 6/8 points.

Dwyer's buck placed second in Region 3 of the Texas Big Game Awards Program behind a 217 2/8 net B&C buck taken by Mike Murski of Dallas on a high-fenced ranch near Meridian, the Bosque County seat. Another high-fenced Bosque County buck taken during the 2008-2009 season by Rick Meritt, also near Meridian, netted 201 1/8 points and placed third in the Region 3 competition.

The largest buck ever recorded in Bosque County was taken by William Hansen during the 2006-2007 season and netted 218 5/8 Boone and Crockett points but also was taken on a high-fenced ranch.

The Texas Big Game Awards Program is divided into eight regions, or ecological areas, that include the Trans-Pecos, Panhandle, Cross Timbers (Region 3), Post Oak Savannah, Edwards Plateau, Pineywoods, Coastal Plains and South Texas. The program originally awarded hunters who harvested white-tailed deer, mule deer and pronghorn antelope, but recently added desert bighorn sheep.

Awards are presented to hunters, and to landowners upon whose land the animals were taken, at annual regional banquets. The awards include those for scored entries, landowners, first big-game harvest and a youth division. The program does not have separate categories for low- or high-fenced ranches.

In an effort to have a larger celebration, program director David Brimager said this year's regions 2 and 3 banquets will combine into one banquet on Sept. 19 in Abilene.

"I have hunted birds since I was 12, but I only started hunting deer two years ago," Dwyer said. "This was my first deer."

Dwyer said he was relying on Watson to help him judge the size of a buck if they saw one that Sunday morning. It would be his last day to hunt before having to return to school.

"Jeff already had shot his buck, so he went with me that morning to a double box blind," Dwyer said. "There was a feeder on the other side of a pond, and we were watching seven does at the feeder about 160 yards away around 8 a.m. when the buck just popped out of the brush. He pretty much cleared the does away and had his rear to me when Jeff raised his binoculars and told me he was a pretty good buck.

"I have a 7mm Remington Mag. rifle that I learned can really pound you while sighting it in. But I wasn't thinking about that as I watched the buck. He finally turned broadside to us and I shot him through the lungs. He went down right there."

Dwyer's buck had 9 scoreable points on the right side and 8 points on the left. The right main beam circumference measured 5 inches and the left measured 4 7/8.