A Wyoming hunter said she feels blessed by how everything fell into place, giving her the opportunity to shoot a mule deer that could turn out to be one of the top monster bucks of the 2025 hunting season.
Lori Dickinson of Rock Springs said that if her husband, Josh, hadn’t glanced backward exactly when he did, they’d have missed the buck, nicknamed “the Gray Ghost.”
She and Josh were hunting with a family friend near Bondurant on Sept. 19 when she shot the buck. Preliminary measurements of the antlers include a spread of 33 ¼ inches and an overall gross score of 201 1/8 inches.
That’s according to the Boone and Crockett (B&C) trophy big game measuring system. It’s based on taking measurements of length and girth at several points along the antlers.
Spread refers to the point of maximum width between the two main antlers.
For the uninitiated, any Wyoming mule deer with either a 30-inch spread, or an overall score of 200 inches or more would be considered a true giant. A buck with both is the stuff of hunters’ fever dreams.
To top it all off, Dickinson shot it on public land, with an over-the-counter general deer tag.
On Wednesday, she told Cowboy State Daily that she can still hardly believe her good fortune.
“It was as if God and the Universe let it happen,” she said.
Overcoming Challenges
Dickinson’s life hasn’t been without challenges. She was born with hip dysplasia. That’s the medical term for a hip socket that doesn't fully cover the ball.
She had a hip replacement in her early 30s, and then another at age 38. The second operation left her temporarily unable to walk. And then she had to use crutches for a while after that.
She’s also had heart problems and degenerative spinal discs.
None of that stopped her from enjoying the outdoors, but “I’m not able to get out and do the hardcore stuff,” she said.
Josh introduced her to hunting when they were first dating and it became one of her favorite ways to get outside.
“The year that I was still on crutches, I was able to shoot my biggest deer up until that point by resting my rifle on a crutch. It was a good five-by-five buck,” she said.
That means the buck had five points on each side of its antlers.
She didn’t think she’d ever top that, but she was wrong.
Rock Springs resident Lori Dickinson shot this gigantic mule deer buck on a general season tag near Bondurant. (Courtesy: Lori Dickinson) 
Rock Springs resident Lori Dickinson shot this gigantic mule deer buck on a general season tag near Bondurant. (Courtesy: Lori Dickinson) 
Rock Springs resident Lori Dickinson shot this gigantic mule deer buck on a general season tag near Bondurant. (Courtesy: Lori Dickinson) 
Lori Dickinson was determined to keep the antlers from her gigantic Wyoming mule deer buck safe from being chewed up by dogs or wild critters. (Courtesy: Lori and Josh Dickinson)
The Gray Ghost
This fall, the Dickinsons joined a close friend, who owns property adjacent to public land with plenty of deer.
Photos from the friend’s trail cameras showed some great bucks, including one that looked exceptionally huge.
That friend and some others keep close watch on the mule deer winter range in the area but didn’t recall seeing that particular buck.
That’s why they decided to call it the Gray Ghost; nobody was sure where it came from.
‘That’s The Buck!’
The Dickinsons and their friend set out in a UTV, with their friend driving and Josh in the front passenger seat, and his wife in the back seat.
They rounded a corner near the top of a hill. There, they decided to drift down the hill with the engine turned off “because that’s where they had been seeing deer,” she said.
As they were drifting down the hill, “he (Josh) just happened to turn around to look at me,” Dickinson said.
“And he was like, ‘Oh crap, there’s a deer back there,’” she said.
Then her husband got excited.
“He said, ‘That’s the buck! That’s the buck from the trail camera,’” she said.
They got out of the vehicle, and she set up for a shot.
“To be honest, I wasn’t even paying attention to the antlers,” she said.
Instead, she focused on aiming for quick kill shot on the deer, which she made.
It was only when she got to the fallen buck and put her hands on the antlers that she realized how gigantic it was.
“True, I do have small hands, but I couldn’t even get my hands around the antlers,” she said.
It’s amazing that Josh looked back when he did, she added.
“We actually drove right by this deer. Not a single one of us saw this deer,” she said.
Bucks don’t get huge by being stupid during hunting season. And it’s possible the Gray Ghost was trying to pull a time-honored trick deer use to evade hunters.
That being, hunker down and hide near a road, wait for the vehicle to pass, and then cross the road behind it.
Mature bucks will pull the same trick with hunters on foot or on horseback; wait for the hunters to pass and then slip away behind them.
It’s why many fledgling hunters hear from their mentors, “don’t forget to look back.”
‘Man, I’m Not Going To Leave This Outside’
That night after the hunt, Dickinson was worried about her trophy antler rack. They had dogs with them, that might be tempted to chew the antlers. The same went for critters such as raccoons that might be lurking around camp.
Dickinson took the antlers into the camper with her. Her husband snapped a humorous photo of her clutching them in bed.
“I told him, ‘man, I’m not going to leave this (antler rack) outside,” she said.
She said they plan to have the antlers officially measured to get a final score.
Dickinson added that they also plan to get a mount of the deer’s head and shoulders.
She usually prefers a European mount, meaning, only the animal’s skull or skull plate and antlers.
“I love a good European mount. But the first thing Josh said when we got down to that deer was, ‘We’re getting a full mount of this, I don’t care what you say,’” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
