The Kiback buck scored 181 4/8 gross B&C points as a 16-point non-typical. Photo courtesy of Stephen Kiback III

Connecticut's extended early and late archery seasons, sandwiched around a peak-rut gun season and an early December muzzleloader season, offer great trophy-hunting opportunities for deer hunters. Add liberal bag limits to the mix and you have the makings for some great trophy hunting, especially for hunters who obtain permission to hunt private land.

A pair of outstanding 180-class bucks, one taken during the archery season and the other during the firearms season, defined the 2004 season.

Connecticut hunters took 13,436 deer in 2004, posting their second-best total in the state ever. The Northeast Big Buck Club -- the region's whitetail scoring and record-keeping organization -- reports that more than 95 bucks from 2004 have been scored and entered in the NBBC record books -- bucks that score 100 inches gross Boone and Crockett or better.

In all harvest categories (including bow, gun and muzzleloader), the Nutmeg State's hunters took 15 bucks with gross B&C scores of 150 inches or better!

CONNECTICUT'S BEST OF 2004
It is important to note that every year some great bucks from the previous season may not have been officially scored in time to include them. What follows may not be the final tally of the best bucks from the 2004 seasons, but it certainly gives us a reasonable means of assessing the 2004 archery, firearms and muzzleloader seasons.

The state's archery hunters took three of the top five bucks and half of the top 10 bucks in 2004 and 2003, with good bucks coming from all parts of the state. Firearms hunters did well also, but muzzleloader hunters could not crack the top 10 lists for either year. These trends have been fairly consistent for the past several seasons.

THE KIBACK BUCK
Mid-October bowhunting rarely generates the kind of excitement archers feel in mid-November when the rut is in full swing. But for Stephen Kiback III, grabbing his bow and heading to the woods of central Connecticut's Middlesex County on Oct. 15 was one of the best decisions he has ever made.

The Kiback buck scored 181 4/8 gross B&C points as a 16-point non-typical. This impressive buck had an inside spread of 19 2/8 inches separating relatively short main beams of just over 22 inches each. The 9-point typical frame had a gross score of 157 6/8 inches and was augmented by 7 abnormal points that totaled 23 6/8 inches of non-typical growth. The longest tine on this rack reached the 11-inch mark and the bases were 4 5/8 inches and 5 1/8 inches.

This buck currently ranks second overall for non-typical archery bucks taken in this state all time, and is the second-largest gross-scoring buck taken in New England by bow in 2004, finishing just behind Scot Chevalier's New Hampshire typical that scored 183 (a new typical archery record for that state). Chevalier's buck was also shot in mid-October, suggesting that early fall hunting can be productive after all!

OTHER BIG BUCKS
The 2004 season produced a large number of outstanding archery bucks for this state.

The best typical archery buck of the year fell to George DiScala in Fairfield County, one of the prime suburban hunting areas of the state. DiScala's typical 9-pointer grossed a whopping 160 4/8, making it the No. 6 typical archery buck of all time in Connecticut. In fact, four of the state's top 10 typical archery bucks were killed in 2004! David Conroy's 159 6/8 New Haven County 9-pointer ranks No. 7; Tony Mazzota's 158 5/8 Middlesex County 10-pointer ranks No. 9; and James Nolin's 157 7/8 Middlesex County 10-pointer ranks No. 10 all time.