Ralph C. Makes North Dakota His "Choice"

North Dakota.

Unless you're the most devout of whitetail hunters, ND is not a state that would probably jump to mind when the conversation turns to big bucks.

Well Ralph Cianciarulo is a devout whitetail hunter. And North Dakota is almost always on his mind. And for good reason.
Driving by this place, you'd never even give it a second look. But it is absolutely incredible. And I don't mean that lightly - I mean this place is almost unbelievable, said Cianciarulo, who owns Archers Choice Media along with his wife Vicki. Double B Outfitters is a place we've been going to for about eight or nine years and we are going to go back every year. It's that good.

This year was certainly no exception. Ralph and Vicki headed to Double B in late October and saw plenty of deer despite the fact that the rut wasn't really rocking just yet.

We were in a treestand on the first night and had a fair amount of deer coming by including one really heavy 8-pointer. But we were like 'It's the first night and we know what's here', Ralph said. So we just held off and waited. Double B is very unique. They have thousands of private acres and a very stringent management plan. They turn a bunch of their ag into habitat and food for wildlife. They have these big swamps and cattail marshes and hedgerows. As long as you don't bump them with your wind, you should be in good shape.

The first night in camp, Tom Gallagher with Cabela's killed a 165 buck. That certainly set the stage for a great week to come.

That really got us excited. You know, first night out and you get a buck like that, said Ralph. That really gets your attention. While Ralph and Vicki have been regular visitors to Double B for nearly a decade, there's been a certain field corner that Ralph has had his eye on. The second night we got in this box blind to the east of a bedding area in this one corner that I've been watching for years. I'd never been able to get the right wind for it, Ralph said. Deer started piling out - does and fawns. Then we had one shooter come out but he just went away from us. Right after that some little bucks came out and behind them I could just see tines.

Those tines belonged to a giant of a buck with stickers and trash all over his rack along with a 150-inch 10-pointer. But, apparently, the bucks were not the dominant deer.

A smaller-racked 8-pointer with a huge body came out and pushed the big bucks away. When that happened, Ralph decided to try for the 10-pointer.

Right about that time, this monster comes out, and he's just a pig. He's at 21 yards and I draw down on him. But I can't see my pins! It's just dark enough inside the blind that there's no light, Ralph said. So I lift the bow up so I can see it in the sky above his back. As I was bringing it back down on him, I hit the release on accident and hit him in the spine! It's not a shot I'm proud of, but it's reality.

The giant whitetail tapes 182 7/8 and is one of Ralph's top three bucks ever.

I really didn't know he was that big. I looked at him and knew he was a pig and knew he was a mature deer. I just sort of shut everything out after that, he said.

I'll be honest with you, when the guys invited us here about nine years ago I wasn't sure about it. But then they sent us this VHS tape with all these bucks on it. We actually had to call them and ask them if this was some sort of fenced place because we don't hunt those. And they were like, 'No, those are wild deer. That's what we've been trying to tell you.' Well, we're convinced now!

Contact Double B Outfitters at: http://www.doubleboutfitters.com/.