It’s the stuff that dreams are made of: Going one-on-one with the whitetail when nothing is holding you back. No fences. No property lines. No people. Just you and the buck of your dreams.

Legendary big-woods hunter Hal Blood shares a video of the time he dropped by the home of his friend Larry Benoit to touch base and talk about hunting whitetails in the snow.

Benoit never really sought public recognition, but it came to him through his passion for snow-tracking big bucks in the late 1960s and throughout the ’70s, when then-media giant Sports Afield ran several articles about his legendary exploits in Vermont and across New England.

His fame skyrocketed in September 1970 when Sports Afield ran a cover photo of Benoit along with the subtitle, “Larry Benoit — Is He the Best Deer Hunter in America?” It was the first time in the history of the magazine that a real hunter had appeared on the cover. It was a ground-breaking event.

It was a bold statement to insinuate that Benoit might be the best deer hunter in America, even in 1970. Today, there are probably hundreds of high-profile deer hunters across the country who would like to be considered deer hunting legends, but Benoit was the real thing. In those days, it truly meant something when someone was referred to as a living legend, and for all practical purposes Benoit earned that title.

What’s more, Benoit hunted and killed big bucks the hard way — on foot, in the Big Woods and without nary a hint of help from modern technology. No scent-reducing sprays or suits. No rangefinder, grunt call or deer scent. He tracked down and shot big buck after big buck with just the power of his own two legs and the iron sights on his rifle.

Several more stories were written about him in Sports Afield in the mid-’70s. Then, in 1975, Benoit published his classic book, “How To Bag The Biggest Buck Of Your Life.” Today, the book is a collector’s item, and those who own copies treasure them.