April 7, 2007

Did a rifle hunter in Wisconsin break the world record for typical whitetails last season?

Neil Sanders and Larry Weishuhn of Thompson/Center Arms admire a few of the hundreds of trophy bucks on display at the Wisconsin Deer & Turkey Expo in Madison.

No. But with only a smidgen more luck, he would have.

It's crazy to call someone who shoots a massive, 180 2/8-inch 12-pointer "unlucky." Nonetheless, had the buck John King taken in southwestern Wisconsin's Grant County last November grown one tine just a tad differently, we’d be talking about history in the making. This deer is far, far bigger than the above score would suggest -- and 180 2/8 is a mighty impressive number in itself.

I'd heard rumor of a monster typical in the state, and at last weekend's Wisconsin Deer & Turkey Expo in Madison (www.deerinfo.com), I finally got to lay eyes on the beast. Actually, it was nothing more than the unmounted rack, on a skull plate. Oh, with a couple of radiator hose clamps thrown in for good measure. You see, they're all that's connecting the left side of the huge rack to the rest of it.

If this is starting to sound like a different kind of deer story, well, that's what it is. John's monster buck is one of the most impressive "what if" bucks I've seen in over 20 years of chasing down world-class trophies. And when we get the story into North American Whitetail magazine later this year, I'm confident you'll agree with that claim.

For now, suffice it to say the King buck isn't in line to bring the world record back to the state that produced James Jordan's former title holder way back in 1914. The legendary Jordan buck, with his net score of 206 1/8 Boone and Crockett points, now ranks second behind Milo Hanson's 213 5/8-incher, which was shot in Saskatchewan in 1993. But the King buck has about as much antler on his head as either of those renowned trophies.

The problem with the King rack is that what looks to be the G-3 tine (the second tine above the brow tine) on the right antler doesn’t quite meet the Boone and Crockett Club’s definition of a “typical” tine for a whitetail rack. Thus, the King buck is, in the eyes of B&C, an asymmetrical 5x6 typical with a lengthy abnormal point, rather than a well-matched 6x6 typical.

Had the right "G-3" tine on the right side been ruled typical, what net entry score might we have been looking at? Try 214 2/8 -- over 1/2 inch above the panel score of Milo Hanson's world record!

The world of giant whitetails is filled with "woulda, coulda, shoulda," and I'm definitely not saying the King buck "shoulda" been a world record. But it only takes a bit of looking at the rack to see this deer had enough antler to make it happen. Oh, the vagaries of the scoring system.

Again, we'll have more coming up on the King buck later this year, including the mystery that's probably eating at you right now: What's up with those hose clamps? The answer will come soon enough.

Meanwhile, there were plenty other big deer in Madison, including a new state record in the typical archery category and one of the biggest clean 6-pointers (3x3s) you'll ever see. Obviously, we'll be bringing you more on some of these trophies in upcoming issues of our magazine.

The 2007 Wisconsin Deer & Turkey Expo was a great show overall, with a huge crowd of whitetail fanatics there each day to look at new products, sit in on seminars and admire the hundreds of trophies on display. There's a reason why heading to Madison the first weekend in April has become a tradition for thousands of deer enthusiasts.

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