I couldn't get a shot.'. A friend killed a big buck that he entered in the Big Buck Classic, and Watts said the bigger buck was running with it. Three double-digit tines of 10 2/8 to 13 5/8 inches, plus 7 1/8- and 9 3/8-inch brows and a 21 3/8-inch inside spread, add plenty to this regal crown. 6/8 inches wide and sported sky scraping G-2s over 12 inches long. Hunting public land, he killed a buck in the Natural State that would make a Midwesterner swoon. I purchased a lifetime license before leaving there.. "I've pushed a few deer (trailing too soon), and I knew I needed to get my mind off things, so I decided to do something constructive. The rack gross scores 214 1/8 and nets 212 1/8. If you have a deer you would like us to consider listing here e-mail us with a picture, story and details. The deer ran about 200 yards and crashed. They continued planning, but his fathers health continued declining. Lucas drew back, settled his pin, and took the 38-yard shot. It was followed by 10 more does, and behind them was a huge whitetail buck that Murdaugh had never seen. Hunters in Texas have killed 200 bucks since 2010 that made book. The buck had morphed into a world-class bruiser right on Ryan's home turf. It netted 209 0/8 Boone and Crockett, but grossed 216 2/8 B&C before the mandatory, 60-day drying period. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam. Its hard to justify shooting a spike or forkhorn when you know there is a Boone and Crockett buck in the area. Location: Calhoun County, S.C. I noticed on my iPad that it was 1:50 p.m., so I figured Id better keep my eyes peeled in case something came by.. Late November through December is usually the prime time for breeding, as that results in higher fawn survival. Ive been hunting all my life, Murdaugh said. We estimate he was 7 1/2 years old. Hooper realizes his good fortune, even if the story belies just how good a shot he usually is. A friend killed a big buck that he entered in the Big Buck Classic, and Watts said the bigger buck was running with it. I never knew this buck existed, not until my brother and I found him dead, piled up in the top of an old fallen tree in that cutover, Wilson said. His stand location was in a draw between two ridges that led to a destination ag field. Yet, the state Game Commission charged him with poaching, killing out of season what was described as the largest bear ever seen in the county. He bolted and was jumping over treetops in the clear cut and finally after 80 yards he jumped into one last fallen treetop and stopped, he said. Although leery of making any predictions on the buck's score, the bowhunter knew the rack was considerably larger than the 193-inch sheds. "The buck I missed was the sixth one to run through there that morning," said Hooper, a former Jackson resident now living in Benton, Ark. No more long nights checking every single cellular picture coming through. The doe he was following came right beneath my platform.. I only saw him one time on stand while bowhunting in 2011, and he skirted around me at about 60 yards.". That's as big as it sounds. I leaned Dads .25-06 against the tree and tried to collect myself, he said. Subscribe to OL+ for our best feature stories and photography. But the big buck, even with a good shot, bounded out of sight. Knowing the buck was too far away for a shot, Murdaugh carefully stalked down the fence line toward where hed last seen the deer. This deer stepped out on an old road directly across the patch from the shoot house I was in, Hooper said. Lee, Im not going to be able to hunt with you this year, his father said. This 8 1/2-year-old buck killed by Mississippi hunter Justin Develle on Oct. 22, was ear-tagged in 2018 by the Mississippi State University Deer Lab as part of a buck-movement study. That errant shot allowed him to stay in the stand, wait another hour or so and shoot and kill a 183-inch 16-point non-typical with double drop tines. We started game planning, dreaming of getting close to this magnificent animal.. I was excited and sad. My thermals would be rising. As I walked up to him, it started dawning on me how big the left horn was. The doe came by, and I knew he was fixing to come right past me.". []. "My dad started taking me as soon as I could climb a deer stand. He passed the deer in hopes of it returning the following season. I had a shooting lane through the pine trees. Yes, the two most giant bucks ever didn't fall to the bullet or arrow of a hunter. On Sept. 30, 2021, he was glad of these strategic decisions. It ran 177 yardsan incredible distance for a deer with a 190-grain broadhead inside of him. biggest deer ever? Hall sure did. Beka Garris is a freelance writer and Outdoor Life contributor who enjoys writing about all things hunting and fishing. The buck was at 50 yards and closing. Hunting with her CVA Cascade chambered in .308 Win., the buck was well within range. He knew something was wrong. The latter was a perfect candidate for the first-time hunter, so Ryan directed his cousin to shoot the smaller deer. He couldnt retrieve his deer since he had to go immediately to the hospital. Put everything together and you have a gross 9-point frame score of 193 6/8. Jurassic-era insect found near Arkansas Walmart . Subscriber Services. On a morning when the bucks in Scott County were in a serious mood for love, Jason Hooper got a lucky break when he pulled the trigger on the first shooter than ran past chasing a doe. While in Mississippi, Hooper made many friends and became a serious deer hunter, joining a club in Scott County. When the buck stopped in an opening about 35 yards away, Watson drew his pin and let go. "This was one buck that didn't have ground shrinkage, but had ground growth," he said. I was shooting my younger brothers gun, a .308 Howa bolt action. He was about 50 yards and I was going to have to shoot left-handed, which I didnt want to do.. Later, Watson began hunting him two days after the archery season began. Around 6:55 p.m., this giant buck stepped out of the cover and walked toward him. He waited until the deer got behind a tree and started to move, but Lefty heard him, and stopped cold in his tracks. Copyright 1998 - 2023 Mississippi Sportsman, Inc. All rights reserved. They talked a lot, and hunting was a common topic. So, Lance went with that. He was about to come into the main scrape at 17 yards, but right behind him came five does. Like many of his fellow Arkansans, Ryan is a deer and duck fanatic. Doctors said he only had weeks to live. As I entered the road where hed been, I started looking in the direction he ran and immediately saw him lying there, he said. Where Lefty was bedding this day was almost impenetrable, so I opted to take a turkey seat and hunt off the ground.. Beka Garris He was probably in the 140s.". Fowler's buck scored 212 6/8 making it the #12 All time Non-Typical in Arkansas Matt Howard had the biggest Typical that scored 172 6/8 making it the #44 largest typical in Arkansas to date. He was a good-looking, 150-class 10 . And I knew I would get to do some duck hunting, now that the buck was dead. Eight hours later, one of the trail cameras captured photos of the buck, who seemed to be acting as if nothing had happened. Ryan Sullivan was only 19 when, during the 2013 season, he arrowed an Arkansas buck of gigantic proportions. I called my dad and said, 'It's over. At this point hes probably 30 yards, and this one doe starts stomping, so he turns and starts walking toward them.. Not only that, but he also got the biggest buck killed in Arkansas during the 2008-09 deer season. Jonathan Moreland grew up hunting with a compound bow until, one day, he saw one of his fathers old recurves hanging on the wall. My other younger brother was hunting the same property 200 yards away and I called him, he said. I had a good shot at about 150 yards, and I put the crosshairs behind the last rib on my side and took the shot.. . I could never get a consistent wind. Lightning had struck him for the third time! Morelands brother, Josh, had been headed to hunt himself when he heard Johnathan hollering in celebration, and went to investigate. Every deer I harvest means something. "He got to about 25 yards, and I drew when he went behind the tree," Ryan says. I absolutely worked my tail off to get an opportunity at this buck. Still, he only had five or six trail camera photos, and didnt have much hope of seeing the deer. My dad gave me news that he had terminal liver and pancreatic cancer. "All my buddies were expecting me to be jumping up and down when I found the buck," Ryan says, "but I didn't. At least, he did until a buck he'd never seen showed up on one of his trail cameras. This was one buck that didnt have ground shrinkage, but had ground growth, he said. "I started getting pictures of him on my cameras. Virginia Deer hunting is my peace. Spicy Buttermilk Fried Goose Breast Sandwich. 'I remained in the stand for several minutes to gather my thoughts and calm down, ' Mikell says. The brother came to join Luke for the search, and the two found the buck dead in that last treetop. He was 28 yards, quartering away, when he stopped. He went right to where the doe had been, then turned to follow her.. Hooper waited 15 minutes before starting the recovery. Heres a detailed look at each step of the process. Instead, he recruited another friend to help him grid-search the woods. Clickhereto read about other big bucks killed this season. Is This the Largest Buck of the 2019 Deer Season. 'I'm sure the entire encounter only took a few minutes, but it seemed an eternity. He went through the patch so fast I just knew he was good but never could really tell what kind of rack he had. The giant non-typical sported a typical 1211 frame, but was scored as a non-typical because of an abundance of small kicker points. "Then I duck hunted about everyday after that.". I still had no idea about the size of the rack, Hooper said. In hindsight, Ryan is glad no one killed the big buck in 2011. Then there were the two drop tines, with the longest being 7 inches off the left beam. Mississippi Sportsman Frequently Asked Questions. ", His first knowledge of this deer came in 2010, when Ryan was just 15 and the buck is believed to have been 3 1/2. With the deer on food sources, Ryan was able to pattern the buck before Oct. 15. Sept. 25, 2021, brought warm temperatures in the 80s and clear skies. There were bucks going everywhere at one time, and I actually shot at another deer and missed. The next day, Luke Wilson was back in the same stand at 3:30. What is the world record for the biggest deer shot? []. Knowing I couldn't even come to my knees without breaking the little concealment we had, I decided to lie on my left side, using my left elbow for as solid a rest as could be achieved within the slight incline of the old fencerow. The colossal deer has a 25 2/8-inch inside spread, two tines over 13 inches and superb mass. But when I shouldered the rifle, the sight of the crosshairs oriented at a 10-4 o'clock angle was definitely a different look from the normal 12-6 position we all practice from. He grabbed his bow, drew back, settled the pin, and took the 22-yard, broadside shot. In another huge jump, the buck had grown from a 160-inch 9-pointer to a monster 15-pointer with matching split G-2 tines. Dont forget to enter photos of your bucks in theBig Buck Photo Contestto be eligible for monthly giveaways. With an unofficial Boone and Crockett score of 194 1/8 inches, the . Dad came alive. In no specific order at this time. Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. Two weeks ago, Arkansas hunter Chase Watson took the biggest buck hes ever killed however it came with a price. About 74,000 hunters participated in the state's 2017 spring turkey season, and killed 33,000 birds. He was hunting in a large clearcut paralleled by a steep ridge line. On Nov. 1, Moreland got a later start than he had planned, and didnt get to his stand until 12:30 that afternoon. So was Lefty. Everything about himhis frame, tines and beamis exceptional., Lee Dixons Tennessee TankScore: UnknownDate of Kill: 2021Location: TennesseeWeapon: .25-06 Remington. How to Create an Invisible Fence' Around Your Property to Hold More Bucks, Understanding Non-Verbal Whitetail Communication, Michigan Hunter Shoots 200-class Non-typical After Oversleeping That Morning, How to Find Big Buck Sanctuaries in the Spring, Illinois Hunter Sprints to Close the Distance On 21-point Bedded Buck, How to Develop the Best Fall Food Program for Your Deer, A Whitetail Hunter's Guide to Ballistic Reticles, Iowa Bowhunter Goes Stealth Mode with a Tree Saddle to Bag 194-inch Non-typical, Nebraska Shed Hunter's Wife and Dog Find 6x9 Set One Year After Learning About the Buck, Dr. In the Midwest, with ample nutrition and healthy deer numbers, bucks seem more likely to continue to make the big jumps in antler development after 5 1/2. . Jon's no stranger to free-ranging whitetails across the central plains, having guided a number of clients to trophies and harvesting many big ones himself. Lance Hill's South Carolina Stud. This deer is one of the biggest that I have ever seen and one that could hold the record for a very long time! Arkansas doesn't jump to top of mind as a big-buck destination, but that didn't stop bowhunter Preston Hall. The limited gun hunting and rich Delta soil combine to make this a hotspot for big deer. When he reached some thicker, taller grass, he did stop and turned to look back. Rarely do you see a buck with a drop tine, let alone two of them. As part of the BuckVentures field staff, they understand whitetails, and it came as no surprise when this 5-year-old deer fell to a Reed. It worked. "I've always loved deer hunting," the young sportsman says. This big buck was killed in Randolph County, near Maynard, Arkansas during the Arkansas 2020/21 modern gun deer season. The 200-yard shot hit its mark. Even so, I didn't figure that would matter if I aimed at the right spot and squeezed off a clean shot. After the initial congratulations were over, the brothers walked to the spot where the buck had dropped. Being a right-handed shooter, this was an impossible shot. The buck took three steps and bounced back. Then the monster buck appeared. Then, the buck disappeared again for more than a week.. Trust me: I thanked the good Lord numerous times for this buck and for letting me miss that first buck, he said. Still, he was able to get to full draw, settled the pin on the giant buck and took the 20-yard shot. Right before Halloween, his trail cams captured good photos of the deer during daylight. "I got down after 15 minutes and went to the truck and went and brushed in the duck pit," the bowhunter recalls. The rack gross scores 214 1/8 and nets 212 1/8. I had no idea the journey our family was about to embark on with this deer, Lee said. I would sit and watch TV and read magazines just hoping for a chance at a buck like this. On Nov. 24, Hall launched his boat around 9:30 a.m. and reached his stand half an hour later. He logged many days on stand from dark to dark until mid-November. After a quick congratulatory text, Ryan looked up to see a trotting doe. "Every year I have an inventory of every deer on the place. The cutover has no food sources, other than natural, and it had a small drainage ditch down in this one bottom with one stretch of small pines. Several years ago, Lee was able to purchase the property right next to his father, and they both began hunting there. The day before I killed it, two of my brothers and I were hunting in the same area and they both killed two smaller bucks, you know, like about 100 inches. The buck I missed was the sixth one to run through there that morning, said Hooper, a former Jackson resident now living in Benton, Ark. Then, in 2020, it made a huge jump, and turned into one of the largest 8-pointers hed ever seen. He was hunting on the edge of a hayfield between a bedding area and food source. The Pope and Young Club's minimum score for world record non typical whitetail bucks is 155 inches, which would be a great deer, likely with a great camp story to match that would only get better with . I sat there for a couple of hours, going through trail camera cards, Hall says. Weve been hunting that lease for about four years and the best weve done is a few 100-inch 8 points and maybe 110 or 120. I never saw him on the three cameras we had out, but Id seen him when I couldnt shootearly mornings going to work, or at night past shooting hours, Hill said. He lived in Mississippi until 2004, when he moved back to the Arkansas town of Benton just southwest of Little Rock. However, when it happened, he was focused on finishing the job. After all the crazy things that happened to me while hunting this buck, I just think that I was meant to shoot him.. They hoped itd survive another season or two. Chase Watson shot the biggest buck he's ever killed two weeks ago while hunting from a treestand on his family's farm in Arkansas. The G3 on the right had three stickers and the left G3 had two. If he had any chance of killing the deer with his 50-pound Toelke Whip longbow, Johnathan was going to have to get the buck in close again. The deer ran 40 yards and expired. It scored 164 6/8 and ranked 9th overall. As he left his tree stand to get a better shot at the buck, the strap on one of his climbing sticks broke, and he fell some 17 feet to the ground. The following table contains some of the largest whitetail deer in Arkansas. Wilson said the buck kicked, but that he heard the bullet hit the deer. The biggest buck entered so far was a 195-2/8" behemoth shot in Drew County, Arkansas. [], This is an easy two pot meal, one for the venison stroganoff and one for the starch that can be prepared at home or at the camp. Did I gut shoot him? Konschak was hunting deer in nearby property and said he killed what he thought were . Here are all of the results: 1. Arkansas deer usually score around 120 to 130 inches, Moreland says. The buck was definitely dead. But, I will keep shooting the 125s and 130s because around here, those are what you expect and they are trophies.. The 16-point buck has been scored before deductions at 210 by Terry's Taxidermy in Oklahoma City, which would make the animal the largest typical whitetail ever killed by an Oklahoma hunter. Then I raised his head to see the right side and almost passed out. Lefty showed up on camera after a long Tennessee rifle season.. We thought that maybe he had been killed, but when we checked cameras [in] mid-February, he had returned in late December. I was trying not to pass out. We dont think it could have been this big buck.. I was speechless. What is the biggest buck killed in Arkansas? From the Los Angeles Blade, December 12, 2022: Meet the Bisexual Wife of Pennsylvania's New US Senator. Now 25, hes taken three whitetails, all over 140-inches in the last 15 years. An hour or so later, at 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 22, Hooper would realize his good fortune when a bigger buck, not showing the rutting behavior of the many that had passed that morning, suddenly appeared. He passed away the week before, and this was the first time I went hunting after his passing., Jake Murdaughs Oklahoma MonsterScore: 194 inchesDate of Kill: Nov. 28, 2021Location: Pittsburg County, Okla.Weapon: .308 Winchester. Bowhunting gives the deer a chance to grow. On Friday evening, Nov. 8, Ryan saw the monster for the first time all season. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. It was heaven-sent to our family. 10. Ryan is a native of the region and the son of a farmer. These are world-class numbers, and there's no doubt the animal fell to a most deserving bowhunter. Literally a 600-yard radius. All I could tell was that he was a big-bodied deer and had dark horns. During the spring conservation order, you can hunt with outfitters from Arkansas to Saskatchewan. Jason Lucas didnt have any history with this buck from prior seasons, but he knew this was a surefire target when he first saw it in 2021. He watched the buck working a licking branch from his tree, but again, didnt have a shot. A slight southwest wind swept across the landscape. In addition to the single short drop tine, the deer had two split brow tines one with three splits. Im thankful for the knowledge he instilled in me in how to hunt big deer.. Arkansas doesnt jump to top of mind as a big-buck destination, but that didnt stop bowhunter Preston Hall. "I waited until about 2 p.m. to trail the buck with my cousin and some good friends," Ryan says. He knew something wasn't right and turned around and went straight back. Justin, his brothers, and his father targeted this deer in hopes of arrowing it. He would have been the first person I told. He was hunting hill country in a 65-acre hay meadow, which was part of the larger 160-acre cattle operation. That was set to change on Aug. 22, though. Soon after daylight, a spike and small 8-point walked out. They were very happy for me to take this buck. It was another doe, and the big buck was right behind her. Just $1 per month , After a month of dogging the elusive deer, bowhunter Jonathan Moreland arrows a Natural State giant, By The moment Moreland got photos of a buck with wide, heavy antlers and what looked like 15 scoreable points, he made the decision to target only that deer. But luck was on the side of Kyle Heuerman and his girlfriend Jennifer Weaver when they put an arrow through this 196-inch Illinois brute. Jeremy Martinson had been hunting in the area throughout the season, but on Nov. 1, 2021, he received an opportunity at a huge whitetail. We started leasing this property in July of 2020, and this buck was the first deer that I got on camera, he said. Bucks this big dont get that way by being stupid. Arkansas Hunter Falls From Tree Stand After Arrowing the Biggest Buck of His Life. After a wait that seemed like an eternity, the doe finally started walking .