Talk about a trophy! Worth more than $100,000 this massive and impressive animal was taken during a hunt on a farm that the hunter’s family has leased for nearly half a century.
As reported by The Tennessean, young Stephen Tucker bagged the buck on November 7th, 2016 while on his family’s Sumner County, Tennessee farm.
The 47-point whitetail buck has been estimated to be approximately three-and-a-half years old and weighed more than 150 pounds. Tucker took down the dear at a 40-yard distance and says that his family is planning on eating its meat.
Recently, the buck was measured by certifying agency Boone & Crockett, and they invited Tucker to join them for the event. The official Boone & Crockett scoring method uses measurements taken from various parts of the rack to determine its overall size.
This specific rack is an asymmetrical rack which means that each antler contains a different number of points. Racks that have an equal number of points on both sides are called a “typical rack”.
All measured racks undergo a specific drying period to allow for the moderate amount of shrinkage that comes with the drying of a rack.
“I just tried not to think about whether it was the world record or not during the drying out period,” Tucker confessed to The Tennessean. “The last week was probably the worst part of the whole time. I didn’t want to get myself real worked up about it because I didn’t want to be let down if it wasn’t the record. I just kept telling myself, ‘It’s going to be what it’s going to be.'”
The measuring event with Boone & Crockett occurred on Monday, January 9th, and took almost four hours to finish, with one of the judges stating that he never thought he’d see a rack as big as the one Tucker brought in.
“I never thought I would ever see this in Tennessee,” said panel judge Dale Grandstaff. “Actually, I never thought I would see one over 300 inches.”
The previous Sumner County record holder, Dave Wachtel, took in his deer in 2000 and it measured 244 3/8 inches.
The judge also stated that following Boone & Crockett’s official notification of the new record, Tucker will be invited to a banquet they’re holding in the spring of 2019, where another panel of judges will re-score the rack.
Appraised with a value of more than $100,000, these antlers could prove to be an incredibly profitable hunt for the young Tennessean, but he revealed to the publication that he hasn’t quite decided what he’s going to do with the rack, but he said he may have a display replica made.
What an amazing record to set! Watch the full video of the rack’s scoring event below!