Deer killed in Sumner County to be certified a world record

It's official — Gallatin resident Stephen Tucker shot a world record whitetail deer in November in Sumner County.

Now all that's left is certification.

Tucker, 27, killed the trophy buck with a muzzleloader, but a 60-day drying out period had to take place in order to allow for possible shrinkage of the antlers.

That period ended on Monday, and a measurement of the 47-point rack was made by a Boone and Crockett panel of four judges, who gave the deer a score of 312 3/8 inches.

Deer costs man nearly $10,000 under new Tennessee law

That is larger than the non-typical current net world record of 307 5/8 inches killed in 2003 by Tony Lovstuen in Albia, Iowa. That deer had 38 points.

The world record for a deer killed by a hunter is pending official certification, which won’t take place until the Boone and Crockett awards banquet in 2019. The date and site for the awards banquet has not yet been set.

"I just tried not to think about whether it was the world record or not during the drying out period," Tucker said. "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.'"

Buy Photo

The TWRA's Eric Anderson, middle, tallies the measurements of judges, from left, Tabitha Lavacot, Leith Konyndyk, Dale Grandstaff and Russ Skoglund on Monday. (Photo: Mike Organ / The Tennessean)

Deer racks are measured from several angles at the farthest points using the official Boone and Crockett scoring method.

A non-typical rack is asymmetrical and does not have the same number of points on each side like a typical rack.

The measurement took place at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and Tucker was allowed to watch. It took nearly four hours to complete.

"I figured it would take them a pretty good while to measure it," Tucker said. "The waiting wasn't too bad until they walked out of the room to go tally it up. That's when I realized it was close. We were about to find something out for sure."

TWRA District 21 captain Dale Grandstaff, who also is a Boone and Crockett  judge, never expected to measure a rack as large as Tucker's deer.

"I never thought I would ever see this in Tennessee," said Grandstaff, who was part of the official judging panel. "Actually, I never thought I would see one over 300 inches."

Grandstaff said he would notify Boone and Crockett of the pending world record score later Monday.

Tucker then will be invited to the Boone and Crockett awards banquet in spring 2019, where a panel of two judges will re-score the antlers, Grandstaff said.

Gallatin resident Stephen Tucker talks about his potential world-record deer, which he killed on Monday.

Also on Monday, the TWRA declared the deer a new state record. It beat the record set in 2000 in Sumner County by Dave Wachtel, whose deer netted 244 3/8.

Grandstaff scored the antlers the day Tucker killed the deer and said he was very conservative with his measurements at that time.

free robux codes

"I knew there were places that it would possibly gain with this measurement because I was so conservative with it in November," Grandstaff said. "I did that so that nobody would get their feelings hurt if it didn't make it. It did shrink a little bit here and there, but the thing that was amazing to me was that we as a group put our minds together and scored, and it and my deductions from the typical frame and the deductions from the typical frame today were exactly the same at 4 7/8 as they were for that first measurement."

Tucker’s deer weighed about 150 pounds and was estimated to be 3½ years old.

Tucker said he shot the deer from about 40 yards away on a farm his family has leased for 40 years. He said he had the deer processed and plans to eat it.

Tucker said he has not yet decided what he will do with the antlers, which could beworth more than $100,000.

"I'm just going to go with the flow," Tucker said. "To be honest, I was waiting for this (score) before I put a lot of thought into it. I don't have any specific plans for it at this point. All the phone calls and stuff had slowed down quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. I'm sure it will pick back up again after this."

Tucker probably will have a replica of the antlers made that could be put on display.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 and on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.

FREAK OF NATURE: A buck killed during the gun season in Oklahoma County is the talk of the deer hunting world

Brad Julian Jr. of Oklahoma City holds the European mount of the whitetail he shot near Jones during the gun season. The buck's score will be a world record for a 3 x 3 main frame. George Moore measures the antlers for Boone & Crockett while Brad Julian Jr. looks on. [PHOTOS BY ED GODFREY, THE OKLAHOMAN]

Boone and Crockett scorer George Moore was sitting at a table at the Backwoods Show last weekend, waiting for the next hunter to bring him a rack to measure, when he spotted Brad Julian Jr. walking down the aisle toward him.

“I didn't know what to think,” Moore said of the European mount that Julian was carrying. “I thought he was bringing us the head of a dinosaur.”

What the Oklahoma City resident was bringing to be scored was the rack of a massive whitetail that he shot during the deer gun season in far eastern Oklahoma County near Jones.

Since last weekend's Backwoods Show, photos of the rack have spread like wildfire on social media. It's the talk of the deer hunting world.

“This is a world-class deer, a 3 x 3 frame that scores this much,” Moore said.

In fact, the buck will be the biggest 3 x 3 ever listed in the Boone & Crockett record book once certified by the Montana organization.

Moore measured the buck at the Backwoods Show, but Boone & Crockett asked him to review it, so he measured it again Wednesday in an Edmond office.

The final result is the antlers grossed 223 inches and netted 216 1/8. It is not a state record, but with antlers as thick as an elk's, the buck may be the most unique ever killed in Oklahoma.

The European mount weighed 12 1/2 pounds and the main beams of the buck measured 29 inches each.

“Phenomenal,” Moore said. “I've scored somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 deer in my lifetime. No doubt this is the most unique deer I have ever scored.”

Julian, 36, a heating and air technician, shot the buck off a few acres of family land near Jones during the second weekend of the gun season.

Julian said he had photos of the buck for the past five years from his trail cameras, but wondered if he would ever get a chance to harvest it because it was so nocturnal.

“I knew he was special from the moment I saw him,” Julian said. “He's my dream.”

Hunting out of a pop-up blind on top of a camouflaged travel-trailer, Julian shot a buck that had been trailing a doe that morning.

He wasn't aware when he pulled the trigger on his 6.5 Creedmoor rifle that the buck was the same monster deer that had been eating his corn and food plots for the past five years.

“I shed a tear when I walked up on him and saw how massive he was,” Julian said. “He's a freak of nature.”

Julian started deer hunting five years ago. This is the first buck he has ever harvested. He has been told many times already that he will never get a better one.