HUGE TENNESSEE BUCK COULD SET A RECORD

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RECORD BUCK UPDATE

A buck harvested in Sumner County has taken yet another step on its way to becoming an official world record for a non-typical deer rack.

Justin Spring an official from the Boone and Crockett headquarters in Missoula, Mont., because of the potential historical importance of the scoring, he came to Nashville to help review the process on Feb. 13. Officials spent most of the day scoring the 47-point buck tabbed the “Tennessee Tucker Buck” at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s Region II Building. The buck was harvested by 26-year-old Gallatin resident Stephen Tucker.

In the tabulation, the deer rack scored 312 0/8 after being scored 312 3/8 in its initial tabulation on Jan. 9. Last month’s scoring was held after 60 days had passed since the original “wet” score indicated that the buck was a potential world record.

If it stands, the score will break previous the mark of 307 5/8 set by then 15-year old Tony Lovsteun in Albia, Iowa. Boone & Crockett will score the rack one more time when its membership meets for its awards banquet in 2019.

Until then, Tucker will own the pending record for the highest scored deer rack taken by a hunter.

Tucker made his harvest from about 40 yards. It came on land that his family has farmed for 40 years

RECORD BUCK

A buck harvested in Sumner County during the recent muzzleloader season, has completed a step toward becoming a world record for a non-typical deer rack.

Boone and Crockett officials spent several hours on Monday (Jan. 9) scoring the 47-point buck tabbed the “Tennessee Tucker Buck” as the Nashville headquarters of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The buck was harvested by 26-year old Gallatin resident Stephen Tucker.

The deer rack scored 312 3/8 in the Boone and Crockett tabulation. The tabulation was held after 60 days had passed since the original “wet” score indicated that the buck was a potential world record. As it stands, the score will break previous mark of 307 5/8 set by then 15-year old Tony Lovsteun in Albia, Iowa.

Tucker made his harvest from about 40 yards. It came on a land that his family has leased to farm for the past 40 years.

“I have truly been blessed and I am very thankful,” Tucker said after learning the rack’s score. “I have had a lot of phones calls and questions and have tried to be patient waiting through the process. I am very appreciative to my family, friends, and the TWRA, especially Capt. Dale Grandstaff, who has led me through the process. I believe he has been as excited about it as I have.”

TWRA Executive Director Ed Carter was present at the announcement of the pending world record harvest. “I am so proud that a pending world record harvest has come from Tennessee, obviously, Carter said. “Just to know we have an, official world record, at least it is pending, in Tennessee means a lot to a lot of people.”

The certification process will now await another step as a pending world record. Another panel of Boone and Crockett scorers will again take measurements at the awards banquet in 2019.

HUGE TENNESSEE BUCK COULD SET A RECORD

Volunteer State deer hunters are still talking about the huge buck taken recently that may well earn elite status. Here’s the scoop from Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on the recent harvest of this trophy buck:

Stephen Tucker, 26, of Gallatin had a hunt of a lifetime, or perhaps what amounts to hundreds-of-thousands of lifetimes, if you count the millions of hours hunters have spent pursuing white-tailed deer through generations.

Earlier this month Tucker bagged a buck while muzzleloader hunting in Sumner County in Middle Tennessee and as it turns out, this deer’s unique set of antlers has 47 points totaling more than 300 inches in length.

Because the buck's rack was so unique, Dale Grandstaff, a captain with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, measured it using Boone & Crockett Club requirements for non-typical racks.

The impressive deer, taken with a muzzleloader on November 7, had a gross (green) score of 313 2/8ths inches. However, after subtracting deductions for reasons defined by Boone and Crockett, Capt. Grandstaff determined that the buck has a net (green) score of 308 3/8ths inches.

“When I first saw the buck, I thought this is going to be a state record for sure because it had about the same number of points as our standing record, but it surprised me when I measured it and it went above 300 inches,” said Captain Grandstaff. “That is something you just don’t ever expect to measure as a certified scorer.”

Taken in Iowa, the current world record buck is 307 5/8ths inches. Even if Capt. Grandstaff's measurements are accurate, there is a chance that a required 60-day drying period for the antlers could shrink that length below world record status.

Grandstaff noted that plans right now are for the antlers to be measured again in January at TWRA’s headquarters.

Tennessee's current state non-typical record is 244 3/8ths inches, also killed by a hunter in Sumner County in 2000, giving the Tucker Buck an excellent possibility of shattering the state record.

If other certified scorers agree with Captain Grandstaff’s recent conclusion--and he noted that so far he is the only professional who has measured the rack--then the next phase of scoring will occur when Boone & Crockett members meet at an awards banquet in the spring of 2019.

When that happens, other certified scorers in the Boone and Crockett Club will lay tape measures to the rack and ultimately decide if Tennessee’s conclusion stands, whatever that conclusion becomes, after January 2017.

Regardless, until Nov. 7 of this year, only one free-ranging white-tailed buck harvested by a hunter with a muzzleloader had ever been certified as having more than 300 inches of antlers on its head, according to Capt. Grandstaff. That deer is the current non-typical world record killed in September of 2003 in Monroe County, Iowa

Will The Tennessee Tucker Buck soon join that elite company of legendary whitetails? Only time, and the meticulous hands of Boone and Crockett’s certified scorers, will tell.

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