Many hunters dream of notching our tag on a record-book buck—some 200-plus-inch Midwestern behemoth that roars as an alternative of grunts and comes into our setup stiff legged and gradual.
A number of us check with this type of deer as a “Booner,” a nod to the Boone and Crockett Membership, which is the widely-accepted nationwide gold customary for antler scoring and big-game file holding in North America. An entry into these hallowed pages is one thing most of us solely ever fantasize about.
However what occurs when that dream turns into a actuality and also you kill a deer that has a professional shot at turning into one of many high three whitetails of all time? And what occurs when a controversial rule within the scoring system might imply the distinction between record-book glory and an honorable point out?
Ohio hunter CJ Alexander is within the midst of figuring all that out. He just lately sat down with Out of doors Life to speak concerning the potential file whitetail, his newfound fame, and the notorious scoring rule which may decide the buck’s ultimate place within the file books.
A 12-Hour Sit
“This season was sort of tousled for me,” Alexander tells OL, explaining that household commitments left him little time to scout for deer. He’d additionally bought his compound bow final yr to usher in some more money. “I purchased a crossbow I figured the entire household might use this yr, and that [literally] blew up on me a pair days earlier than I used to be planning to hunt.”
Fortunately, his buddy Cory Haunert lent him his crossbow and a conveyable climbing stand. Within the predawn hours of Nov. 9, Alexander shimmied up a tree overlooking a piece of his sister’s 30-acre property the place two woodlots meet close to just a few small ponds. He was dedicated to an all-day sit, and with a chilly entrance rolling in, he was anticipating some severe motion. As a substitute, he noticed simply 4 or 5 deer all day.
“I forgot my cellphone and was bored as hell, actually,” Alexander says. “I actually thought I had wasted my time coming on the market.”
Throughout his eleventh hour within the stand, Alexander was watching a doe idly browse when he was snapped to consideration by a sound he’d by no means heard within the deer woods earlier than. It sounded buckish however was exhausting to establish, and after 10 minutes handed, he heard it once more.
“Usually you sort of must be listening to listen to a buck grunt, however this was loud, like virtually a roar,” he says. “This time I peek across the tree and at about 125 yards, I see this buck step out. Immediately, I’m floored and considering, Holy shit. What’s that factor?’”
It took a full hour for the buck to journey the 100 yards from the place it stood to an open spot on the path alongside Alexander’s stand. At simply 7 yards, the buck cleared the comb and provided Alexander an ideal broadside shot. What adopted was a nightmare.
“I made a completely god terrible shot,” he says. “I don’t know if it was so shut I used to be holding on the mistaken spot, or if I simply bought buck fever or what. I’ve no clue.”
The buck ran towards the pond to the place the doe had been, and for some time it simply stood there with its again hunched and tail tucked. Alexander knew he wanted to get one other arrow within the deer, however as he reached down for the bag containing the cocking string, he realized his security harness—buried underneath layers of clothes—was stopping him from reaching it.
“I used to be tied in, too. It wasn’t like I might unclip a carabiner actual quick,” Alexander remembers. “It was holding me up too excessive and I simply couldn’t attain down.”
He popped a boot within the stirrup of the crossbow and desperately tried to cock it together with his naked arms, however was unable to attract the string far again sufficient to load a bolt. The buck started to maneuver once more, working again into the comb earlier than reappearing on the path. It walked previous Alexander’s stand at simply 12 yards. All he might do was watch.
“I figured one of the best factor I might do was keep watch over him and plan out the place I used to be going to begin monitoring him within the morning,” Alexander says.
Again at dwelling Alexander, known as Haunert, his buddy who loaned him the crossbow, and so they determined to again out for the night time.
“I FaceTimed Cory and advised him I shot a deer, after which I simply broke down crying. Cory was like ‘Hey man, what’s mistaken?’ And I advised him it was the largest deer I’d ever seen and I’d hit him unhealthy.”
The Odor of Success
The pair met on the property the following morning and commenced their search. Alexander was fearful the buck had left the 30-acre parcel, which might additional complicate issues. (In Ohio, a landowner has no obligation to permit a hunter to recuperate sport from non-public property.) However as they approached the spot the place Alexander had final seen the deer, Haunert froze.
“Cory begins sniffing the air,” Alexander says. “Like audibly sniffing the air. And he goes, ‘Do you odor that? That smells like a ruttin’ buck. That smells like a musky deer.’”
As the 2 stood there, Haunert noticed Alexander look over his shoulder towards the ponds and do a double take. Haunert’s eyes adopted Alexander’s gaze to the place a white stomach and mass of antlers lay beside one of many ponds. The pair ran over to the deer, high-stepping and splashing by way of the water.
“Cory simply stored saying, ‘CJ, you haven’t any concept what you simply did. You don’t have any concept.’ He acted like I’d shot Bigfoot.”
The aftermath of capturing an enormous deer is fairly common. The deer will get loaded into the again of somebody’s pickup, pushed by the properties of family and friends, and finally, the parade ends on the taxidermist. There’s numerous image taking, numerous storytelling, and numerous celebrating.
What there are usually not numerous, usually, are five-figure money provides.
Out Come the Provides
“I didn’t understand how massive of a deal it was,” Alexander says of his buck. He knew it had some actual worth to him, however by no means thought-about the worth it must a sure faction of whitetail fanatics: trophy antler patrons.
As information of Alexander’s deer started to unfold, he began receiving messages from folks wanting to buy his buck. Alexander says most of those messages have included three issues: a congratulations, a money provide, and a seed of doubt concerning the buck’s final rating. He shared one in all these exchanges with OL: “I believe after it’s paneled, it received’t be a state file for B&C. Appears like it can internet within the higher 170’s sadly … Preserve me in thoughts when you ever entertain the concept of promoting.”
“Consumers will certainly play that sport,” says Klaus Lebrecht, proprietor of world-renowned replica studio Antlers by Klaus. Lebrecht is aware of a factor or two about file whitetails and the antler market. For those who’ve ever wandered into one in all Bass Professional Outlets’s “King of Bucks” shows, you’ve seen Lebrecht’s work. They trusted Lebrecht to remount the antlers of the Hanson buck, which is the number-one whitetail of all time. Lebrecht routinely handles a number of the most well-known and highest-scoring whitetails of all-time, and he’s unsurprised by the money provides Alexander’s buck has already drawn.
“They need the child to promote shortly earlier than it’s all sorted out what he’s actually bought,” Lebrecht says.
What he’s “actually bought” is the large query. Ohio’s Buckeye Large Buck Membership secretary Combine Rex gave the buck a inexperienced rating of 206 7 / 8 inches. If that rating had been to carry as much as a B&C scoring panel, Alexander’s buck would turn into the No. 3 all-time typical whitetail ever taken in North America, and the No. 1 typical whitetail in Ohio.
“Proper now the deer might simply carry $50,000,” Lebrecht says. “But when the factor will get licensed by Boone and Crockett as being primary in Ohio and high three on this planet, it places it in a unique class. Then it may very well be price $80,000 or extra.”
The Widespread Base Controversy
No matter his shot at a North American file and the 1000’s of {dollars} it could add to the worth of his deer, Alexander doesn’t assume he’ll submit the buck to B&C for scoring. He says he’s too fearful the Membership will rating the antlers unfavorably, due to the record-book politics surrounding a characteristic known as a “widespread base.”
A widespread base describes any two tines that emerge from the identical base. Within the B&C scoring system, relying on the configuration of the widespread base, these tines are both scored as typical factors, or they’re counted as nontypical options. Because the Alexander buck can be scored as a typical deer, the measurements of any nontypical tines would then be deducted from its internet typical rating.
Learn Subsequent: The Case Towards Scoring Large-Recreation Animals
Alexander acknowledges that the G-2 and G-3 tines on the left antler of his buck share a standard base. He additionally realizes that in his bid for the state file, a nontypical widespread base and the ensuing deductions can be devastating.
Assuming the buck’s internet inexperienced rating of 206 7/8 inches held by way of the 60-day drying interval—which is unlikely as a result of some quantity of shrinkage is pure—its internet typical rating would fall to 191 4/8 inches after adjusting for the widespread base deductions. This could drop the deer from its potential spot as the brand new Ohio state file to No. 8. It will additionally take away the buck from rivalry within the High 10 record of all-time North American whitetails—a far cry from its present would-be No. 3 place.
Alexander’s main concern is that the Boone and Crockett Membership received’t give his deer a good shake on its advantage alone. He factors to the comparisons which have already been made between his buck and one other big Midwestern whitetail who’s ultimate rating was steeped in controversy.
“I don’t assume they’ll rule it typical as a result of then they’ve to elucidate why mine is [typical] and the King Buck isn’t,” Alexander says.
The King Buck
In 2012, six years after Johnny King shot his Wisconsin big, a B&C scoring panel issued one of many single most controversial scorings in its lengthy historical past. After accounting for a nontypical widespread base and the ensuing deductions, the King buck dropped from 213 6/8 internet typical—a rating that will have made it the No. 1 all-time typical whitetail in North America—to 180 inches.
The rating surprised the deer looking world, and it launched the phrase “widespread base” to whitetail hunters throughout the nation. A shadow of that controversy stays, and it’s brought on some to query the deer-to-deer objectivity of the Membership’s scoring system. The way in which Lebrecht sees it, B&C didn’t didn’t assume the King Buck had the qualities of a No. 1 whitetail, in order that they dominated it out on a technicality.
“They didn’t just like the look of the Johnny King Buck due to the stunted G3,” Lebrecht says, “in order that they tightened the factors up.”
In its preliminary response to the backlash that adopted, the Boone and Crockett Membership put out a assertion relating to the King Buck’s ultimate rating. The Membership clearly outlined the scoring course of undergone by King’s deer, which they keep was undertaken objectively and with the aim of documenting conservation success.
However there’s a line in that assertion that defenders of the King Buck say holds explicit significance: “The groups independently scored the buck utilizing the Boone and Crockett scoring handbook plus up to date directives and processes outlined in different Membership literature.”
These “up to date directives and processes” are what Lebrecht and others take a lot difficulty with.
“The foundations had modified between when the buck was publicized and when it was scored,” Lebrecht says. “I don’t assume it was coincidental, completely not. I believe that was very clearly finished for the rationale of discrediting that deer. They didn’t need it to be the world file.”
Regardless of his frustrations with the King Buck, Lebrecht isn’t all important of the Boone and Crockett Membership. Along with what he calls the “labor of affection” undertaken by the group’s many volunteers (B&C scorers don’t obtain compensation for measuring and scoring animals), he believes they’re a useful pillar within the conservation neighborhood.
“I don’t assume we have to throw the child out with the bathwater,” he says. “The Boone and Crockett Membership has finished tons of nice conservation work. There are such a lot of good issues there that far outweigh the disappointments.”
By 2012 the King buck had largely light from the general public eye. Nonetheless, public courtroom information present that the difficulty wasn’t legally resolved till 5 years later.
In October 2016, the King buck’s present proprietor, Jay Fish, sued the Boone and Crockett Membership, asserting “state-law claims of breach of contract and strict accountability misrepresentation.” On Oct. fifth, 2017, simply 4 months after a federal choose denied the Membership’s movement for dismissal, the courtroom signed a stipulated dismissal with prejudice, which is an settlement between each events that the case ought to be dismissed and by no means once more litigated.
B&C declined to touch upon the King Buck and Alexander’s buck because it hasn’t been entered for scoring.
Alexander says he’s planning to have the buck scored by the Buckeye Large Buck Membership, which makes use of the B&C scoring system and has the flexibility to certify an Ohio state file. In contrast to B&C, nevertheless, the Buckeye Large Buck Membership doesn’t must reply to the scoring of the King Buck, and Alexander believes this may result in a extra goal scoring of his deer.
“The Buckeye Large Buck Membership makes use of Boone and Crockett Membership requirements,” Alexander says. “So you might mainly do the mathematics and discover out the place it could fall on this planet, so far as typicals.”
Somebody Who’s Been There
Few hunters can relate to the place that Alexander finds himself in. However that’s to not say nobody can relate.
Dustin Huff killed his namesake buck in November 2021. The Huff Buck scored 211 4/8 inches internet typical, and presently sits at No. 1 within the state of Indiana and No. 2 all-time within the Boone and Crockett e book. Huff understands the strain a buck like this will placed on somebody, notably with regards to making sensible enterprise choices.
“Individuals are coming at you from all completely different instructions—what you need to do, what you shouldn’t do, when you did it proper, when you did it mistaken,” Huff says. “It may be overwhelming.”
As for provides to purchase the antlers, Huff bought his share of these, too.
“I bought a bunch of $20,000 provides,” Huff says. “Messages on Fb like ‘Hey man, I’m an antler collector, right here’s what they’re price.’”
A lot of the patrons, Huff believes, had been simply seeing if they may rating a deal off somebody who didn’t know what they’d. However Huff knew what he had, and in his thoughts, there have been solely two provides he obtained that he felt had been price contemplating.
“One was for $50,000 and the opposite beat that supply by a reasonably important margin. I’m not going to say it was $200,000 extra, but it surely was a a lot better provide,” says Huff, who bought his file buck in 2022 for an undisclosed quantity.
When requested if he had any recommendation for Alexander, Huff thought for a second.
“You already know, man, simply have enjoyable with it,” Huff says. “Go together with your intestine feeling on every part. You’re gonna have folks in your ear, however simply go together with what your intestine tells you.”
Alexander says he isn’t too fearful about how the entire thing shakes out. He considers himself “past blessed” to even have seen a deer of that caliber, not to mention notched his tag on one. He says he owes loads to his buddy Haunert, who helped him all through the hunt with borrowed gear, an additional hand, and ethical help. And as of proper now, Alexander has no plans to promote his potential record-book buck.
Learn Subsequent: The File Whitetail That No One Heard About…Till Now
“I don’t plan on it until somebody provides me one thing insane, like nicely into six figures, and I don’t assume that’s going to occur.”
That’s to not say he doesn’t have any plans for the deer. If it makes the file e book as Ohio’s No. 1 all-time typical whitetail, Alexander says he hopes to exhibit the buck at Johnny Morris’s Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, Missouri.
“I believe that will be an excellent place for everybody to get pleasure from it, and it could be with different world class deer,” Alexander says. “If that don’t occur, he’ll go to my son in the future.”
