Many hunters dream of notching our tag on a record-book buck—some 200-plus-inch Midwestern behemoth that roars as a substitute of grunts and comes into our setup stiff legged and sluggish.
A whole lot of us seek advice from this sort of deer as a “Booner,” a nod to the Boone and Crockett Club, which is the widely-accepted nationwide gold customary for antler scoring and big-game report preserving 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 official shot at changing into one of many high three whitetails of all time? And what occurs when a controversial rule within the scoring system may 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 not too long ago sat down with Outside Life to speak in regards to the potential report whitetail, his newfound fame, and the notorious scoring rule which may decide the buck’s closing place within the report 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 offered his compound bow final 12 months to usher in some extra cash. “I purchased a crossbow I figured the entire household may use this 12 months, 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 bit of his sister’s 30-acre property the place two woodlots meet close to a number of small ponds. He was dedicated to an all-day sit, and with a chilly entrance rolling in, he was anticipating some critical motion. As an alternative, he noticed simply 4 or 5 deer all day.
“I forgot my telephone 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 determine, and after 10 minutes handed, he heard it once more.
“Usually you sort of need to be listening to listen to a buck grunt, however this was loud, like nearly 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 fully god terrible shot,” he says. “I don’t know if it was so shut I used to be holding on the fallacious spot, or if I simply acquired 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 beneath layers of clothes—was stopping him from reaching it.
“I used to be tied in, too. It wasn’t like I may unclip a carabiner actual quick,” Alexander recollects. “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 fingers, 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 may do was watch.
“I figured one of the best factor I may do was control him and plan out the place I used to be going to start out monitoring him within the morning,” Alexander says.
Again at residence Alexander, known as Haunert, his buddy who loaned him the crossbow, they usually determined to again out for the night time.
“I FaceTimed Cory and informed him I shot a deer, after which I simply broke down crying. Cory was like ‘Hey man, what’s fallacious?’ And I informed him it was the most important deer I’d ever seen and I’d hit him dangerous.”
The Odor of Success
The pair met on the property the following morning and commenced their search. Alexander was anxious 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 means of the water.
“Cory simply saved saying, ‘CJ, you don’t have any concept what you simply did. You haven’t any concept.’ He acted like I’d shot Bigfoot.”
The aftermath of taking pictures an enormous deer is fairly common. The deer will get loaded into the again of somebody’s pickup, pushed by the houses of family and friends, and finally, the parade ends on the taxidermist. There’s loads of image taking, loads of storytelling, and loads of celebrating.
What there will not be loads of, usually, are five-figure money gives.
Out Come the Gives
“I didn’t notice 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 supply, and a seed of doubt in regards to the buck’s final rating. He shared considered one of these exchanges with OL: “I believe after it’s paneled, it gained’t be a state report for B&C. Seems like it’s going to internet within the higher 170’s sadly … Preserve me in thoughts should you ever entertain the concept of promoting.”
“Patrons 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 report whitetails and the antler market. In case you’ve ever wandered into considered one of 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 among the most well-known and highest-scoring whitetails of all-time, and he’s unsurprised by the money gives Alexander’s buck has already drawn.
“They need the child to promote shortly earlier than it’s all sorted out what he’s actually acquired,” Lebrecht says.
What he’s “actually acquired” is the massive query. Ohio’s Buckeye Big Buck Club 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 change 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 may simply convey $50,000,” Lebrecht says. “But when the factor will get licensed by Boone and Crockett as being primary in Ohio and high three on the planet, it places it in a distinct class. Then it could possibly be price $80,000 or extra.”
The Frequent Base Controversy
No matter his shot at a North American report and the 1000’s of {dollars} it might add to the worth of his deer, Alexander doesn’t suppose he’ll submit the buck to B&C for scoring. He says he’s too anxious the Membership will rating the antlers unfavorably, due to the record-book politics surrounding a function known as a “widespread base.”
A common 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 Against Scoring Big-Game Animals
Alexander acknowledges that the G-2 and G-3 tines on the left antler of his buck share a typical base. He additionally realizes that in his bid for the state report, 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 means of the 60-day drying interval—which is unlikely as a result of some amount of shrinkage is pure—its internet typical rating would fall to 191 4/8 inches after adjusting for the widespread base deductions. This may drop the deer from its potential spot as the brand new Ohio state report to No. 8. It will additionally take away the buck from competition within the Prime 10 record of all-time North American whitetails—a far cry from its present would-be No. 3 place.
Alexander’s major concern is that the Boone and Crockett Membership gained’t give his deer a good shake on its benefit alone. He factors to the comparisons which have already been made between his buck and one other big Midwestern whitetail who’s closing rating was steeped in controversy.
“I don’t suppose they’ll rule it typical as a result of then they’ve to clarify 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 may have made it the No. 1 all-time typical whitetail in North America—to 180 inches.
The rating stunned the deer hunting world, and it launched the phrase “widespread base” to whitetail hunters throughout the nation. A shadow of that controversy stays, and it’s induced 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 suppose the King Buck had the qualities of a No. 1 whitetail, so 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, “so that they tightened the factors up.”
In its preliminary response to the backlash that adopted, the Boone and Crockett Membership put out a statement regarding the King Buck’s final score. The Membership clearly outlined the scoring course of undergone by King’s deer, which they keep was undertaken objectively and with the purpose of documenting conservation success.
However there’s a line in that assertion that defenders of the King Buck say holds specific 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 challenge with.
“The foundations had modified between when the buck was publicized and when it was scored,” Lebrecht says. “I don’t suppose 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 report.”
Regardless of his frustrations with the King Buck, Lebrecht isn’t all crucial 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 precious pillar within the conservation group.
“I don’t suppose 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. Nevertheless, public court docket information present that the problem wasn’t legally resolved till 5 years later.
In October 2016, the King buck’s present proprietor, Jay Fish, sued the Boone and Crockett Club, asserting “state-law claims of breach of contract and strict accountability misrepresentation.” On Oct. fifth, 2017, simply 4 months after a federal decide denied the Membership’s movement for dismissal, the court docket 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 Massive Buck Membership, which makes use of the B&C scoring system and has the flexibility to certify an Ohio state report. In contrast to B&C, nonetheless, the Buckeye Massive Buck Membership doesn’t need to reply to the scoring of the King Buck, and Alexander believes this may result in a extra goal scoring of his deer.
“The Buckeye Massive Buck Membership makes use of Boone and Crockett Membership requirements,” Alexander says. “So you can principally do the mathematics and discover out the place it might fall on the 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 at present sits at No. 1 in the state of Indiana and No. 2 all-time within the Boone and Crockett e-book. Huff understands the stress a buck like this could placed on somebody, significantly in the case of making sensible enterprise selections.
“Persons are coming at you from all completely different instructions—what you need to do, what you shouldn’t do, should you did it proper, should you did it fallacious,” Huff says. “It may be overwhelming.”
As for gives to purchase the antlers, Huff acquired his share of these, too.
“I acquired a bunch of $20,000 gives,” Huff says. “Messages on Fb like ‘Hey man, I’m an antler collector, right here’s what they’re price.’”
Many of the patrons, Huff believes, had been simply seeing if they may rating a deal off somebody who didn’t know what that they had. However Huff knew what he had, and in his thoughts, there have been solely two gives he acquired that he felt had been price contemplating.
“One was for $50,000 and the opposite beat that provide by a reasonably important margin. I’m not going to say it was $200,000 extra, nevertheless it was a significantly better supply,” says Huff, who offered his report buck in 2022 for an undisclosed quantity.
When requested if he had any recommendation for Alexander, Huff thought for a second.
“You recognize, man, simply have enjoyable with it,” Huff says. “Go along with your intestine feeling on every little thing. You’re gonna have folks in your ear, however simply go together with what your intestine tells you.”
Alexander says he isn’t too anxious 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 lots 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 Record Whitetail That No One Heard About…Until Now
“I don’t plan on it except somebody gives me one thing insane, like properly into six figures, and I don’t suppose that’s going to occur.”
That’s to not say he doesn’t have any plans for the deer. If it makes the report 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 may be place for everybody to take pleasure in it, and it might be with different world class deer,” Alexander says. “If that don’t occur, he’ll go to my son at some point.”
