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IL Buck New County Record
By Patrick Dunning
All those years managing the deer population and timber stands on his 250-acre farm in Illinois finally paid dividends for John Wilson in November 2022. “It’s the biggest deer I’ve taken off the farm. We’ve been trying to manage and harvest this caliber of deer and it paid off,” John told Buckmasters. “We le... READ MORE
Bluegrass Shooter Buck
By Patrick Dunning
Lifelong New Yorker Robert Smith Jr. made the nine-hour drive to Kentucky for the last four days of the state’s 2022 muzzleloader season and harvested his first out-of-state buck with an outfit in Washington County.
“I’ve always wanted to go hunting in Kentucky; it’s become a state with a lot of big deer,” Robert ... READ MORE
168" Hoosier on Public Land
By Patrick Dunning
Bow hunting, like baseball, is a game of failure. Major-league hitters with .300 batting averages fail 70% of their at-bats and still enjoy careers worthy of Cooperstown.
Going full draw on a late-season buck can feel a lot like guarding the plate with the bases loaded and a two-strike count in the bottom of the 9th. And whiffing that arrow can fe... READ MORE
KS Strip Mine Buck
By Patrick Dunning
Buckmasters scorer Doug Walden arrowed his biggest buck to date last October in an 80-acre coal reserve. The 5x5 stud from Kansas is Cherokee County’s largest compound-felled whitetail in BTR’s perfect category, besting the previous county record from 1995, also held by Doug, by 6 inches. Doug had little history with this 10-pointer but... READ MORE
No. 1 Bow Buck in GA
By Patrick Dunning
Manny Kaloyannide’s record buck from October 2018 graced the cover of Georgia Outdoor News’ July 2023 issue and reigns as the state’s largest compound-felled whitetail in BTR’s perfect category. The 10-pointer from Dekalb County is also the second largest perfect harvested in the state by any weapon.
Manny received a trail-... READ MORE
My Pronouns Are White and Tail
By Patrick Dunning
Justin Buchanan’s Crawford County 14-pointer made rounds in outdoor media because of the Georgia whitetail’s rack and apparent lack of male reproductive organs. After a thorough check while field-dressing the deer, and a second opinion from his taxidermist, Buchanan was convinced the animal was an antlered doe. “There was no sign ... READ MORE
New VA Record from 1971
By Patrick Dunning
I spend a considerable amount of time thumbing through scoresheets looking for the story-worthy whitetails, which wouldn’t be possible without our Buckmasters scorers throughout the country promoting BTR’s scoring system and volunteering their time to measure antlers.
A 197” Virginia giant from 1971 turned up at the inaugural Sta... READ MORE
Better To Be Lucky Than Good
By Patrick Dunning
Carl Lucky III didn't have an answer when his grandsons, 12 and 10 years old, asked him if he ever killed a giant buck, would he holler?
"I said, 'Luke, I don't know that I would, that's not really my personality. I've been excited about killing nice deer before but never screamed and hollered.'"
After harvesting Missouri's seventh largest compo... READ MORE
259" in Ohio
By Patrick Dunning
18-year-old Carson Putnam has been on a roll the last couple of years, claiming Ohio's #1 spot in BTR's Centerfire Rifle category after harvesting this 33-pointer in November 2021 that's truly one of a kind, and a 184-inch mainframe 5x5 in 2022 that he's even more proud of.
Carson's state record from Ross County has a compact frame with an 8 1/8 i... READ MORE
New No. 1 in KS
By Patrick Dunning
On top of being the state’s new #1 compound-felled buck in BTR’s perfect category, Joshua Trolinger’s public-land giant is the third-largest perfect harvested in Kansas by any weapon and the sixth-largest perfect worldwide by compound bow. Joshua discovered this world-class whitetail in November 2022 and had it within 40 yards fou... READ MORE
Massive Kansas Deadhead
By Patrick Dunning
14-year-old Bryson Allen found a massive 238-inch Kansas deadhead on May 18 while fishing Clarks Creek with friends. Although the young man hasn’t harvested a buck with his bow yet, he’s happy to know big ones like this one exist in the area. Buckmasters scorer Brad Forbus measured the Morris County Monster at 238 5/8 inches for BTR. Th... READ MORE
198" in Tangipahoa Parish
By Patrick Dunning
A lieutenant at Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's office, Daniel Sharkey chased this whitetail through southeast Louisiana's piney woods for 5 years before catching up with it in December of 2021. With a Buckmasters score of 198 1/8 inches, the 17-pointer is the largest buck harvested in Tangipahoa Parish, and its runner-up isn't even close. "There isn't... READ MORE
223-Incher in The Sunflower State
By Patrick Dunning
On the final day of the 2021 Kansas deer season, 32-year-old Chase Wells located a big typical 10-pointer. The deer was making its way into a bean field when he saw it, and he immediately put it on his watch list for 2022-’23. On Chase’s cattle farm in Osage County, nicknamed the Jack’d Up Ranch, he rears 30 heifers and bales hay ... READ MORE
175" TN Typical with a Recurve!
By Patrick Dunning
You can count on one hand the BTR entries for recurve-felled bucks in Tennessee, but DeWayne Spann still sits atop that short list, and his 175-inch buck is the seventh largest typical harvested by a recurve archer in North America. Dewayne has been building longbows and recurves since the ‘90s and has been a traditional bowhunter exclusively... READ MORE
New Volunteer State Record!
By Patrick Dunning
Charles Strickland harvested three deer with two bolts on the opening morning of Tennessee’s 2022 archery season during a quota hunt in Davidson County. The 63-year-old’s biggest buck to date stretched the BTR tape to 202 6/8 inches and is the largest crossbow-felled whitetail in the Volunteer State. Tasked by the landowner to take two ... READ MORE