Stephen Tucker swept the hunting world this past fall, garnering the attention of not only hunters and anglers, but of traditional media outlets as well.
News spread quickly as the Gallatin, TN resident circulated images of his monster whitetail buck adorning an impressive 47-point rack upon his head. After killing the buck with his muzzleloader, Tucker immediately considered having the rack professionally measured, although he admittedly abstained from thinking too much about the possibility of a new world record.
“I just tried not to think about whether it was the world record or not during the drying out period,” Tucker told USA Today in January. “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.’ ”
Today, the Boone and Crockett Club confirmed the rack to be the largest hunter-taken non-typical whitetail, according to their records, which date back as far as 1830. The Sumner County buck’s score was officially confirmed to have surpassed the previous hunter-taken non-typical deer taken in Iowa in 2003.
Tucker’s buck was officially scored at 312-08, eclipsing the previous record of 307-5/8. The Club also noted that deer such as this one as well as the other 39 typical and 27 non-typical deer on record from the state of Tennessee, indicate a strong trend of conservation success.
“If you look at the historical data, one thing that is special about this deer is that the majority of record-book deer from Tennessee have come since the mid-1980s,” said Justin Spring, the Club’s director of big game records. “That’s conservation success that is trending. A tip of the cap should go to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the sportsmen of Tennessee for what they have been able to accomplish with their deer herds.”
The unique rack was made up of 22 scoreable points on the left side and 25 on the right -only three other deer on record have had more than 47 scoreable points.
“What also makes this particular deer special is an entry score of 312-0/8 on only a 149-1/8 inch typical frame, which includes a modest inside spread of 14-1/8 inches. That’s 162-7/8 inches of abnormal points,” Spring added.
Here are Tucker’s official Boone and Crockett Score Charts:
