Here is the New Certified World Record Whitetail Buck
OutdoorHub Reporters 01.10.17
It is official, there’s a new world record whitetail buck in the books and it comes from Sumner County, Tennessee.
Gallatin resident Stephen Tucker, 27, shot the trophy buck with his muzzle loader back in November, but a 60-day drying out period had to take place before officially scoring the rack.
The drying out period finally came to an end Monday, and the official score is in. The 47-point rack was measured by four Boone and Crockett judges, who gave the buck a score of 312 3/8 inches.
Tucker’s buck crushed even the non-typical current world record holder of 307 5/8 inches! That deer had 38 points.
“I just tried not to think about whether it was the world record or not during the drying out period,” Tucker said. “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.'”
The rack was scored at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tucker was right there to witness it all. The video below is some of the footage from the measuring process, which took nearly 4 hours to complete.
“I figured it would take them a pretty good while to measure it,” Tucker told The Tennessean. “The waiting wasn’t too bad until they walked out of the room to go tally it up. That’s when I realized it was close. We were about to find something out for sure.”
Along with the world record, the TWRA also declared Tucker’s buck a new Tennessee state record as well. It practically dwarfed the previous state record set in 2000 in Sumner County by Dave Wachtel, whose deer scored 244 3/8.
The world record for a deer killed by a hunter is pending official certification, which won’t take place until the Boone and Crockett awards banquet in 2019. The date and site for the awards banquet has not yet been set.
The rack itself was said to be worth more than $100,000, after the official scoring has come out and it’s now toppled the world record books, don’t be surprised to see that price jump up a bit. Tucker has not announced his plan for the rack. He’s simply taking it all in right now and “going with the flow.”
“To be honest, I was waiting for this (score) before I put a lot of thought into it. I don’t have any specific plans for it at this point. All the phone calls and stuff had slowed down quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. I’m sure it will pick back up again after this.”
