Possible State-Record Buck Picked Up in Oklahoma

The Sooner State does it again as a reported massive 47-point non-typical is discovered dead in a fence by a couple of hunters, which is a possible state-record buck. If the buck's early green numbers prove accurate, the LeFlore County pick-up entry could become the new non-typical state record in Oklahoma. 

In a year when the state of Oklahoma has made one big white-tailed deer headline after another, the Sooner State may have just claimed its biggest antlered newsmaker yet. 

Even if a hunter isn't behind this particular big buck tale.

That's because of a provision in the Boone and Crockett Club record book that allows for the inclusion of pick-up entries (The current B&C world record non-typical buck, the 333 7/8-inch Missouri Monarch, is a pick-up entry found dead outside of St. Louis back in 1981).

That B&C pick-up provision will come into play in the Sooner State after discovery of a massive whitetail that was found dead after getting hung up in a barbed wire fence in LeFlore County.

News of this giant southeastern Oklahoma buck began to circulate late on Monday, Dec. 4, as photos and tidbits about the whitetail began to be posted on social media and announced by way of telephone calls. 

All of that came about after an investigation into the buck's demise by several folks including Outdoor Channel columnist and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation game warden Carlos Gomez. As a part of that investigation, the buck was measured in Tulsa as a crowd including Tulsa World outdoors writer Kelly Bostian looked on.

According to Gomez, the buck was discovered on Nov. 26 by hunters Josh Hughes and Drake Fletcher. They alerted authorities with ODWC, which now has possession of the potential state record buck.

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"Following this week's scoring session (online reports indicate that the measuring was done by Boone and Crockett Club measurer George Moore), green numbers for the massive buck – described as a 6 ½-year-old buck with 21 points on the right side and 26 points on the left side – are said to be 269 2/8 inches gross and 259 6/8 inches net."

Those numbers for the basic mainframe 8-pointer include an inside-spread measurement of 20 3/8 inches; main-beam lengths of 22 2/8 and 21 0/8 inches; 108 2/8 inches of abnormal-point measurements; and mass measurements ranging from 4 3/8 to 5 6/8 inches.

If those numbers hold up upon completion of the 60-day drying period, the buck would easily outdistance the current B&C record for a non-typical in the Sooner State, a 247 2/8-inch bruiser taken by hunter Bill M. Foster in Johnston County back in 1970.

The buck would also easily surpass the top hunter harvested buck in the ODWC Cy Curtis Awards Program, an 18-point non-typical taken on Nov. 23, 2004, by Grandfield, Okla. hunter Michael Crossland. That Tillman County buck net scores at 248 6/8 inches, although it isn't recognized as the state's current B&C benchmark.

The LeFlore County non-typical buck discovery would also continue a recent trend for world class non-typicals in the Sooner State, coming barely more than one year since two archers took massive book-end bucks in November 2016.

Readers might remember that Moore, Okla.. bowhunter Jeffrey Parker downed a massive 245 5/8-inch bruiser from Cleveland County on Nov. 10, 2016, a buck that is now the new ODWC Cy Curtis archery record. And just two days later, Lawton, Okla., archer Jeff Ocker nearly wrestled the benchmark away with his Nov. 12, 2016 non-typical, a monster buck that scored 245 2/8 inches from Comanche County. 

This most recent monster whitetail discovery in LeFlore County also continues the amazing run of big buck news that Oklahoma has produced during the fall of 2017 as several 200-class and better whitetails have been reported across the Sooner State taken by such hunters as Larry Wheeler, John McCollum, and Bill Nadeau among others.

More on Oklahoma Trophy Bucks

• Oklahoma Hunter Takes Two Big Bucks From Same Stand

• Sooner State Hunter Downs Another Massive Trophy Buck

• Game-Cam Strategy Leads to Monster Buck

And keep in mind that technically speaking, this season's amazing run of big buck news in Oklahoma actually began in late September when a 236 3/8-inch non-typical buck was run over by a vehicle near Edmond. (That deer was also measured by George Moore, a certified B&C measurer, and a regular contributor to North American Whitetail magazine).

Why the huge run of Sooner State giants over the past 12 months?

In addition to good genetics and solid habitat – especially now that the state's habitat has recovered from several years of searing drought – ODWC big game biologist Dallas Barber believes that the state's educational mindset of encouraging hunters to let smaller bucks grow up is at least partially responsible.

"Our agency used to encourage hunters to take does to help us keep our deer herd numbers in balance with what our state's habitat can support," said Barber in a previous interview. "But back in 2013, that changed to our current slogan 'Hunters in the know let young bucks grow.' "

• Must read: Oklahoma Seeing Big Antlered Payoff from Whitetail Strategy (Sportsman Channel)

That ODWC strategy appears to be working in a great way as the Sooner State's recent run of great bucks seems to showcase.

And with the state's modern firearms season just ending on Dec. 3 – and with several weeks remaining before the state's Jan. 15 late archery season close - don't be surprised to see Oklahoma make even more big buck news in the days to come.

Because in the whitetail world of 2017, it's turning out to be a Boomer Sooner kind of big buck year and then some.