ChiefHeadhunter

Man Rack-attack, that's just straight up funny. That's one of my favorite things about this bunch, plennnnty of whit and a huuuuge side order sarcasm. Good humor my man. I'll try and peck out the story to this monster as soon as possible, before I leave for home.

edge

Oh, so thats what they look like!
Nice buck!!!!

cardeer

Beautiful,got to be a midwest deer or cnanda? love them knarly heavy bases and stickers,you all can have the typical junk

ChiefHeadhunter

Let me first say that this rack isn't mine (I'd post a pick of my 5-pt and I from last bow season but we'd look hysterical next to these pics). It came from Pike County Indiana private land and was a pick-up, sadly. A Jasper Indiana jeweler, Kevin Olinger who's an avid bow hunter found it in a dense patch of honeysuckle November 7th along a creek bed. He was doing some mid-day still hunting after setting stand during the morning and said he probably would have missed it if it didn't have such a huge rack. We were assuming it had been poached somewhere in early to mid September because of its state of decomposition, but more so by the fact it still had about 10% of its velvet, down in the gnarly parts and clinging to those clustered brow tines. The carcass had been scavenged from and mostly fur remained but the skeleton was mostly in tact from what I gathered. We originally guessed a poach because our season didn't come in until Oct 1 and it was surely killed before that. He said after talking to a local biologist that he felt there was a chance that it died from a ("something" tongue) disease that generally attacks older deer, something I hadn't heard of. He came walking into the shop that day saying, " no I didn't get one but I sure found something interesting." I was slack jawed and asked, "Can I hold it". All 4 of us in the shop agreed it was bigger than any we'd been lucky enough to see in the wild. The only specimens I've seen larger we're on display at the Bass Pro Shop Springfield MO (a lot of which are state record holders and such), but I've never really been anywhere else. We were guessing it to gross around 170. I was amused that he called some of his pics the Chuck Adams angle, referring to how the rack dwarfs all that's behind it- he's got a good sense of humor and is a real nice guy by the way. Well I'll get to the stats I guess- enough babbling….
It is a 17 point (9x8) with a17 1/2" spread and after enlisting the help of a individual with allot of experience in scoring, they came to a B&C gross of 175 5/8. If they totaled all the antler (threw back in whatever deductions the B&C involves) they came up to 197! The jawbone was aged at 6 ½ years old. He is going to try to enter it in B&C as a pickup. Indiana isn't necessarily a Trophy state and he's thinking it might be up there a bit, I personally don't know.
So, I'm done rambling about it but my intentions were to get the story straight out of respect to Kevin. I'm heading home now guys so -have a GREAT WEEKEND-. I'm going to go shoot my new Martin. Later-

~Chief~

Oh yeah, thanks to Joey -Kshunter- for postin the pics.

Edited by - chiefheadhunter on 02/08/2002 15:58:14

Dan B

That thing is huge!! Just FYI the Indiana state record for typical is 195 1/8 out of Parke County in 1985. The top deer in Pike County is 190 2/8 in 1993. Top non-typical is 248 4/8 out of Fulton County in 1990. I don't know if these are hunter kills or pickups, but this deer seems to be right in there for a typical in Indiana. For Indiana record deer go to http://www.american-hunter.com/BigBucks/Indiana.htm

Dan Blair

Straightarrow

Wow! 17 1/2" spread, I would have guessed a few more inches than that. Still, highly impressive rack. Too bad some bowhunter didn't have the pleasure of seeing him within range before he bit the dust.

BBHPete

Awsome Buck! to bad he died the way he did whether poached or of dise. Congrats to Kevin on finding him. <img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

God Bless & Good Hunting
LM/NAHC
Member NRA
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Member Ducks Unlimited

Bow-4-It

Man, that's a heck of a rack there Chief. That's a shame the buck wasn't taken by a bowhunter. Atleast your man Kevin found him and he didn't waste away. One good thing is that buck has spread his genes around and he must have a few &quot;sons&quot; running around.

10pointer

what a rack

PORK CHOP

very, very nice rack! Has everything you could want.....size, width, mass tine length, points. The total package.
I like seeing the different pictures on this forum. Too bad I will never see anything like them here down in South Georgia.