More Details on the Sad Story of the Biggest Eight-Point Buck Ever Killed

Last week, a giant whitetail was allegedly poached near the town of Cannon Falls, Minnesota. The buck’s antlers sported a highly symmetrical frame and is said to have green-scored 192 B&C, and netted 188″. The inside spread of 28-3/8″ is mule-deer wide.

Lou Cornicelli, the Minnesota DNR big-game coordinator, had this comment about the monster buck … “Millions of deer are harvested nationally each year. The probability of harvesting one this big is just infinitesimal. It doesn’t exist.”

Cornicelli said more than a mouthful. Mainly because the measurements being tossed about belong to a whitetail with a rack sporting only eight points. Ask any veteran B&C scorer, and he’ll tell you to kill a “Booner” (a buck that qualifies for the B&C all-time awards minimum of 170″ ), the buck better have at least ten tines, long main beams, and plenty of mass. Only a handful of 8-point whitetails have the right stuff to crack the B&C book.

Out of curiosity, I searched the B&C records program to see just how small that handful was. The answer? Even tinier than I thought. The B&C book includes animals killed as far back as 1830 and includes whitetails tagged up through 2008. In that 170-year-plus span, only 34 8-point whitetails have scored 170″ or better. That’s thirty four out of literally millions of 8-pointers killed in that span.

And to make this even tougher to swallow, this Minnesota 8-point would not have only made this list with room to spare, it would have been the best 8-point whitetail ever. A world record deer. Second place? 180-3/8″, the score awarded to a South Dakota buck killed by Vernon Winter in 1965.

This magnificent buck could still find its way into the B&C books, since the organization allows “found” or “picked up” heads to be entered. Since the Minnesota DNR is now in possession of the rack, they could pursue putting the buck into B&C and, if allowed, the buck would at least be honored. But here’s a safer bet; the rack will almost certainly be included in the DNR’s “Wall of Shame”, a traveling display of poached trophy heads that state conservation officers take to sports shows each year.

In my opinion, not a fitting end to what is likely the largest 8-point buck in history.