Potential World Record Buck Taken After 2 Failed Attempts
OutdoorHub Reporters 11.09.16
These deer just keep getting bigger and better! A possible world record whitetail deer was killed in Sumner County, Tennessee on Monday.
A hunter may venture out to the woods his whole life, and never see a deer like this. But Stephen Tucker, 26, is much more fortunate than you and I. See, Tucker attempted to shoot this trophy Saturday, but his muzzleloader misfired. Can you you imagine the agony watching this deer get away? Well, Stephen had to watch it twice. He saw it later that day, but passed up the shot because it was too far.
“I was just hoping I would see him again after I passed up the shot the second time I saw him,” said Tucker, who estimated he was about 150 yards away at the second sighting. “My thinking was the second time I saw him was as far away as he was and as big as he was, I wanted to make sure that I killed him. I didn’t want to cripple him. I said to myself, ‘If I cripple him, nobody will get to kill him.’ The last thing I wanted to do was be the guy who crippled a deer like that.”
Good luck getting any sleep after experiencing something like that. If it were me, I’d spend the next week in my treestand; Make people bring me food, a change of clothes, whatever it takes to get that buck!
Stephen got another crack at this deer two days later and shot him from around 40 yards away.
“There’s no doubt it’s going to be the new state record; I mean, that’s an absolute,” Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency District 21 captain Dale Grandstaff said. “As far as the world record, (the rack) is about an inch over the world record.”
As always, the rack must go through a 60-day drying period before being officially scored, but regardless if this deer beats the world-record or not, it’s one heck of a deer story that this Tennessee hunter won’t soon forget.
