Much of the excitement in Indiana is tied to the city of Indianapolis, affectionately known as the racing capital of the world, so called because of its motor speedway that hosts the annual Indianapolis or Indy 500, one of three races that make up the Triple Crown of Motorsports. But in Indiana, the adrenaline doesn’t end at the finish line.
Indiana’s diverse landscape will have your blood pumping at the sights and sounds of the wildlife that call this state home. You’ll find whitetail deer, turkey, waterfowl, small game animals such as rabbit, and upland birds inhabiting Indiana’s wetlands, forests, grasslands, open and agricultural fields, rolling hills, and woodlands.
Although Indiana may not initially seem like a prime state for hunting—particularly whitetail deer—it has a healthy population of this deer subspecies, and the race to bag one begins each year on September 15. Let’s dig in and learn about whitetail deer in Indiana and the who, what, when, where, and how of the largest harvested whitetail deer in the state’s recorded history.
The Record-Setting Bucks
Calculating the Records
When it comes to determining what garners a trophy record for whitetail deer, the focus is not on the body size or weight of the animal but rather on the score earned by its antler size and complexity. The organization that sets guidelines, maintains records, and awards trophies for big game hunting is the Boone and Crockett Club, which was founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt and others. Whitetail trophies are awarded in two categories: typical and non-typical.
The largest whitetail deer ever trapped in 2021 in Indiana took place on November 4.
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Antlers are scored using a score chart. A typical rack for a whitetail deer follows a standard pattern, defined by symmetrical tines and evenly spaced points. A typical score above 170 is in all-time record territory. Non-typical antlers deviate from this standard in quite unique ways, creating unusual shapes and often earning very high scores. Non-typical scores over 195 are considered all-timers by the Boone and Crockett Club.
The individual elements on the antlers—the number of points on the antlers, the width of the main beam spread of the antlers from tip to tip, the inside spread, the length of the main beam, the length of the points, and the circumference between points—are measured and counted. The collected data are then calculated according to a formula outlined on the score chart to provide a final score.
Awarding the Trophies
The Indiana state record in the typical category was awarded fairly recently, bumping the previous record of 195-5/8, held by Dave Roberts since 1985, to second place. On November 4, 2021, at 6:40 p.m., while hunting on a farm in Decatur County he’d hunted many times before, Dustin Huff let his crossbow arrow fly at a buck in a creek bottom 40 yards away. No one thought the deer was anything too special, but it turned out to be a pretty impressive bag. The deer’s antlers scored 205-6/8, besting Roberts’ state record by 10-1/8 inches.
Huff’s whitetail was not just a surprise as a state record. It also nearly set a world record. A difference of 7-7/8 inches separates Huff’s state record from Milo Hanson’s 1992 world record of 213-5/8. Hanson shot the whitetail deer with a .308 rifle on his property in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada.
It was the first day of Indiana’s 2012 gun season when Timothy J. Beck watched from his ladder stand in Huntington County as a doe walked into the field he was hunting. Following her was a buck “with love in his eye,” writes Beck for North American Whitetail. He grabbed his Remington 12-gauge autoloader, placed it on the shooting rail, and shouldered it. The buck moved its body enough to give Beck a shot. He took it. The deer moved again, further exposing its side. Beck shot again. The deer went down, and Beck walked up to see his prize.
With a score of 303-7/8, Beck’s buck set the state record, broke the previous state record set in 1980 by Timothy J. Goode by more than 50 inches (251-4/8), and reached for a world record. According to the Boone and Crockett Club rankings, in 2013, Beck’s buck ranked No. 2 on the list of largest hunter-taken non-typical bucks and No. 4 on the all-time rankings. Today, it holds the No. 8 spot on the all-time rankings of all non-typical bucks.
