Colorado’s Largest Whitetail Deer Ever Harvested Shattered Previous State Records

The beautiful state of Colorado is home to around 25,000 whitetail deer, so there are plenty of opportunities in the eastern part of the state to see and hunt them, especially as they frequently travel in large herds between the state’s Front Range and the Kansas border.

Hunters do not think of Colorado as the place to bag record-setting antlers from the state’s whitetail population, but both records—for typical and non-typical whitetail—shattered previous records. Let’s learn more about big game hunting and the Colorado whitetails that now hold the state 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 its antler size and complexity. In other words, a tape measure instead of a scale determines whose bucks enter the record books.

The Boone and Crockett Club, founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt for the purposes of conservation and wildlife management, sets the guidelines for and maintains trophy hunting records for big game animals. As an antlered animal, there are two categories for the biggest whitetail deer. The largest typical rack follows a standard pattern, defined by symmetrical tines and evenly spaced points. Non-typical antlers deviate from the standard in quite unusual ways, creating stunning and strange shapes and designs and often racking up very high scores.

Measurements and counts are taken of 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. The data are calculated according to a formula outlined on the score chart to provide a final score. A score above 170 and 195 is in all-time record territory for the typical and non-typical categories, respectively.

On November 8, 2003, Eddie L. Kinney entered Colorado’s record books after he harvested a typical whitetail buck in El Paso County that scored 192-1/8, shattering the record set the previous decade by nearly 6 inches (5-6/8 exactly).

As of the latest available records, Colorado’s non-typical record sits at No. 65 on the all-time list. Hunter and author Michael J. Okray bagged this whitetail buck on October 21, 1992, in Cheyenne County. With a modest main beam and inside spread, the antler’s 29 points and seven drop tines are what pushed Okray’s buck into state and all-time record territory at 258-2/8. He felled the buck in two shots from about 100 yards away.

Like Colorado’s typical whitetail deer record, Okray’s shattered the previous non-typical whitetail deer record from 1986 by more than 50 inches. The 1986 buck scored 204-2/8. Okray mounted the entire buck, which he kept in his home for many years before selling it to Bass Pro Shops, where it sits next to other record-setting big game mounts at the flagship store in Missouri.