Non-Typical Size and Typical Symmetry Hallmarks of Arkansas’ Biggest Whitetail Deer Ever Harvested

The ratio of people to whitetail deer in Arkansas is approximately 3:1. With more than 1 million whitetail deer in a state with about 3 million people, there are plenty of opportunities to bag one (or three by going for the state’s Triple Trophy Award Program, which was designed in 1984 “to promote the harvest of does and recognize the outstanding hunting skill of many Arkansas deer hunters.”

The Natural State’s whitetail deer population wasn’t always so great. As recently as the 1940s, the deer population was dwindling quickly due to overhunting, and hunting was prohibited in several counties. Today, it’s an entirely different story. Efforts since the 1920s by the state’s Game and Fishing Commission (AGFC) have helped to turn things around.

As of March 1993, the whitetail deer is the official mammal of Arkansas.

With so many deer roaming the state, aren’t you the least bit curious how big the biggest whitetail deer harvested in the state were? I am. Let’s learn more about Arkansas’ record-setting bucks.

Record-Setting Racks

A few decades before the AGFC began its efforts to manage its big game, Theodore Roosevelt and others founded the Boone and Crockett Club for the purposes of conservation and wildlife management. This club also sets guidelines for and maintains trophy hunting records for big game animals, including whitetail deer.

What garners a trophy record for whitetail deer is the size and complexity of its antlers. To determine that, antlers are scored using Boone and Crockett’s scoring system, a series of measurements of the various elements of the animal’s antlers. Records are recognized in two categories: typical and non-typical. As the names of the categories suggest, typical antlers are the standard, defined by symmetry and even spaced tines. Non-typical varies from that standard quite dramatically. A score above 170 is considered an all-timer in the typical category and above 195 in the non-typical.

In December 2018, William L. Loyd was deer hunting in eastern Arkansas, an area best known for its good hunting of waterfowl, when his record-setting typical whitetail deer moseyed to within 200 yards of Loyd’s position. He took the shot and was rewarded with a state record. His buck scored 202-3/8—a truly remarkable score given that it “is the biggest typical whitetail of the decade anywhere in North America, the 17th buck north of 200 inches net typical, and only the fourth such 200+ net typical of the 21st century,” explains Lynn Burkhead in an article for Game and Fish magazine.

For comparison, the world record for typical whitetail deer scored 213-5/8—a difference of 11-2/8 inches. This buck was harvested by Milo N. Hanson who was hunting on his property in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada, in November 1992.

In non-typical fashion, fewer than 10 inches separates Arkansas’ non-typical gross and net scores. Translation, in the words of the Boone and Crockett Club: “The closer gross score is to the net score reflects the amount of symmetry” because even non-typical racks will have some symmetry. And the record belongs to William Dooley who harvested his non-typical buck—scored 238-3/8—on December 16, 1999, in Prairie County.

To be sure, Dooley’s buck is impressive, but so is the world record, which was found along a fence on the side of the road in St. Louis County, Missouri, a mere five-and-a-half-hour drive north from where Dooley bagged his. The already deceased buck’s antlers scored 333-7/8.