The whitetail deer is one of Ohio’s most well-known wildlife species, and the state is one of the best for deer hunting, with many people traveling across the country to hunt in the Buckeye State. With such prevalent hunting in Ohio, it’s no wonder the state’s largest harvested whitetail deer—in both categories—are highly ranked on the world charts as well. Keep reading to learn about Ohio’s record-setting bucks.
Calculating Records
Theodore Roosevelt wanted to conserve and properly manage the United States’ wildlife. With that in mind, he and others established the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. In addition to its mission, this organization also sets guidelines for and maintains trophy hunting records for big game animals, including whitetail deer.
The focus of a trophy record for whitetail deer is not on the body size or weight of the animal but rather on its antler size and complexity. Antlered animals are scored in two categories according to the symmetry of the rack. A typical set of antlers follows a standard pattern defined by symmetrical tines and evenly spaced points. Non-typical antlers deviate from the standard in quite unusual ways, although they do have their own sense of symmetry. These racks create stunning and unique shapes and designs, often resulting in very high scores.
The score refers to the measurements and counts 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. These measurements are calculated according to a formula outlined on a score chart to provide a final score. Typical and non-typical scores above 170 and 195, respectively, are in all-time record territory.
Boone and Crockett notes that the state’s “current state management is producing consistently large bucks” since “all of the new typical records in the state’s top 10 and six of the 10 non-typical state records were taken in the 2000s.”
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Eye These Record Bucks
Ohio’s hunter-taken whitetail deer records in both categories—typical and non-typical—were set during the 2000s. In 2004 while hunting in Warren County, Bradley S. Jerman shot the record-setting whitetail deer in the typical category with a score of 201-1/8, not only snagging the state record but becoming no. 12 on the all-time list.
The no. 1 typical buck record belongs to Milo N. Hanson, who bagged the world record while hunting on his own property in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada, in November 1992. The score? 213-5/8.
In 2006, the largest hunter-taken whitetail deer in the non-typical category with a score of 295-3/8 inches was shot with a crossbow in Peebles, Ohio, by Jonathan R. Schmucker. Schmucker’s record, while impressive, especially since it was bagged with a bow, sits at no. 2 in the Ohio record books due to a pick-up from 1940.
The circumstance surrounding the non-typical Ohio record and no. 2 world record is as unique as the antlers themselves. Found dead under a chain-link fence in Portage County in 1940 by railroad workers, the rack has 45 points, main beams in the mid-20s, and a 24 3/8-inch inside spread for a total score of 328-2/8 inches.
It was mounted by a local taxidermist, and despite these measurements, the Hole in the Horn buck tarried away for four decades in the Kent Canadian Club before Dick Idol, an antler collector and a founder of the North American Whitetail magazine, bought them and had them scored by a Boone and Crockett official measurer in 1983. Idol initially thought they’d break the world record held by the Missouri Monarch buck found by the side of the road in Missouri in 1981, which scored 333-7/8.
