Photo: BTR master scorer Ed Waite has measured more world records than anyone in history. Here, Ed’s hands are full with The Brewster Buck’s 41 measurable points.
It’s official: The Illinois buck arrowed Nov. 2 by Virginia bowhunter Luke Brewster is the hands-down largest free-ranging whitetail ever recorded, a world record in every respect.
The top-heavy Edgar County deer is the latest of only 19 wild-born whitetails that have topped the 300-inch mark since 1892, or at least since the current antler measuring systems came into existence. Luke’s buck has been entered into Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records with a score of 353 5/8 inches.
The new record is a mainframe 4x5 with 32 irregular points, nearly two-thirds of which are on the left antler. That side alone tallies 208 5/8 inches to the right’s 124 7/8.
Six of those 41 points (not counting the main beams) are more than a foot long. Three more exceed 10 inches.
To look upon it is to invite the unhinging of your jaw.
The Illinois whitetail has also been proclaimed a world record with the Pope and Young and Boone and Crockett clubs. A panel of measurers taped the rack in Omaha, Nebraska, on March 1. After more than eight hours of opinion-sharing, they arrived at a net score of 327 7/8 inches.
The BTR score is higher than B&C’s because Buckmasters has no deductions. In addition, BTR master scorer Ed Waite, no stranger to deer of this caliber, interpreted the rack’s irregular points differently, which resulted in longer tip-to-baseline measurements.
The story of Luke’s hunt will be in the July issues of Rack and Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine.
–Photo courtesy of Ed Waite