An antler-scoring expert with more than 30 years of record-keeping experience today said there’s “no way” a 49-point, 316-inch buck from Wisconsin was a legitimate free-range whitetail.
Dan Cole is a former official scorer and founding member of Minnesota Official Measurers. This morning, Cole told D&DH that he caught wind of the deer about 6 weeks before the Open Season deer and turkey expo in Wisconsin Dells in late March. A self-described big-buck historian, Cole drove 980 miles round trip to see the deer. The deer expo ran March 28, 29 and 30th.
Late yesterday, the Wisconsin DNR confirmed it is investigating the case.
Cole made the long drive after learning the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club planned to panel-score the deer and possibly enter it in its record book.
“I’m a whitetail history buff,” Cole said. “After I learned they were going to panel-score it, I thought, ‘Well, maybe there’s a chance this thing is legit.”
Sources told D&DH that the WBBC not only panel-scored it, but did so twice — once on March 28 and again on March 29.
Over the past 30 years, Cole said he has measured at least 3,000 record class whitetails, with upwards of 75 of those being of Boone and Crockett class stature. B&C’s minimum requirements are 170 inches for a typical and 190 inches for a nontypical.
“Also, I’ve scored 20 to 25-ish deer that were well over 220 inches,” he said. “I know what I’m looking at when it comes to big racks.”
Cole said the 49-point Marquette County entry was brought out for public viewing late in the day on Saturday after much of the expo’s traffic had left the building.
“A measurer was holding the mount and I was one of the first people to put my hands on it. The instant I put my hands on it, I had everything I needed to know. It wasn’t what it was being portrayed as (a wild deer killed in December).”
“The antler beading and burs were razor sharp. The rack was bone white,” he said, adding that both are clues the deer did not rub on trees and live the life of a free-ranging whitetail that supposedly died in December.
“I believe this deer died immediately after shedding its velvet,” Cole added.
“When the buck was hung up on the display wall (in the WBBC trophy room), not a single person said it was a wild deer. Everyone assumed it was a game-farm deer.”
When asked what he thought about the speculation that the hunter shot the deer and lost it to coyotes (and only found the rack and skull days later), or the fact that no trail camera photos have been found of the deer, Cole added, “Hey, anything can happen. But surely someone else would’ve known about this deer, especially in an area that is so heavily hunted (Marquette County).”
In the final analysis, Cole said he believes the story doesn’t add up, as verified by the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club’s acceptance of this deer as a free-range kill.
“If you’re trying to tell me that deer was not killed in August or early September, I’d say it’s a lie, based on what I know about deer. The beading and burs are razor sharp … it has 49 absolutely perfect points … not a fleck of dirt, or staining on them … zero color on the antlers … pure white.
“The biggest red flag for me is the fact that those bases are razor sharp.”
Efforts to contact the hunter have been unsuccessful. D&DH will continue to update this news story as more information becomes available.
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49-Point Buck Was Submitted as Fair-Chase Kill
Hunter Provided.Location for Giant 49-Pointer
Big Buck Club Officials to Review 49-Point Buck
