LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — We’re in the thick of deer season here in Arkansas, and every hunter hopes to land a buck they’ll remember forever.
But what about the biggest ever landed here in the Natural State? Trey Reid with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) said that really depends on how you look at it.
“When we say the biggest deer in Arkansas, first we have to ask what exactly are we talking about? There could be a big, bodied deer but I think most of the time people are talking about the antlers on the deer,” Reid explained.
The AGFC measures deer by the Boone and Crockett system, with two ways in which antlers are measured— typical and nontypical.
“Typical is what we think about when they’re symmetrical with five points on this side and five points on that side or four and four," Reid described. "A nontypical is these kind of nonsymmetrical antlers with kickers and stickers with dropped hinds and different points."
So, who holds the record for the biggest typical and nontypical deer killed in Arkansas?
“Our state record typical is pretty new, it was shot in 2018 by William Lloyd in Lee County and the total number of inches was 200 and 1/8th inches. Our state record for nontypical is 238 3/8th inches in 1999. Billy Dooley and that was taken in Prairie County," he said.
If you’re a deer hunter out there still hoping for your shot at the record books, Reid added that there's no better place than Arkansas to gun for it.
“Hunters want bigger bucks and they’re doing things to get bigger bucks. Allowing them to live longer primarily and we’re seeing it in Arkansas’ deer. We have more Boone and Crockett record deer in Arkansas than most states in the Southeast,” Reid said.
These deer were measured at the Big Buck Classic, an annual event returning the weekend of January 26.