TFG Exclusive: Youngster bags Milam Co. giant, potential La. record buck taken

NFL Won’t Allow Gun Commercial to Air During Superbowl, Watch Here
December 2, 2013
Gear Video: Gulp! Saltwater
December 3, 2013

Big bucks are prone to show up when you least expect them to. Perhaps nobody knows that better than 15-year-old Hayden Rasco of Gause.

The Milano High School sophomore was manning a blind on a little 200-acre spread in Milam County during the Youth Only deer season when he crossed paths with a freak-of-whitetail with a set of antlers unlike anything else he has ever seen.

“We just don’t see a lot of really good bucks in this county, and when you do it’s usually an 8 or 10 pointer — certainly nothing like this one,” said Rasco. “Bucks this trashy are pretty much unheard of. I’ve only heard about one, and a guy shot it four years ago about three miles from our place. I guess that deer could have had something to do (genetically) with mine. Who knows. I know I’m just happy he showed up when and where he did.”

Rasco said he was on the stand for a couple of hours on the afternoon of Oct. 27, but he didn’t see much activity until the final hour of daylight. The hunter said had been watching a doe, yearling and small six point for a while when he heard a racket coming from inside a dense stand of nearby underbrush.

“It sounded a buck was in there making a scrape or something, but I couldn’t see anything because it was so thick,” he said. “I went ahead and got my gun up just in case something big stepped out.”

Moments later, Rasco said a buck with very weird looking rack walked into an opening about 40 yards away. He didn’t waste any time lowering the boom on the buck with his .270.

Sporting 23 scoring points, Rasco’s buck is one of those genetic freaks that looks as if somebody strapped sticks of dynamite to the main beams and lit the fuses. Points and tines protrude in all directions from a nasty mix of webbing that accounts for 57 5/8 inches of abnormal antler growth.

The non-typical rack registered an official Texas Big Game Awards gross Boone and Crockett score of 183 2/8 and 177 4/8 net…..

While we’re on the topic of giant bucks, huge news came out of the Sportsman’s Paradise last week when Louisiana Sportsman Magazine broke a story about a potential new state record typical taken earlier this month in Concordia Parish by Jason Archer of Ferriday, La.

Archer’s buck, a 16 pointer, grew an incredible rack of enormous proportions, including 29 7/8 inch main beams, seven inch bases and an inside spread of 23 4/8 inches. It was rough scored at 210 7/8 inches gross for the Simmons Sporting Good big buck contest in Bastrop, La. The contest utilizes the Boone and Crockett scoring method, the mostly widely accepted scoring method for North American big game animals. An official Buckmasters scorer also taped the rack at 223 7/8 inches, according to Andy Crawford, editor of LSM.

The rack will have to be re-scored after a mandatory 60-day drying period to determine the official net B&C score after deducts for lack of symmetry. That tally will decide whether the Archer buck dethrones the Don Broadway buck from the state record title it has held for 70 years.

Taken in 1943, the Broadway buck netted 184 6/8. Sources who have viewed the Archer buck expect it to net close to the current state record mark.

Archer shot the deer on the afternoon of Nov. 9, opening day of Louisiana’s primitive firearms season. He reportedly brought down the buck on open range using a Thompson Center Encore .35 Whelan. He was hunting on open range private property near the Mississippi River in close proximity to the Louisiana/Mississippi border.

“That particular area of the state is big buck central,” Crawford said.

By Matt Williams

 

 

Loading

Comments are closed.