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OL’s 20 Biggest Bucks of 2011

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The 2011 deer year is coming to a close, making it the perfect time to look back at some of the biggest bucks taken this season. We've put together a ranking of the biggest bucks reported on in 2011 by Outdoor Life and included photos, scores and links to the original stories. Editor's Note: The bucks in this gallery are ordered according to score and most of the scores listed are rough green scores, not official Boone and Crockett scores, which require a 30-day drying period.
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Illinois Bowhunter Tags 30-Point Freak Buck
Score: 258 5/8 Travis Cockburn was scrolling through trail cam pictures with his son when his jaw abruptly hit the floor–this was a buck like none he had ever seen before. His son aptly named the deer "Ginormica." By 2:30 pm Cockburn was settled in his stand. The weather had changed and the temperatures were dropping. Around 4:20 pm Cockburn caught movement as Ginormica crossed a creek knee-deep in water and on a path leading right past Cockburn's stand. With the buck already in bow range, there was no time to get nervous. At a mere 18 yards, Cockburn watched as the buck turned broadside, bleated to stop the deer and put the arrow right behind its shoulder. Seventy yards later Ginormica hit the ground. Ginormica green scored 258 5/8-inches with a massive rack holding 30 scorable points. The base measurements were 7-4/8 and 8-4/8 inches. Incredibly, Ginormica had an astonishing 49 inches of mass measurements! Cockburn's buck could break into record books after the 60-day drying period in the number four or five spot as the all-time archery deer in the state of Illinois. Read the full story here.
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Potential State Record Buck Taken in Connecticut
Score: 226 6/8 Back in September a giant non-typcial buck was taken by a bowhunter in the town of East Haddam, Connecticut. The massive main frame 12-pointer reportedly green scored 226 6/8" and is possibly the new non-typical archery state record in Connecticut. Read full story here.
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Louisiana Hunter Takes 226-Inch Buck That Escaped From a Deer Enclosure
Score: 226 Jacey Broussard doesn't hunt behind a high fence, but over Thanksgiving weekend she shot a pen-raised deer. This 226-inch buck escaped from a deer enclosure, crossed a river and ended up a mile and a half away on Broussard's father-in-law's 480-acre hunting property. Broussard had been after the deer all season and when the buck finally showed up Broussard shot him at 15 yards with a 7mm Mag. While the buck has an incredible rack, he was only a 3 1/2 year old and weighed 160 pounds. Read the full story here.
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Potential Record Muzzleloader Buck Taken In Kansas
Score: 225 Scott Carlson was hunting in Rawlins County just 50 miles east of the Colorado border. The western part of Kansas is known for it's mule deer, but Scott's giant 225-inch whitetail proves there's more than just big mule deer in western Kansas. Scott first saw this buck three years ago when it showed up on his trail camera. The buck's massive rack has all the features of a record book whitetail: drop tines, extra points, a split brow tine and heavy mass. The buck could go down as the number one whitetail taken with a muzzleloader in Kansas. This story was first reported by: North American Whitetail
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Illinois Hunter Drops Massive 22-Point Non-Typical Buck
Score: 210 4/8 Jason Wallace put the hammer down on a 210" slob buck from Tazwell, County, Illinois on October 23, 2011. The massive 22-point non-typical has an unofficial green score of 210 4/8 inches! This story was first reported by: North American Whitetail
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Photos: Check Out This 208-Inch Halloween Kansas Buck
Score: 208 Jeff Severson took this beautiful 208-inch buck on a Kansas bowhunt. On Halloween Jeff Severson took this monster Kansas buck with a bow. While the deer boasts a 24-inch spread and an estimated gross score of 208 inches (unofficially), it's not his biggest buck to date. He took his biggest deer in 2004, a 220-inch behemoth that Buckmasters deemed a world record. Read the full story here.
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Kansas Hunter's First Buck Scores 207
Score: 207 From the Topeka Capital-Journal comes an awesome story of a girl's first buck, sporting a rack that green gross scores 207 5/8. Last month Rachelle Karl went deer hunting with her boyfriend Kyle Sims – Rachelle was familiar with the outdoors, but had never gone hunting before she met Kyle three years ago. Shortly after Rachelle and Kyle climbed into their stand this massive buck stepped out. She shot and hit the buck, but it ran straight at them so she shot again and dropped him for good at 60 yards. The taxidermist gross scored the deer at 207 5/8 inches with a net typical score of 178 2/8 and a net nontypical score of 198 4/8. Read the full story here.
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Kentucky Buck Tops 200 Inches
Score: 201 This buck is a mainframe 4 by 6 with extra points sticking out of his rack from all directions, putting him in the non-typical category. The Kentucky bruiser was taken in Todd County and scores a whopping 201 inches. Word from the Kentucky Hunting Forums, where news of this buck was originally posted, said the hunter films for a show called Open Season TV that airs on the In-Pursuit channel, and that this hunt will be featured on the show next fall. Read the full story here.
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200-Inch Buck Taken in Ohio
Score: 200 Monday, November 28th was opening day of shotgun season in Ohio and Kyle Danflous and his son Devin were hunting together in Licking County on the edge of a draw that led up to a wooded hillside. At about 8:00 a.m. a big buck came off the hill with three does behind him. The deer all came within 18 yards of Kyle and Devin before they saw the two hunters and stopped in their tracks. It was too late for the big buck though as Devin already had his Winchester 1200 20-gauge pump leveled and was squeezing the trigger. Devin's buck has a 21 ½ inch inside spread, 27-inch main beams and six-inch mass measurements throughout the rack. Kyle rough scored the deer just under the 200-inch mark – quite an impressive whitetail. Read the full story here.
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197-Inch Velvet Buck Taken in Kentucky
Score: 197 It would be extremely difficult to find another hunter who has more giant bucks hanging on his wall than Stan Potts. For more than 40 years, Potts has been busting mature bucks across the nation. A few weeks ago, Potts added another top-heavy buck to his list that was packing extra-long tines and covered in velvet. Potts got on the trail of a giant velvet-covered buck in the Bluegrass State of Kentucky. This particular deer had been frequently visiting a small isolated green field that was surrounded by timber. Pre-season scouting revealed that the buck was bedding on a wooded bench directly above the hidden food source. Potts decided to hang multiple treestands to compensate various wind directions and hunting conditions. By the way, Potts's amazing buck green scored more than 197 inches and carried 16 super-long velvet-coated points. You'll be able to see the entire hunt unfold on both "Mathews' Dominant Bucks" Read the full story here.
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196-Inch Ohio Buck Could Rank in Top 16 All-Time
Score: 196 Bowhunter Ronnie Stevens took this giant 196" eleven pointer on the evening of October 18th. The 11 pointer nets roughly 189" and could very well rank among the top 16 typical whitetails listed in the Boone and Crockett record books after the 60-day drying period. Ronnie spotted the buck only a week earlier on his way home from his kid's volleyball practice. He started knocking on doors and eventually gained permission to hunt the buck's home turf. He put out a trail camera and got pictures of the bruiser the very next day. One week later the buck was under his stand and Ronnie was able to make his shot count. Read the full story here.
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Veteran Bowhunter Takes 194-Inch Buck in Kansas
Score: 194 Greg Sims has been on a roll lately. Over the last two seasons he's taken a handful of deer that have topped 150 inches, including this beautiful 11-point main frame buck that gross scored 194 inches. He shot this incredible deer last month while bowhunting in Kansas. Sims had never seen the 194-inch buck he shot before it showed up beneath his stand. He was originally targeting two other bucks that he had caught on trail cameras. Read the full story here.
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Bowhunter Takes 191-Inch Kentucky Bruiser
Score: 191 5/8 Ryan Cox started hunting this buck a couple years ago after he captured photos of it on his trail camera. The majority of these pictures were taken at night and the buck always seemed to stay out of sight during the daylight hours. But finally, Cox caught the buck out during the daytime. The buck cautiously walked directly towards him. He began to focus his attention away from the long tines and massive antlers and onto the vitals. Within seconds, the whitetail was standing almost directly beneath his stand. Cox quickly came to full draw and placed an arrow right between the buck's shoulder blades. The shot pinned the deer to the ground. It scored 191 5/8. Read the full story here.
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188-Inch Buck Breaks Oklahoma Record
Score: 188 4/8 Wade Ward just got his January 2011 buck scored this year and found out it netted 188 4/8, making it the largest typical Oklahoma buck to be taken by a bowhunter on record. Read the full story here.
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Teen Takes 17-Point Buck in NY
Score: 181 3/8" Seventeen-year-old Jake Maurer beat the odds and took this beautiful buck in October in Western New York outside of Rochester. The deer scored 181 3/8" inches as a non-typical, which would easily land him in the archery record books. Read the full story here.
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Photos: 181-Inch Buck From Connecticut
Score: 181 Moises Torrent was having an uneventful archery season in his home state of Connecticut. Despite the odds, Moises was still able to take this massive 181-inch buck earlier this month during gun season. Read the full story here.
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Husband-and-Wife Team Tags 12-Point Buck in Oklahoma
Score: 164 6/8 Mike Lambeth, recently visited Sayre, Oklahoma with his wife Donna for a muzzleloader hunt near the North Fork of the Red River. During this trip, Donna was able to set her crosshairs on a Sooner State giant. Mike calmly coached his wife on what to do and helped her prepare for the moment of truth. He ranged the buck at 167 yards, which is a pretty demanding shot for a smoke-pole! Without hesitation, Donna cradled the barrel of her TC muzzleloader into the open split of the tripod and took a steady aim. When she gently squeezed the trigger, a puffy white cloud of smoke filled the blind and temporarily blurred their vision. The air cleared just enough to allow the pair to faintly see the heavy-racked buck crashing to the ground. Donna's Oklahoma bruiser had a 21 ½ inch inside spread, 12 massive points and scored an impressive 164 6/8. Read full story here.
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Weber Buck Could Find Its Place in Wisconsin Record Books
Score: Unknown As a gun hunter, Jeff would have a limited time during the short firearms season to pursue this buck. Jeff's solution was simple — buy some archery gear, practice and get after the buck during bow season. On October 5th, Jeff was bowhunting when the giant whitetail stepped out and presented him with a 30-yard shot. The shot was a little far back, but with the help of some friends, Jeff was able to find the buck that same night. The 15-point buck has the potential to make the state record books with a 22 3/8" spread, which is two inches wider than Wayne Schumacher's Wisconsin buck from 2009. Read the full story here.
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30-Point Illinois Deer is a Doe
Score: Unknown This 30-point deer taken over the second weekend of gun season in Illinois is actually a doe, according to the Wellsville Daily. The deer hand no male genetalia and was estimated to be about four or five years old. While antlered does are not unheard of, they are rare and they hardly ever grow racks of this size. As of now, the deer has not yet been scored. As you can see from the photo it has a crazy freak rack with a droptine that is still in velvet. An Illinois farmer was the lucky hunter who took this freak deer. Read the full story here.
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14-Year-Old Shoots 22-Point Velvet Buck In Michigan
Score: Unknown Fourteen-year-old Tori Poloski may have found the best of both worlds when she set the crosshairs on this 22-point velvet buck during Michigan's youth hunt. Tori was hunting with her father Stan on their 25-acre property in the Marion Township when she spotted the buck. When the buck stepped out at 60 yards, Tori knew she had to make the shot from her Rossi 12-gauge count. One shot was all it took and soon Tori and her father Stan were standing beside the fallen buck, pouring over 22 points covered in velvet. The mainframe 10 pointer had an impressive nine drop tines, long G2's with a kicker off it's right G2, a 14-inch inside spread, and a 17-inch outside spread. The buck also weighed more than 200 pounds. Read the full story here.

We rank the 20 biggest typical and non-typical whitetails taken in 2011. Think we’re missing one? Drop us a note in the comments section!