Ian McTurk of Valdosta took the 17-pointer in Brooks County, and it topped the Georgia list for 2004. It scored 179 4/8 B&C. Photo by Bill Cooper

On a dark and windy November afternoon, Ian McTurk sat in a small ground blind-watching for deer activity in the surrounding woods. Situated in a recently thinned 50-acre pine stand located in Brooks County, the block of timber was often utilized as a travel corridor by deer moving through the property from surrounding plantation lands. However, with the wind continuing to blow and a light rain falling, the hunter had seen nothing to be optimistic about.

"My hunting companion that afternoon was Tommy Ross," Ian noted. "The day before, his stepson, Chad, had hunted the stand where I was located and sighted a big deer some distance away through the pines. Unfortunately, the buck never got any closer and eventually continued on."

As time passed, the woods remained quiet, except for the continual sound of the wind whistling through the pines. An already dark afternoon began to get even darker as available daylight under the dense tree canopy slowly began to fade. Suddenly, to the hunter's right, somewhere in the mixture of shadows and trees, he detected movement.

"I didn't immediately see anything," Ian said. "But then a deer walked through a small opening and I was able to see the outline of a buck with what appeared to be an 8- to 10-point rack. There wasn't time to think; I made the decision to shoot, and when I fired, the deer hit the ground."

Ian remained sitting for several minutes, and then cautiously eased out of the blind and walked to where the buck was lying. To his amazement, instead of an 8- or 10-pointer, the deer's rack was massive with numerous points. As he stood, staring down at the big deer, Tommy Ross came walking through the woods, but the sight of the buck stopped him in his tracks.

"You have killed a monster," he exclaimed, as he looked at Ian and smiled.

"I really had a hard time believing the size of the buck's antlers, especially the number of points," Ian related. "It's probably fortunate that I didn't know how big the rack was; everything happened so fast, I didn't have time to get nervous."

One look at the rack's growth pattern and it becomes easy to understand how Ian could have underestimated the size of the antlers. The beams hook sharply inward, forming a tight inside spread of only 14 4/8 inches. The 17 scorable points, 10 of which make up the 5x5 typical frame, all originate within this narrow basket. In other words, there is a great deal of bone concentrated in a relatively small area.

Not surprisingly, the entire rack exhibits great antler mass. Basal measurements are 6 1/8 and 5 3/8 inches, with the six remaining circumferences all exceeding 4 inches. Tine length is also very impressive, with brows (G-1s) of nearly 6 inches, and paired G-2s and G-3s all taping between 9 and 10 inches.

The typical 10-point frame grosses 160 7/8 and nets 155 4/8. After adding in the 7 abnormal points, totaling 24 inches, the final non-typical Boone and Crockett score is 179 4/8. This ranks the big whitetail as Georgia's top non-typical of the 2004 season. Within Brooks County, the buck stands as the second biggest non-typical ever recorded.