Mushroom Hunters find 200 inch Buck

A monster Oklahoma whitetail found by a mushroom hunter has the hunting world buzzing after the Boone and Crockett score tipped out at 199 4/8 … and it could have been higher!

Landowner and cattle rancher J.W. Hart owns the skull and typical antlers, which he said were found by a friend of his who was hunting mushrooms on Hart’s 80-acre property. The tract is not high-fenced, he said, and is surrounded by a 2,000-acre tract whose owners do not allow anyone to hunt.

Hart believes the deer died sometime during the harsh winter of 2011. If not for some rodent chewing on the tips of the long, majestic and near-perfectly matched tines, the “Oklahoma Mushroom Buck” could have topped 200 inches.

“It’s bleached out and has chew marks on the tips,” Hart told Deer & Deer Hunting. “Even with those, it’s still 199 4/8. I don’t know anything else about it, if it was hit by a car or a hunter shot and lost it, or if it just died. Our winter last year (2011) was one of the worst we’ve had.”