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A Texas butcher and calf roper came to Nebraska last weekend to hunt deer.
He went home with a possible state record nontypical whitetail buck.
“A good hunter doesn't get to kill that deer. A lucky hunter gets that deer,'' said 24-year-old Wesley O'Brien of Lexington, Texas. “I'm too young to be able to shoot something like that.''
The size and mass of the deer's gnarly antlers set hunters buzzing after O'Brien checked in the carcass Sunday at Schramm Park State Recreation Area's Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium near Gretna.
O'Brien said the deer had 38 scorable points on its antlers. Preliminary measurements of the antler beams, points and circumferences scored the rack at 292 7/8 gross and 281 net, he said.
“It's a remarkable deer,'' said Tony Korth, aquarium director and a certified antler scorer.
The current Nebraska record for a nontypical firearm whitetail scored 242 5/8. It was shot in Nance County by Robert Snyder of Genoa, Neb., in 1961.
O'Brien's deer also may rival a buck taken by bow hunter Del Austin of Hastings, Neb., in Hall County in 1962. That deer scored 279 7/8.
The rack on O'Brien's buck won't be officially scored until 60 days after a taxidermist cuts it off the skull. Antlers shrink a bit during the so-called drying period.
The most common verbal reaction of people who see the antlers isn't appropriate to print in a family newspaper, he said.
O'Brien shot the deer Saturday while hunting with friends in the southeast corner of the state on private property near Shubert in Richardson County. It was opening day of Nebraska's nine-day firearm deer season.
O'Brien, Brandon Rhodus of Lexington, Texas, and Dave Haveman of Louisville, Neb., were scouting areas to hunt Sunday and Monday.
“They had this Texas boy all turned around and lost,'' O'Brien said. “I could never find that place again. But we had about 20 minutes of shooting time left when Dave and I saw this buck with two does.''
The animals were 250 yards away near a line of trees. O'Brien worked his way through the timber to within 100 yards of the three deer. The deer mating season is under way and the buck was paying close attention to the two females, O'Brien said.
O'Brien said he knew from a distance that the buck would be worth taking a shot, “but I didn't know what I would be getting. If he had turned and looked right at me, I'd never been able to hit him. It happened quick.''
He hit the buck with one shot from his .270 Weatherby Magnum rifle. The deer ran 30 yards and dropped.
O'Brien said the hunters had high expectations or they wouldn't have driven 14 hours to Nebraska.
“We knew Nebraska has some monster deer,'' he said. “Serious hunters who love whitetails know what Nebraska has to offer.''
O'Brien plans to have a shoulder mount made of the deer.
Contact the writer:
444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
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