21-Point Fulton County Non-Typical Road-Kill Or Poached?

DNR Law Enforcement is trying to unravel the story of Fulton County’s best-scoring non-typical. Was the country-club buck a road-kill or did it get away from a poacher?

On Oct. 4, a landowner who lives on Old Alabama road across from the entrance to Country Club of the South awoke up to find a massive buck dead in his back yard. The landowner called the Fulton County public works and asked them to remove the dead deer, which was assumed to be a road-kill.

A county works crew went to the scene, but because the buck was not on the county right-of-way, they could not remove it. Another public works employee, however, who was a deer hunter overheard the discussion on the radio and offered that he would return after work to remove the buck.

DNR Law Enforcement Ranger Mike Barr with the huge non-typical rack.

That afternoon the huge buck —estimated to weigh at least 200 pounds—was hauled away. The employee took the buck to the back of his property in Forsyth County and removed the head. On Oct. 8, he notified DNR law enforcement of the road-kill. Ranger Mike Barr went to see the rack, inspect the carcass and to interview several people who had seen the buck. Interestingly, the carcass showed no signs of having been hit by a car. “Usually when a deer is hit there will be scuff marks or broken bones,” said Mike. “There was neither on this deer.”

Too, several people who had seen the deer mentioned seeing a hole in the body just behind the rib cage. The carcass was too far decomposed for Mike to determine whether the hole was a bullet hole or an injury caused by a collision with a vehicle. He plans to go over the remains with a metal detector to attempt to find a bullet.

Meanwhile, the rack was picked up by DNR while they complete the investigation — although the man who had the rack is not considered a suspect. Following the investigation, the rack will likely be returned to him.

The rack is a basic 8-point frame with 12 points on the right beam and 11 on the left. The beams measure 26 1/8 and 24 4/8 inches. The inside spread is 18 0/8 inches and the greatest outside spread is 27 1/8. The longest tine measures 11 2/8 inches and the two drop tines on the right beam are 7 0/8 and 6 2/8 inches long.

The buck was green-scored and grossed 196 4/8 points and netted 185 2/8 after deductions—ranking it as the No. 1 Fulton County non-typical ahead of Nesbit Bedingfield’s 1999 bow-kill that scored 168 2/8.

The massive Fulton County non-typical has 23 scorable points and green-scored a gross score of 196 4/8 Boone & Crockett points.