Decades after it was shot, Boone and Crockett Club verifies historic whitetail as largest U.S. typical buck

Chicago — It took 32 years, an electrician’s sharp eye and a painstaking Boone and Crockett Club verification process to reveal what Illinois hunter Sam Aiuppa had been keeping in his basement.

The largest typical whitetail ever taken in the United States.

The B&C Club officially certified Aiuppa’s 1991 LaSalle County buck at 207-7⁄8 inches, putting the long-forgotten Illinois deer ahead of the legendary Jordan buck by 1-6⁄8 inches and into second place worldwide among typical whitetails, behind only Milo Hanson’s 213-5⁄8-inch world record from Saskatchewan.

The certification is what makes the record official. After the rack was acquired by collector James Martin, it was scored by B&C Official Measurer Dave Boland and then independently re-measured by two additional official measurers.

The completed score charts were reviewed by Dr. Jon McRoberts, chairman of B&C’s Records of North American Big Game Committee, who confirmed the final score.

“This is a monumental addition to North American big game records,” said Kyle Lehr, B&C Club director of Big Game Records. “We are thrilled to officially welcome the Aiuppa buck into the Boone and Crockett records. It took more than three decades for this remarkable deer to be recognized, but its place in the record books is well deserved.”

For Martin, there was never much question about which organization’s score would ultimately settle the matter.

“It doesn’t matter what score another outfit gives you; it only matters what score Boone and Crockett gives you,” he said.

And Boone and Crockett has now spoken.

The story behind the record is almost as remarkable as the rack itself.

Aiuppa killed the buck in late November 1991 during a pheasant-hunting trip in LaSalle County. After a day of bird hunting, he replaced the birdshot in his Remington 870 shotgun with a slug and climbed into a stand along a timbered area.

About 40 minutes later, a buck walked beneath him. Aiuppa fired.

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At the time, Aiuppa considered himself more of a bird hunter than a deer hunter. He mounted the skull-capped antlers on a plaque and put them in his basement, where they sat unnoticed for more than three decades.

The secret finally got out when an electrician doing work at Aiuppa’s home saw the rack and immediately recognized that it was something special. The buck’s enormous eye guards, measuring more than a foot long, were particularly striking.

Word eventually reached Martin, an antler collector from near Rochester, New York. Martin drove more than 600 miles to Illinois to see the rack for himself and eventually purchased it from Aiuppa.

Martin then pursued the Boone and Crockett certification.

The buck officially scores as a 5×5 typical, despite carrying about 9 inches of abnormal antler. It lacks a matching G-5 on the left side, while its massive eye guards also contribute to the abnormal measurements.

The deer’s history is further supported by sheds discovered before Aiuppa killed it. One shed found in 1989 reportedly scored 98-6⁄8 inches. A pair found by James Albring in 1990 reportedly scored 95 inches and 104-6⁄8 inches.

Those sheds helped confirm that the 1991 rack was not a mystery deer that suddenly appeared from nowhere.

Now, after 35 years, the buck’s identity and place in whitetail history are no longer in question.