Luke Brewster brings big-buck buzz back to Illinois: Perspective and history

Virginian Luke Brewster brought international buzz back to hunting for whitetail deer in Illinois with a freak non-typical buck he arrowed Nov. 2 in Edgar County. His buck could have 39 scorable points and is rumored to have green-scored 311 inches.

“It was so non-typical that I would not even guess,” Illinois Conservation Police Officer Dan Greuel said. “I will attest that it was a big-racked deer.”

Greuel, a CPO of 19 years stationed in Shelby County, checked the deer on Nov. 3. He confirmed it was taken with a compound bow. So it could challenge for the world record recognized by the Pope and Young Club, which keeps archery records and does not accept records taken with crossbows.

Deer antlers are scored in inches (in fractions of 1/8) by adding and subtracting such measurements as tine length, spread of antlers and main beam circumference. Antlers must dry for 60 days before being officially scored.

Deer activist Tim Walmsley, who tracks Illinois deer records, emailed that Jerry Bryant holds Illinois’ record for non-typical (304 3/8). Bryant shot his 37-pointer Nov. 15, 2001 in Fulton County with a crossbow.

Michael Beatty holds the P&Y world-record non-typical (294 0/8), a 39-pointer taken Nov. 8, 2000 in Greene County, Ohio.

The highest scoring non-typical taken by a hunter (312 0/8), as recognized by the Boone and Crockett Club, a conservation group that keeps big-game records, is the freaky 47-pointer shot by Stephen Tucker on Nov. 7, 2016 with a muzzleloader in Sumner County, Tennessee.

B&C’s world-record non-typical, a 44-pointer scoring 333 7/8, was picked up in 1981 in St. Louis County, Missouri.

With any monster buck, rumors fly, one reason Greuel checked Brewster’s.

Greuel found “no indication that it was a fenced deer” and added, “I saw nothing suspicious. They had it on game camera from before and some of the neighbors had found sheds.”

Outdoor Therapy posted the YouTube video montage below.