Jacob Ayecock won the 2016 Arkansas Big Buck Classic with a new State Record buck!!!!
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The Arkansas Big Buck Classic has enjoyed some memorable moments during its 26-year history, but none bigger than 2016 when it crowned a new state-record typical whitetail.
The buck, taken last November by Jacob Ayecock of Tillar, debuted at the Big Buck Classic in January, at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds.
The state’s hunting message boards had been abuzz for weeks about a potential state-record that was killed “somewhere in southeast Arkansas.” Those rumors sprout every year, but the racks always fell short of breaking the seemingly unassailable record of 189 Boone & Crockett set by Thomas Sparks in 1975.
Ayecock’s buck was the real deal, though, and Arkansas’s hunters got their first chance to see it at the Big Buck Classic, where it was officially scored by a panel of official Boone & Crockett scorers.
The first question was whether to score it as a typical or non-typical. The 13-point rack had an inside spread of 21 4/8 inches and a main beam that measured 29 3/8 inches. Its gross score was 212 7/8. Its defining characteristics appeared to be drop tines, but they are actually very long, downward curving ends of the main beams.
“A panel scored it and sent pictures to Boone and Crockett,” said Catherine Murchison, “ promoter of the BBC. The panel determined that they {the down tines} were part of the main beams.” Boone and Crockett officials agreed. The panel awarded a net typical score of 195 2/8.
Besides being a new Arkansas typical record, it is also the largest typical whitetail ever killed in the South, excluding Texas. According to the Boone & Crockett Club, the Montana-based authority on North American trophy animals, Ayecock’s buck is the 57th largest typical whitetail rack.
Obviously, Ayecock’s buck won the coveted 2016 Best Overall honors, along with the commemorative jacket and an ATV from Bradford Marine & ATV.
More important, Ayecock’s buck directed the national spotlight on our state’s buck growing potential. It has been featured in Arkansas Sportsman, North American Whitetail and Deer & Deer Hunting.
It was fitting that Ayecock’s buck debuted at the Big Buck Classic, which celebrates Arkansas’s deer hunting tradition. Every season brings a new set of stories and each January at the Big Buck Classic hunting expo and big buck contest, held at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds,, you can get those stories first hand, in person, and see the season's best right in front of you. Stay tuned to hear the story of Jacob's hunt as he tells about the steps taken to tag a new Arkansas State Record trophy buck!
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