NON-TYPICALS IN BAMA
It is hard to pinpoint the best area, county or WMA in Alabama in which to hunt non-typicals, because these strange-racked animals can occur anywhere. Still, picking out the places where truly outstanding non-typicals have been killed is pretty simple. Alabama counties that historically have produced non-typical B&C or Pope and Young Club record-book-quality bucks are all in Alabama's famous Black Belt region. A non-typical buck must score 195 points to make the B&C all-time record book, while an archery kill must top 150 points. To date, the Heart of Dixie has yielded seven B&C non-typicals and four such P&Y racks. All of the archery kills came from the Black Belt, as did five of the seven firearms bucks.
Those statistics are not surprising to anyone who pays close attention to white-tailed deer hunting in the Cotton State.
"Eighty-five percent of all trophy whitetails come from the Black Belt, even though this region only comprises 3.5 percent of the land area in Alabama," explained David Campbell, who compiled "Alabama Whitetail Records" in cooperation with the Alabama Wildlife Federation.
My first encounter with a really big non-typical whitetail from the Cotton State, a deer taken by James Huckbay, is indelibly imprinted on my memory. It was in 1973 and I had just gotten home from my taxidermy shop after a long day.
"Mr. Phillips, I've got a really big deer that I want you to mount," he said.
"Okay, I have a refrigerator on the front porch of my taxidermy shop," I replied. "Just put the deer in there, and I'll skin it in the morning."
"I tried that, Mr. Phillips, but the deer won't fit in the refrigerator," Huckbay countered.
A little irritated, I asked why the deer wouldn't fit in the refrigerator.
"His antlers are too wide," Huckbay answered.
I didn't really want to go back to my shop that night, so I suggested that he put the deer head in the trunk of his car, since the temperature had dipped way below freezing.
"It won't fit," he told me.
I couldn't imagine a deer that wouldn't fit in the trunk of a car.
"Where do you have the deer now?"
He said it was in the back seat of his car.
"You've got the entire deer in the backseat of your car?"
"No, sir," Huckbay replied. "Just the head."
Finally relenting, I drove back to the shop to see the deer head. Needless to say, the Winston County buck's massive rack took me by surprise. Antlers were going everywhere! I had never seen such big Alabama whitetail.
The next day I called the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which at that time had no official Alabama whitetail records. Next I contacted the president of the Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF), and that organization decided to hold the first-ever Alabama Big Buck Contest. Boone and Crockett Club scorers officially ranked all the bucks entered that year. On top of the list was the Huckbay buck, which officially scored 199 2/8 B&C points. The AWF declared him Alabama's first official state record non-typical buck.
THE MOSS MONSTER
Fortunately, I also got a chance to see Alabama's present state record non-typical buck. That Perry County animal was taken by Jon Moss in 1989 and tallied an outstanding score of an official 259 7/8 Boone and Crockett points.
At the time the buck was harvested, there were all kinds of rumors and stories flying around about it, including some not-so-flattering lies. Then I got the opportunity to get the story of the buck from Moss himself, which helped set the record straight. "Although I was from Mississippi," he recalled, "I had a valid Alabama hunting license and had permission to hunt on the land. It met all the requirements of fair chase.
"The worst story I heard was when I arrived back home in Mississippi. I went to the bank I had used for years, and the teller who waited on me asked if I'd heard about the big buck that someone from Mississippi had killed. I said that I had.
"She responded, 'Well, I've got the truth about the whole deal. I know for certain that the man who killed that deer was parked on a dirt road in the woods late at night with another man's wife. They were in the back seat of his car. When they got ready to leave, he climbed out of the back seat, turned on the lights and saw this monster buck. He retrieved his rifle out of the back of the car, shot the deer, loaded it in his trunk and took the woman home. The next day he started showing the deer off.'
"I looked at the lady, smiled and asked, 'Are you sure that's exactly how it happened?' She looked back at me and replied, 'I'm absolutely sure.' Then I said, 'Lady, I'm the man who shot the big deer in Alabama, and I promise you, you are 100 percent wrong.' "
Moss also said that he had to call the police twice because people threatened to steal his deer or burn down his house because they knew for sure he'd poached the deer off their properties and not taken it where he said he had.
"The deer was nothing but a nightmare to me," Moss emphasized. "If I'd known how many lies would be told about me and this deer, I would never have pulled the trigger."
To ensure the safety of his mounted trophy, Moss finally hung the deer head in the bank where he had challenged the teller's story. That way it is safe and other hunters have the chance to view the great whitetail rack.