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LOGAN, W.Va. — Ethan McCallister knew it was a big buck, but it turned out bigger than anybody thought.
The monster whitetail which McCallister nicknamed “New Boy” as he hunted it recently passed the required 60 day drying period and was officially scored by the Pope and Young Club. The final score was 172 1/8th.
“I didn’t think it was going to go what it did, it kind of surprised me,” said McCallister. “But tape measures don’t lie I reckon.”
The official scoring took more than an hour and was done at Hillbilly Taxidermy in Chapmanville where the buck was mounted. Taxidermist Paul Cook has mounted a lot of the biggest bucks killed in West Virginia, many of them coming out of Logan County.
McCallister’s buck became the number four all time buck in the typical category for archery in West Virginia.
“That surprised me too,” he said. “I figured it would be about number six. I didn’t figure it would be number four.”
The McCallister buck bumps David Miller’s buck from 2011 which scored 171 6/8th to number five on the list. Terry McGrady’s 1997 buck also from Logan County which scored 171 3/8th falls to number five. The three typical bucks atop the archery category remain Mark Lester’s 1998 buck from Logan County which scored 175 6/8, Ronnie McCoy’s buck from 1999 in McDowell County which scored 174 6/8, and the buck killed by Austin Brown in Fayette County in 1998 which scored 173 5/8.
Adding to the trophy and the story for McCallister was the recent discovery of one of his buck’s shed antlers from last year.
“I found his shed from last year and I’m still looking for the other side of it,” he said. “Hopefully after all this snow melts off I might be able to find it.”
McCallister discovered the shed from 2012 about 150 yards from where he killed the big buck.