Walker Co Giant

Saw where a guy killed a 200"+ buck in Walker Co

If y’all only knew the ones that don’t make social media.

Been several deer folks drive to Saskatchewan to kill that have been killed around here this year.

Yep and those are the ones that don’t make it to your local processor

Pics? I know it ain't your story to tell but...200? Post it up!

It’s on FB. Steve Lucas scored for Buckmaster’s at 226 composite, 208 final score.

Pics please!

It’s all over social media so I guess it’s ok to do this

jpg upload free

Another year he’d been a giant

Cull buck. Messed up rack.

Front shoulder like a thoroughbred horse. What a buck.

Whew lawdy

Meh (tm).

Thats a mess of a deer, good un fo sho

That'll work!

Long arming it

Well dad gum!

how the hell you measure that thing

Goodness

Well, his season is over, anything he kills after that will be a disappointment, lol......definitely a lifetime buck.....

Toad

The guy that killed it is a great guy . Never seen it or had it on camera is what i was told .

Daggum, Probably the best way for it to happen to a man though. If you had a prior picture or knew of the deer you’d probably lose to much sleep and or mess the deer up with pressure etc.

That makes it a lot better. A win for the good guys

He is a good guy and a close friend of my wife’s family. Can’t wait to hear the story directly from him about his once in a lifetime buck!

Full grown and then some! Was that a WMA kill?

No it’s not on a WMA. It’s in the vicinity of the previous Wolf Creek WMA, which is no more, but it wouldn’t have been on that property anyway.

All lies… there are no deer in Walker Co.

Looks like hed had several birthdays

Thats the definition of a freak nasty right there.... Congrats to the hunter...

That is a huge deer, but I just don’t see 200”. Guess I don’t know how to score and judge a non-typical.
Great deer though!

Giant

Got pretty dang big eating pine needles and strip mine overburden.

I wonder if there is something about how they restore those strip mines that introduces an abundance of certain minerals that influence antler growth? I know reclaimed strip mines can make good deer habitat with the browse and cover but I don’t think that alone can explain some of these giants coming out of that area. And I don’t think it’s Michigan genetics spreading south from Bankhead either.

I honestly believe it brings up minerals that were further down in the soil. We all know it’s the dirt that makes big deer.

Walker County is the new Jackson County.

Interesting theory. A lot of the strip mine land in various areas does produce big deer.

Arent most of them in pretty rugged terrain??

Make some descent rattling horns

I’ve got several clients there. It can be very rugged, rocky and remote in places. I’ve also wondered about the fertility of the minerals they brought to the surface. There’s always BIG deer in that general area. I also think some of it may very well be some genetic influence from Bankhead. It’s not that far given the dispersal of young bucks and they’ve had 98 years to do it.

“Rugged” doesn’t begin to describe lots of the hills/hollows of that area!!! Folks that kill big deer around there really earn them. I’ve got some good friends that hunt around there and I’ve gotten to hunt a good bit as a guest on their places: it has whipped me every time between the rough terrain and swirling winds!!!

That makes for some tough hunting and gives those bucks a big strategic advantage….as well as creating lots of hidey holes where hunters just rarely go…..which ends up letting some bucks get old……

I also wonder if living in that kinda rugged terrain changes the deer physically…..You would think having to climb those hills day in and day out would build more muscle mass than a flatland buck….assuming they have adequate food…..I wonder if that somehow translates to better racks?

Hmmmmm, sounds familiar .

Exactly......

No doubt you need age to get them that big and rough terrain contributes to that. But there are a lot of places in Alabama with rough terrain and old bucks that never produce what other areas can. It’s a very frustrating state to hunt. Constantly toying with the despair of knowing you hunt in one of the bottom ten big buck states while being teased with the potential of the occasional giant that comes out of seemingly terrible strip mined mountain land.

I would think that food is probably playing a big factor in that. I know Jackson Co has a lot of fertile valleys mixed in with those rugged mountains…..Isnt Bankhead surrounded by farmland??

Something about this buck too that nobody has mentioned…..Its no doubt a stud with great mass but a lot of that non-typical stuff it has going on may just be tied to some kind of antler injury or something…..If you look at the other side its just a basic 8 pt……The hunter may have just gotten really lucky to have killed this deer on the right year

Most folks would be surprised to know that - there were NO deer in half of Walker County 40 years ago. I’m not saying a few, I mean ZERO. I grew up in one of those places. We would see a deer track in the garden, eventually - and you ran home to tell everybody. Then, in my teens - we killed a couple “around the house”. Things fortunately changed fast.

But there was a time that most every hunter in the area traveled south and west to find huntable populations.

To the north there’s a decent amount of Ag. Every other direction no.

Where this deer was killed there’s no agriculture to speak of. I typically see the better deer in north AL come from heavily timbered areas rather than ag lands.

Not really. Nothing substantial. And basically none in Walker County. The steep terrain doesn’t roll into a Ag valley at all.

That’s what I keep saying. There are large areas in northwest AL going through the population boom the black belt encountered in the 80s to early 2000s. The populations here have grown exponentially over the last 30-40 years. There were NO deer here 50-60 years ago. Not just a few, but like you said zero. That’s why I think the Bankhead population has maintained its genetic integrity for almost a century. It had no competition and movement from deer populations around it. It was an isolated pocket of deer expanding outward with no other influence until recently.

This sounds exactly like our area in North AL. Even 20 years ago there was very few deer. Now there’s deer everywhere. Robinhedd

According to MSU deer study- nutrition vs genetics, they did a study on three different deer from three different areas of the state. I believe they may have been different sub- species. The basis of their conclusion was that when all three were provided the same nutrition, by the second generation they were all equal size. I said that to say that evidently there is something else in Bankhead and similar that is putting inches on those deer. Age and genetics could be a factor, but that isn’t coming full circle without nutrition.

Yep......and its not every buck that reaches old age that's growing really big......It may just be the perfect storm of those few that live in just the right places

Heck of a deer. Congrats to him!

Timbers mom will be making contact soon I’m sure

Shame Wolfe Creek WMA was closed down. Definitely some Hollers on that place, they have to Pipe Sunshine into.

That’s what I find so fascinating about that area. Anywhere else producing really big deer has easy explanations: Bankhead’s Michigan genes, the Black Belt’s soil, other areas with lots of ag fields. Walker and surrounding areas don’t have any of that. Something has to be going on with minerals in the reclaimed strip mines.

We're only talking like 15-20 miles from Bankhead, correct???.......I wouldnt think it would be out of the realm of possibility for some of the bucks born to Bankhead does to disperse that far.

No. You’re looking at 30-40 miles

31 miles from Southern tip of Bankhead to where that deer was killed.

And I’m not saying no to your theory. I agree that some of Bankhead bucks do indeed disperse that far. I was just saying it’s farther than 15-20 miles. There’s deer like that one that have been killed all over north AL in several counties over the years. I know where several deer are now between 160-180 that are nowhere near Bankhead.

Lamar county used to have 180-200” deer killed as a regular occurrence. They don’t any longer in those same areas because the population is substantially higher than it used to be and deer have hit a plateau with available nutrition.

Really what you’d be asking is…..How far away is it from the southern most point of the November estrous area?......How far do the anomalies and outliers make it??......those handful of bucks that disperse way farther than the average…..

Its also possible for a buck to disperse “X” amount of miles as a yearling before he sets up his new future home range…… and then also have movement patterns as an adult that may go out miles from that point……I’m just saying that’s possible for a buck born from a Nov doe or “Bankhead” doe to get killed as an adult a long ways from there. It’s plausible for how the genetic aspect could be at play.

Entirely possible

The rut timing can change within a few miles as you move south out of Winston County. From one small community to the next.

Anybody that’s familiar with southern Winston county will be familiar with Black Pond and Poplar Springs. Rock throwing distance apart. First rut window can be two/three weeks apart. And 10 miles farther south in Walker County, add another week or two.

And you go to extreme SE Walker county where Wolf Creek used to be and the breeding dates are late January to early February. Walker county literally has breeding from north to south starting in mid November and lasting through February.

And my guess would be the closer you get to the November rut, the better the antler potential?

I have a place in the late rut area earliest I’ve killed a mature deer is the 18th of January rest have came between the 23rd and 1st of February. First year they extended the season killed a 10 chasing a doe. Walker county has 4 distinct ruts due to all the restocking efforts. Idk anywhere else in the state that has that. That buck along with a lot of other good deer get killed in those old strip pits there’s just something about those old pits that grow big deer

If you ever go into Pats archery walk over to the boots look to the far left there’s a 150 inch 8 that came out of Wolf Creek management area before it shut down. Deer is absolutely huge.

The assumption is that the Michigan genetics have better potential…..I don’t know if that’s true or not but if we assume it is then you would be talking about the bucks born from those doe lines around Bankhead……Thing is though, they disperse as yearlings and can end up well outside of that range. My guess is that some of these bucks disperse into isolated pockets of habitat where they get plenty of good food. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be large scale farming for one individual to find a good spot

Thought this was about a goat

My grandparents bought 60 acres in 1952. Saw the first deer in 99. We hunt some there now. Like they have said there were NONE! 🤣

When the deer walked into the field, he only saw one side of the deer. He didn’t know about the other side until he went over and picked the deers head up. It was a hoss for sure.

Mbrock -- I don't know much about WMAs and am still working up the courage to hunt the one very close to where I live, but what happened to Wolf Creek? Why does a state close down or sell off a WMA?

I was told all the minerals from deep underground got pulled to the surface during the mining and now produce giant bucks. Sounds feasible.

Like it was at one time. Just hunt sign and trails and see what happens. My buddy and me were talking about this weekend. Cell cameras and corn IN MY OPINION have ruined deer hunting . That is a damn heck of a deer

The blue route is 35 miles.

The red dot inside the red circle is approximately where my hood friend’s uncle killed a deer with a metal tag in its ear, it came from Bankhead. I think it was in the 70’s or early 80’s. It was a big deer and he had it mounted with the tag in its ear.