In early October my wife received a call from a fellow wanting to know if I would like to take a look at a very large buck which he had found some years past. He told my wife that this buck had about 1000 points and had been deemed unscorable by Boone & Crocket. He had seen my name in a Rack magazine, and he hoped that I would be interested in trying to score it. The rack had been previously dubbed “The Barnacle Buck”. My wife was skeptical, but told him that I would call back when I came home.

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The next day I returned the call to Lionel Crissman, and told him that I would indeed be interested in seeing his buck and trying to score it. Lionel lived about 250 miles away and near Youngstown, Ohio. As chance would have it, my wife and I were going up to close down our camp in Pennsylvania in just two weeks and would be passing Youngstown. We planned a meeting at his home for October 22nd.

When I first set eyes on this very incredible rack, my chin about fell to the floor. It was hanging above the mantle in Lionel’s living room. What a sight. Just unbelievable. The mass was incredible. There were indeed hundreds of points on this rack, more strange growth than I had ever seen. There were points everywhere, besides the basic eight points of the typical rack.

I had brought my scoring kit, but there was no way I would have the time this day to attempt this rack. Lionel and I made plans for a long scoring session on November 7, 1997, when I would again be passing this way enroute to a scoring clinic in Pennsylvania. I would take a day off work and devote all day the 7th scoring the rack.

Upon my return home, I proceeded to make up some very special scoring sheets for this project. Score sheets which had spaces for up to forty irregular points and one sheet for each typical point. A legal or scorable point must be at least one inch long from the place from which it grows. I had no idea how many scorable points there might be, so I wanted to be prepared for all possibilities.

I arrived at the designated scoring location in Youngstown about 8:30 Friday morning and set up my stand in a small office. Lionel’s brother helped me get the mount ready for the task at hand. (Lionel was away bow hunting). For the next six plus hours I would ponder and mumble and measure.

My first task would be to measure the “basic eight” frame that all this growth had formed upon. The main beams measured 22 0/8 (R) and 22 7/8 (L) respectively and had an inside spread of 15 6/8. Next I measured the P1’s, very short but loads of mass. They measured 2 2/8 (R) and 1 4/8 (L). They grew more like mushrooms than brow tines.

This was followed by the P2’s which came in at 10 0/8 (R) and 13 1/8 (L), and the P3’s at 10 7/8 (R) and 10 3/8 (L). The circumferences were up next and they presented a real dilemma, because using a 1/4” steel tape would not get down to the actual main beams. I deemed it necessary to thread my small steel cable between the growth on the beams and try to find the correct measurements. These measurements in total for each side were 24 4/8 (R) and 25 2/8 (L). The ‘basket’ was measured, and out of curiosity I totaled the numbers, “142 6/8”. 2 6/8 above the minimum required score for pick-up entries in the Buckmasters Trophy Records.

My game plan next, was to isolate and tag all points on each main beam which equaled or exceeded one inch. I did this with a plastic wire wrap, marked at exactly 1”. I used the wire wrap only to quickly determine if points were one inch or longer. All qualifying points then received a numbered piece of masking tape. I made up 30 numbers and then began on the right main beam at the burr or base. By the time I had tagged all the minimum length points, I needed eight more pieces of tape. Thirty-eight scorable irregular points. Next I carefully measured each point with a number and recorded the length on the appropriate line of the score sheet. When I finished and added it up, the total was 57 1/8 inches of irregular antler. Adding this to the ‘basic 8’ score, it 's total now stood at 199 7/8 inches. I next isolated and scored the right brow or P1 point which had 2 irregular protrusions for 2 5/8 inches. Moving to the right P2 point and more pieces of tape. This time there were “only 13” irregular points. Measured, they totaled 16 3/8 inches. Finally to the right P3 point, eleven more irregular points equaling 17 2/8 inches. It was time to total again. The total irregular inches on the right side was an astounding 93 3/8 inches of antler on 64 irregular points. My right side total inches (regular and irregular) now totaled 163 0/8 inches.

I was about three hours into the job now and just over halfway finished. At this juncture I decided to take a lunch break because I needed another roll of film. I had been documenting the process frequently by taking photos.

Starting up again, but this time on the left main beam. I was able to tag a whopping 41 irregular points, ranging in length from 1 inch to 3 3/8 inches. Most of another hour was consumed in measuring these points. The total here came to 61 4/8 inches.

The brow tine had only one sticker at 1 2/8 inches, however the P2 point had 17 points over minimum for a total of 24 1/8 inches.

Standing to the side, I viewed the final point P3 on the left. Twelve more irregular points and 22 2/8 inches more to the total. I was finished measuring now and stopped at this point to review my effort and double check myself and my score sheets. I felt sure that I had just scored what could be a new BTR record whitetail rack. I had not run the numbers yet, but my gut feeling was this one would go way over the top in the Buckmasters Trophy Records. I re-totaled the numbers on each separate page once again before bringing all the numbers to the Official Score Sheet. Then I ran the total there three times. Three times I got then same answer, 345 2/8 inches. Just an incredible number for an incredible rack. All this of course was subject to a final panel scoring session which would be sure to follow due to the potential world record status of this rack.

To put this rack into perspective, because the photos, no matter how clear, cannot do justice to this fine mount. There were 135 scorable irregular points equal to or longer than the BTR minimum of one inch. Plus there were 8 typical points for a grand total of 143 scorable points. The right side contained 93 3/8 inches irregular and the left 109 1/8 inches irregular.

What is even more amazing is that there are probably two or three times that many points and stickers and mushrooms and barnacles and barbs and clusters which didn’t make minimum and therefore received no credit at all.

There it is folks, enjoy, marvel, stare in awe, and wonder how and why. I don’t have the answer to how and why, no one does, but isn’t it totally incredible. PS...B & C said it was unscorable.

As expected, Buckmasters decided that the Barnacle Buck would indeed need to be panel scored (a process whereby two or more Regional Directors would rescore a rack to verify and qualify it for record status). This panel scoring took place on February 7, 1998 and was done by myself and Ken Witt of Texas. The result of the panel scoring reduced the final score to 128 scoreable points and a total official score of 336 1/8 inches. This is currently the highest score within the BTR system. How long will this score hold up? Your guess is as good as mine.

To view the official score sheet, click here.