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 While hunting with his
father, 17-year-old Casey Phillips, of Bay Lake, harvested the
second-highest-scoring deer on record ever taken from Florida’s
nearly 6 million acres of public hunting lands.
Phillips, a junior at South Lake High School in Groveland, took the
16-point, non-typical buck Nov. 21 on
Richloam Wildlife Management
Area (WMA) during the general gun season. Tim Farley, a senior
wildlife technician for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) took the official measurements and gave the deer’s
antlers a gross Boone and Crockett score of 163 6/8 and a net score
of 156 5/8. |
James Stovall currently holds the top spot for his monster 25-point
buck that he took on nearby Green Swamp West WMA in 1999, which
scored a whopping 206.
According to the Florida Buck Registry, Phillips’ deer is the
highest-scoring non-typical deer taken on public or private land
since 2000, when Lee Crews took a 16-pointer from Alachua County with
a net score of 179. The registry, established in 1982, provides an
opportunity for hunters to register antler scores and other
information about white-tailed deer taken in Florida.
Casey was prodded by his father, Brian Phillips, to go hunting that
afternoon.
“It was a very cold and windy day, and a storm front had just moved
through the area. Casey wasn’t feeling much up to getting out in it
either,” Brian said.
After a little convincing, father and son made it out to Richloam WMA,
within sight of their home in Lake County. Even though the entire
management area allows deer-dog hunting, the Phillips practiced
still-hunting and were set up in two different ladder-stands near
each other along a stretch of a hardwood hammock.
The trophy buck came into Casey’s view at around 5:15 p.m., and Casey
took the time to line up his shot and downed the 195-pounder with his
7mm ultra magnum rifle.
“I heard the shot and knew it was Casey, so I climbed down from my
stand and started making my way toward him,” Brian said. “As I was
walking, I actually jumped a 172-pound six-point and took him with
one shot. I thought I’d done real good until I saw what my son had.”
 “I’m real excited,” Casey said. “I’ve taken a buck almost every year
out of Richloam since I was 8 – but nothing like this one. I never
put one in the registry before, and now I find out I’ve got the
second-best buck taken off public land.”
“I’ve hunted Richloam since 1974 and never came close to taking a
deer like that. My wife and I are real proud of him,” Brian said.
Thus far, Phillips' buck is certainly in the running for this
season's highest-scoring deer.
“Richloam is 58,146 acres of palmetto and pine flatwoods and is
popular with the dog hunters,” FWC regional public hunting areas
biologist Jason Burton said. “After the first nine days of the
general gun season, all one needs to hunt deer and hogs on Richloam
is a hunting license and WMA permit.”
The minimum antler score needed to qualify for Florida's Buck
Registry is 100 Boone and Crockett points for typical antlers and 125
for non-typical. Typical antlers have points growing off the top side
of the main beam only. Non-typical antlers are rarer and have points
either growing off the underside of the main beam or branching off
other points.
If you think you may have harvested such a deer, get it registered by
contacting your regional FWC office or visiting
MyFWC.com/hunting.
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