"I had walked about 200 yards and was looking for a good spot to stop and rattle when I heard a noise on the hillside below," Fox said. "Looking down the hill, I immediately spotted a buck standing approximately 100 yards below me. Initially, I didn't realize how big the buck was until its head turned, but before I could react, the deer suddenly took off running."

As the big deer was going down the hillside, it flipped a 4- to 5-foot limb up into the air and, amazingly, the stick hung in the buck's rack. After continuing on for several more yards, the deer abruptly stopped and began shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge the limb. This provided Fox with a clear shooting opportunity and he dropped the buck in its tracks.

"Needless to say, I had never seen or heard of anything like that happening before," Fox said. "But lucky for me that it did, otherwise, I'm not sure I would have even gotten a shot at the deer. I'm still not exactly sure why the buck started running since there was no wind to carry my scent, and the deer never looked in my direction."

The entire sequence of events had taken place in a matter of seconds and at that point, Fox only knew that he had taken a big buck. After taking a few moments to gather his thoughts, the hunter made his way down the hill to where the deer was lying; up close, the massive rack was truly awesome.

"The size of the buck's rack was certainly an exciting surprise," Fox said. "I'm especially grateful the antlers were big enough to snag the dead limb out of the air."

From an appearance standpoint, the rack has a great combination of height and width. Officially, there are 13 scorable points, 8 of which comprise the basic 8-point typical frame. The 24-inch main beams hook outward to form an inside spread of 20 inches. Tine length is outstanding, with amazing brows (G-1s) that exceed 9 inches, G-2s that tape 12 and 11 2/8 inches, followed by G-3s of 9 and 8 1/8 inches. Antler mass is impressive throughout the entire rack.

After grossing an impressive figure of 161, the 8-point frame nets 157 6/8. After adding in the five abnormal points, totaling 16 inches, the rack's final non-typical Boone and Crockett score is 173 6/8. According to the Tennessee Deer Registry, this is the highest scoring non-typical ever recorded for Polk County.

STEVENSTONE'S AMAZING FENTRESS COUNTY 15-POINTER
Hunting in the rugged mountainous terrain along the Cumberland Plateau, Steven Stone left his vehicle well before daybreak to make the mile and a half hike to his stand location. The hunter was positioned on a small point overlooking a predominant saddle in the mountain ridge. Mature hardwoods covered most of the ridgetop; however, a dense thicket of saplings and brush occurred within the low depression of the saddle.

"I have no doubt that deer have been crossing through that gap in the ridge for as long as there have been deer in Tennessee," Stone noted. "As a general rule, I normally wait until after the start of gun season before hunting the location. By then, deer activity is usually on the rise as the bucks start cruising the ridges looking for does."

This marked the third straight morning Stone had hunted the location. During the previous two days, he had sighted eight to 10 does and three small bucks, but there had been no significant sign of major rut activity.