Sierra Mountain Times

Zac Clark with his 7×6 34 inch spread buck, possibly the 8th largest recorded non-typical mule deer in the state.

 A few weeks ago Fifteen-year-old Zac Clark of Sonora shot his very first buck this year…and it was a big one. In fact it could very well be in the top ten of the largest bucks ever recorded in the state. Zac was one of the 10 lucky junior hunters (ages 12-16) drawn in the state to hunt in the special after season G37 zone hunt in the Anderson Flat area in Mariposa County near the boundary of Yosemite National Park. 

“He was one out of several thousand that put in for the drawing,” said Bobby Clark, Zac’s father. “Each year you put in and don’t get drawn you get a point, so he had maximum points for a junior to get drawn. I’ve been putting in for it since the point system started about eight years ago and I haven’t been drawn yet…but as a junior he has to have an adult with a hunting license to go with him, so I was over there with him.”

Zac, Bobby and some friends were way out off the beaten track when the buck was spotted. Up until that point not many hunters in the zone had experienced much luck.

“I know during last year’s drawing out there it was really tough; hunters were sweating to get anything because of the weather,” said Bobby, who has been hunting for about 20 years. “And it was the same this year. It was really tough. We saw several different people who had been drawn to hunt in the area and they weren’t having any luck. If we had the snow that came the day after the season ended people would’ve seen a lot more deer because they would start migrating out of Yosemite and the high country to their wintering grounds. This area is where they come to winter, but the snow didn’t come. We didn’t get out there until Thursday and we were talking to these people who had already been up there for several days and didn’t get anything. We camped over there and it was his third day of hunting with only one day left in the season when Zac shot it. It was just damn good luck.”

On Saturday, December 5th at 10:30 a.m., Zac spotted the buck. Leveling his Remington .25-06 rifle from 288 yards away, Zac took aim and fired, dropping the monstrous buck in the wilds of Mariposa County. 

“He’s been hunting for four years, but this was the first deer he shot,” said Bobby. “He knows that after hunting for four years, he’s pretty lucky to get a buck like this. My first thought was like, ‘he’s ruined now…because your supposed to start off with a spiked-fork and go up, but he started with a big one. It’s the biggest one he’d ever seen, the biggest one I’ve ever seen and we had three friends with us who are avid hunters who go all over…and it’s the biggest buck they’ve ever seen. Even the game warden said it was the biggest one he’d ever seen.”

The buck was a 7X6 non-typical mule deer with a 34 inch outside spread. On the Boone and Crockett Club score sheet (the official scoring system for North American big game trophies) it ‘green’ scored a 212 6/8. The record for the largest recorded non-typical mule deer scored a 319 4/8. It was shot in Mariposa County in 1972. 

“The Boone and Crocket is the biggest scoring system that the states use for rifle shot deer,” explained Bobby. “Right now it’s called a “green score” because it’s like a tree, after you chop it down its still green, so it still has to dry out,” explained Bobby. “So to be an official score it has to wait 60 days for the drying period. But because it’s this late in the year and the antlers aren’t growing anymore, I’ve been told that if they shrink it will be very minimal and will only take a point or two off the score.”

After the 60 days the buck will most likely be the 8th largest non-typical mule deer that has been recorded in California.

“Right now the number eight was recorded at 209 2/8ths and with Zac’s at 212 6/8ths, after the drying period the chances of it going down below that are really slim. It doesn’t mean it will be the 8th biggest ever taken, because probably not everybody records their deer…but it would be the 8th biggest recorded in California deer records.”

The reason Zac’s deer is in the non-typical category is due to its antlers.

“A typical deer would be a 4X4, which means it has four points on each side; this is a typical frame,” explained Bobby. “It’s mostly genetic, and when they are mature they will have four on each side. In the western states we call it a 4X4. But if you have things growing off the side with five, six or more points growing off the side of the antlers it would be a non-typical.”

Although they have figured out the score and the spread of the answers, they will never know what the weight of the deer was.

“Almost everybody asks what it measured and how much did it weigh,” said Bobby. “We were way out there when he got it. It was some hard miles. We had to bone it out there because there was no way we were hauling the deer out. We cut the meat off the bones and packed it out.”

“My dad and our friends were very helpful,” added Zac. “I really appreciate their help. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

“There is no way of telling how much it weighed but I tell everyone between 100-400 pounds,” continued Bobby. “That way I know I’m not lying. But it was big! It would be doing it injustice if we didn’t have it recorded. It is probably going to be in Eastman’s Hunting Journal, which is huge in the hunting world. It’s pretty neat. We are going to mount it. In fact whenever Zac moves out, he may not get to take it with him,” Bobby chuckled. “It’s such an incredible buck…not just for California but for any place.”