Roosevelt Luckey

[airedale]

One of the most famous Whitetail Bucks, I had a chance to see him a couple of times and he was impressive to be sure.

Al

In the 1930s, Roosevelt Luckey owned a Ford dealership and garage in western New York’s Allegany County. Every year, he’d drive a Ford across the state to the Adirondacks in the northeast corner to hunt deer at a cabin owned by him and a few friends. He killed his first deer there in 1926. He would make the long drive because there were relatively few places open to hunting in New York until the late 1930s. That’s when state game managers opened a short season in Allegany County. 

In the fall of 1939, Roosevelt, his brother, and a few other hunting buddies gathered for a classic deer drive close to home. Late in the day, Roosevelt saw coming toward him a buck bounding in 20-foot leaps. Roosevelt set up at an opening. When the buck crossed it, he pulled the trigger on his Remington Model 11 shotgun. The buck stumbled at the slug, but it kept going. After trailing the buck, the men found it piled up. They saw its rack up close for the first time—all 14 points of it. 

In those days—and still today in some parts of the country—a deer’s weight is just as important, if not more important, than the size of the rack. Roosevelt’s field-dressed buck weighed 195 pounds, which makes a lot of meatloaf. But meat doesn’t stick around as long as antlers. 

Records suggest the Luckey buck hung in Roosevelt’s Ford dealership for years. When the garage closed, the rack made its way to Albany and became the property of the New York State Conservation Department. 

In May 1955, Grancel Fitz wrote to the department on behalf of the Boone and Crockett Club. Grancel wanted to measure the buck with the Club’s new scoring system, which he helped devise. After putting a tape to the antlers, the Luckey buck was declared the New York state record typical whitetail—and still is to this day, according to Big Game Records LIVE. At the time, it was also declared the biggest typical buck in the records, crowning it the World’s Record

[Doc]

I wonder if there are farm raised bucks that have surpassed that score?

[landtracdeerhunter]

Nice post!

[MPHunter]

As of a couple years ago, the Lucky Buck still hangs at the Albany DEC office. It is pretty impressive in person.

[Four Seasons]

19 hours ago, Doc said:

I wonder if there are farm raised bucks that have surpassed that score?

 

[landtracdeerhunter]

I have seen the Roosevelt Lucky Buck,  in person at the New York State and Erie County fairs Conservation buildings. It was also featured on the cover of the New York Big Buck Club booklet in  2013, 40 th anniversary edition by the artist Michael Barr.  I'm proud to own a copy of it.  I'm sure their are copy right laws that prohibit me from reproducing it.

Edited 13 hours ago by landtracdeerhunter

[airedale]

I can remember reading about the Roosevelt Luckey Buck in one of the outdoor rags when I was a young boy and had a big thrill seeing the historic storied mount on display in the Conservation Bldg at the state fair.

I read somewhere that the state has since had the Luckey Buck's horns duplicated-cast and mounted on another head, and that is the one that now makes the rounds for shows. The real one is stashed in a secure place to keep it protected.

Al