Johnson County Pick-Up Rack Makes B&C

After walking the woods for 28 years as a timber cruiser, Jackie Bailey, of Harrison, has found his share of racks and shed antlers. But nothing compares to the rack and skull he stumbled upon March 4, 1999.

Jackie was marking trees in a stand of big pines about 3 1/2 miles northeast of Kite in Johnson County when he found the rack.

“It was in old-growth pine they were fixing to cut—in fact it has been cut now,” said Jackie said. “He was kind of up on top of a hill above a bottom.”

The rack was in perfect condition, with no marks at all from critters gnawing on it. The antlers and skull were certainly from a buck that had died the previous fall or winter.

Jackie said several hunting clubs are located in the area where the rack was found, and he speculates that the buck might have been shot by a hunter and not found.

Jackie Bailey with the big non-typical he found in Johnson County.

The net score of the non-typical rack tallied 195 3/8 inches, just above the 195-inch Boone & Crockett minimum for non-typical. The rack had 24 scoreable points that were at least 1 inch long, and 12 of the points were abnormal, which are points that don’t grow up from the main beam (sticker points, drop tines and points growing off other points). Another impressive feature of the rack was its 19 7/8-inch inside spread.

The main frame of the rack, or typical points, set up as a 5X6, 11-pointer that grossed 155 5/8 B&C inches.

Interestingly, the Top-3 bucks of all-time from Johnson County all had big non-typical racks.

Johnson County All-Time Record Bucks