The Illinois Roadkill: The Largest Typical EVER Killed By A Car!

If you’ve driven enough in rural American, especially in midwest states like Illinois and during November, you know the nuisance deer can be when it comes to vehicle collisions. What if I told you, one particular buck was so mammoth it’d forever be coined the Illinois Roadkill Buck.

Here’s the story of the 400lb whitetail with a 31” outside spread buck. This buck dates back to the year 1965 on a cold November night. A motorist was traveling from Fort Madison, IA and traveled down IL HW. 96 about two miles east of the small Mississippi river town called Nauvoo - located in Hancock County, IL.

Suddenly, a large form came out of the ditch and onto the roadway. For the driver, there was no avoiding the collision and the impact was signaled by a solid thump. The ginormous buck met it’s death to a 1962 Chevy pickup truck.

Another big buck had met his demise at the front end of a vehicle. Not long afterwards, Illinois conservation officer Jim Twitchell was directed to pick up the road-killed deer. Jim and the others who saw the deer found themselves unable to believe the size of either the body or the rack. They were enormous!

The gentleman who hit The Illinois Roadkill Buck with his truck, later sold the giant whitetail, to antler collector Dick Idol. Idol would then sell the buck to Dr. John Morgan, who then founded the legendary collection, and then in the 90’s Larry Huffman purchased the collection.

The team has actually had the privilege to see this deer in person and here’s the scoring breakdown from Keith Snider that owns the historic buck:

The antlers certainly have shrunk some since the buck was hit that night back in 1965, but even now, the outside spread across the beams remains an unbelievable 31 inches. The buck’s head was proportionate to his rack and body, and the distance between the antler burrs is 3 1/2 inches. That gap is one of the largest I’ve ever seen.

Although the body and skin are long since gone, the antlers remain as evidence of what a great buck he was. Besides such spectacular dimensions and statistics as weighing 11 pounds and having a 31-inch spread, 6-inch bases, 29 and 31-inch main beams and 12 points, with any luck at all this rack could have been near the top of the record book. His left beam has five classic typical points, but instead of a typical G-4 (third primary) off the main beam on his right antler, this buck grew a third tine off the second primary (G-2), making it an abnormal deduction. If this point had grown off the main beam as a typical tine, the Illinois giant’s net typical score would have been over 20 points higher than it actually is simply by moving one tine!

Because his right antler has only four typical points, the “Illinois Roadkill,” as he is called, scores as a giant 8-pointer. From a scoring standpoint, he gets no credit for the extra typical point on the left beam (the 7 5/8-inch G-4 tine) because it doesn’t have a mate on the right beam. Despite all of this, the buck has an unbelievable gross score of 202 6/8, which is unheard of for an 8-point typi­cal. Unfortunately, when the abnormal points and side-to­-side differences in symmetry are subtracted, he winds up with a net of 176 5/8. This is a respectable score that easily makes the B&C record book, but it hardly reflects the true size of the antlers. The truth is that many think this buck is one of the most impressive deer of all time. In person, he’s almost too big to believe!

So all of this begs the question - are deer scores overrated? Is the Boone and Crockett scoring method antiquated? Regardless - this deer is truly a one of a kind and will forever be known as one of the most impressive deer to walk the earth.

Oh and one last thing - it was peak rut when this buck was hit on the IA/IL border. Some could wonder if this could have been an Iowa back that swam across the river? Could you imagine if this buck was coined the Iowa Roadkill buck? I can't.

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