For decades, the James Jordan buck stood as the largest typical whitetail ever taken in the United States. Now, a deer killed in Illinois in 1991—and largely forgotten in a basement for 32 years—has taken its place.
The Boone and Crockett Club announced Sept. 8 that the Sam Aiuppa/James Martin buck has been officially verified at 207 7/8 inches, surpassing the Jordan buck by 1 6/8 inches. The Illinois giant is now the largest typical whitetail ever taken in the U.S. and ranks second worldwide behind Milo Hanson’s 213 5/8-inch Saskatchewan buck.
Aiuppa/Martin Buck at a Glance:
- Score: 207 7/8 inches
- Hunter: Sam Aiuppa
- Current owner: James Martin
- Location: LaSalle County, Illinois
- Year killed: 1991
- U.S. typical rank: No. 1
- Worldwide typical rank: No. 2
- Previous U.S. record: James Jordan buck
- World record: Milo Hanson buck, 213 5/8 inches
The Legendary James Jordan Buck
The record it broke belonged to one of the most famous whitetails in hunting history.
On Nov. 20, 1914, 22-year-old James Jordan was hunting near the Yellow River outside Danbury, Wisconsin. Jordan tracked a deer into tall grass near a railroad, where an approaching train flushed a huge buck. He fired, followed the wounded deer and eventually recovered it across the river.
Jordan took the deer to a local taxidermist, who offered to mount it for $5. But the taxidermist later moved away, and Jordan's trophy disappeared with him.
The antlers resurfaced decades later when a relative of Jordan bought the mount at a rummage sale for just $3. Jordan immediately recognized the buck as his long-lost deer.
Boone and Crockett scored the rack in 1964, but the Club initially listed the hunter as unknown because Jordan’s story could not yet be verified. After reopening the investigation in 1977, Boone and Crockett officially recognized Jordan as the hunter and Burnett County, Wisconsin, as the kill location in 1978.
The Jordan buck ultimately became the benchmark for U.S. typical whitetails. Now, more than a century after Jordan pulled the trigger, another long-forgotten set of antlers has taken its place.
A Giant Buck Hidden for 32 Years
Sam Aiuppa killed the new U.S. record-holder on Nov. 28, 1991, in LaSalle County, Illinois.
Aiuppa had spent the day pheasant hunting before putting away his dogs, swapping the birdshot in his Remington 870 for a slug and climbing into a treestand along the timber. About 40 minutes later, a buck walked beneath his stand.
Aiuppa shot it.
“If you want to call it a fluke, I guess that’s what it is,” Aiuppa later told Rack Magazine. “I wasn't that much of a deer hunter, even though I used to always buy deer tags.”
That might help explain what happened next.
Rather than treating the antlers like a potential record-book treasure, Aiuppa skull-capped them, mounted them on a plaque and kept them in his basement. There they remained for 32 years.
In September 2023, Aiuppa invited Don Sanocki, a friend from his Thursday trapshooting club, to his home to fix an electrical problem. When the conversation turned to deer, Aiuppa showed him the rack.
Sanocki immediately recognized that the antlers were something special and asked if he could measure them. His rough measurements set in motion the chain of events that would eventually lead to the buck’s official recognition.
James Martin and the Road to a Record
Antler collector James Martin eventually heard about the buck and drove more than 600 miles from his home near Rochester, New York, to see it.
The buck had already earned record-book recognition under another scoring system. Buckmasters Trophy Records scored the rack at 229 2/8 inches and recognized it as the world-record typical whitetail taken by shotgun. Because Buckmasters and Boone and Crockett use different scoring methods, the two scores are not directly comparable.
Martin purchased the antlers and had them measured by a Boone and Crockett Club Official Measurer. After the initial score was submitted, two additional official measurers independently measured the rack. Dr. Jon McRoberts, chairman of the Club’s Records of North American Big Game Committee, then reviewed the completed score charts and confirmed the final score of 207 7/8 inches.
Because Aiuppa killed the deer and Martin later acquired the antlers, the record is referred to as the Sam Aiuppa/James Martin buck.
The rack is especially impressive because it carries roughly 9 inches of abnormal antler. Boone and Crockett scores it as a typical 5x5, and its massive brow tines stretch more than a foot.
The Buck’s Sheds Survived, Too
In one of the strangest twists in the story, the Aiuppa buck wasn’t entirely unknown during the 32 years its antlers sat in a basement. People in the shed-antler world already knew an extraordinary whitetail had lived in the area. What they didn’t know was that Aiuppa had killed it in 1991.
A farmer found the buck’s right shed from its 1989 rack and nailed it to his barn. A delivery driver later spotted the antler and persuaded the farmer to sell it. Scoring 98 6/8 inches, it became the largest five-point cast antler on record with the North American Shed Hunters Club.
The following year, James Albring found the buck’s matched 1990 sheds, which scored 104 6/8 and 95 inches. Replicas of the celebrated “Albring Sheds” eventually appeared on mounts that toured the country.
All the while, the deer that had produced them had already been dead for decades, its final rack hanging largely unnoticed in Aiuppa’s basement.
The New Largest U.S. Typical Whitetail
At 207 7/8 inches, the Aiuppa/Martin buck tops the James Jordan buck by 1 6/8 inches.
That makes it the largest typical whitetail ever taken in the United States and the No. 2 typical whitetail worldwide, behind only Milo Hanson’s 213 5/8-inch Saskatchewan world record.
“This is a monumental addition to North American big game records,” said Kyle Lehr, Boone and Crockett Club director of Big Game Records. “We are thrilled to officially welcome the Aiuppa buck into the Boone and Crockett records. It took more than three decades for this remarkable deer to be recognized, but its place in the record books is well deserved.”
