WORTH CO., GA (WALB) – People from around the country are talking about a 22-point deer a hunter killed in Worth County Monday morning.
It’s likely the fourth or fifth biggest rack ever scored in Georgia and by far the biggest ever recorded in Worth County.
Some of the people who saw the giant deer suggested calling it “deer-zilla,” but they seem to have settled on “the monster.”
The deer everyone is talking about weighs nearly 260 pounds, has 22 points, and the green score of 233 and two-eighths inches. 27 year old Fletcher Culpepper of Worth County says he almost didn’t go hunting.
Got lucky,” Culpepper said. “I was off work yesterday and the rest of this week is the only reason I could hunt. And it was Monday morning so I guess he thought all the hunters were out of the woods until the weekend. So he could stroll around as he pleased.”
Culpepper sat in one deer stand most of the morning, and decided to move to his father Danny’s stand, where his brother had heard two big bucks fighting Sunday. Fletcher first spotted the huge buck as he climbed into the stand, and shot the deer just seconds after getting ready.
“I had no idea that I had shot this deer. I really had no clue it was anywhere near this big,” Culpepper said.
His father Danny Culpepper was the first to reach the deer, and told Fletcher immediately he had close to the state record.
“He kept saying it probably wasn’t that big, and I kept saying it was,” Danny Culpepper said.
The reason Fletcher is off work this week, he had surgery on his right shoulder just two weeks ago. He was hunting left handed, but decided to take this shot on his right shoulder anyway.
“And I didn’t feel a thing. My shoulder feels great,” he said with a laugh.
Pictures of the deer hit Facebook about noon, and within hours social media made Fletcher Culpepper a household name.
“Everybody’s calling, from Ohio to Atlanta,” Danny Culpepper said.
“At 2:30 he had somebody from South Florida calling him asking who killed the monster in Worth County. So it’s crazy with the technology,” Fletcher said.
The deer body has gone to the processor, the head to the taxidermist, and Fletcher took the rack to state biologist Bill Cooper in Tifton to have it green scored. The score will become official in 60 days, but it should be in the top five whitetail deer ever recorded in Georgia.
Then Fletcher plans to hang the monster in his home. “If I can find a wall somewhere in there to put it. I’ve got two or three deer but I don’t known if I can hang them in the same room as this one.”
A deer of a lifetime, and one great story for Fletcher Culpepper.
Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Brian Vickery checked the deer and said it was 4.5 years old.
Fletcher will only say he shot the deer in South Worth County. He won’t give away the exact location.
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