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Bring Your Antlers for March Rack Madness!

Could this be the new Oklahoma Cy Curtis high-score nontypical mule deer? To find out, attend the first March Rack Madness event from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 6, at the Wildlife Department's interim headquarters in Oklahoma City. Sign up and bring your own deer racks to be scored for free. (PHOTO PROVIDED)
Could this be the new Oklahoma Cy Curtis high-score nontypical mule deer? To find out, attend the first March Rack Madness event from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 6, at the Wildlife Department's interim headquarters in Oklahoma City. (PHOTO PROVIDED)

It’s that time of year again, when the number of points and total score determine the winners. Sounds like the NCAA basketball tournament, but it’s actually the time of the year when hundreds of deer hunters from across Oklahoma put their antlers up against others in a game of inches! The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation will conduct a free antler scoring session from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 6, at the Department’s interim headquarters, 2145 NE 36 St. in Oklahoma City.

This is a scoring opportunity for the public. Anyone wanting to have a rack of deer antlers scored by a certified scorer is invited to bring their antlers, both of which must be attached to the skull plate whether mounted or unmounted. Also, antlers must have gone through a 60-day drying period. The scoring service is always free, but everyone who plans to bring antlers for scoring is asked to sign up ahead of time for planning and organizing purposes. To sign up, go to https://wildlifedepartment.wufoo.com/forms/q1vknuce08e0adp.

The event will also feature a team of certified deer measurers from the Wildlife Department. Team members will measure the antlers of a mule deer taken this past season that could potentially be a new record nontypical mule deer in Oklahoma's Cy Curtis Awards Program.

The score certified by the Wildlife Department team will be the score used to qualify the rack for the Cy Curtis Awards Program, operated by the Wildlife Department. There’s a good chance that Oklahoma deer hunting history could be made right before your eyes!

A number of outstanding deer racks will be on site. Oklahoma hunters have already turned in some massive racks from the 2016-17 hunting seasons. The state’s Cy Curtis Awards Program has recognized new second- and third-place nontypical whitetail bucks, each having scores of greater than 245 inches!

At least four more racks scoring in the 190s and 180s were certified recently at the Wildlife Department, all of which qualify for the Cy Curtis Awards and for the Boone & Crockett Club’s national registry of trophy whitetails.

This past deer season has produced not only a large number of good quality bucks, but also a good quantity of them. Department officials are expecting a surge in the number of Cy Curtis entries in the next few months. Cy Curtis qualifying scores are 135 points for typical deer and 150 points for nontypical deer. For more information about how to apply for a Cy Curtis Award, go online to www.wildlifedepartment.com and search for “Cy Curtis.”