The taxidermist I give the capes to called today and said it was the largest neck measurement deer he's even gotten for NC. It measured 24 inches at the smallest part of the neck (right where the head and neck meet) out of the thousands and thousand of NC/SC deer he's mounted over the last 40 years he's only had 2 deer that measured 23 inches but never one that went 24 inches.
He told me he has mounted some for the boys that go to Wisconsin and shoot those pen raised deer that would measure that size but never a wild Southern deer. He's trying hard to talk me into mounting this thing.