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Bowhunter 'In Complete Shock' After Landing Buck with Extremely Unique Antlers

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A bowhunter from Kansas was left shocked after he took down an extremely unique buck, which was scored by certified measurers on Jan. 3.

Brian Butcher, 38, was hunting from his tree stand in Chase County in October when he noticed a whitetail buck.

“When I first saw it, I thought it had some branches or grass tangled up in its antlers,” Butcher told the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. “But when I looked at him with binoculars, I realized it was all antlers.”

From about 25 yards away, Butcher shot the buck with an arrow. When he located the felled deer, it looked bigger than it had from afar.



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“I had the most opposite feeling of ‘ground shrinkage’ possible,” Butcher said. Ground shrinkage is a hunting term for when a harvested buck turns out to be smaller than it appeared when it was alive.

“I was in complete shock.”

Butcher sent pictures of the buck to his friend Brian Crowe, who helped Butcher attempt to score the deer. The two measured it several times due to their disbelief.

“We added it up five times because it didn’t make sense,” Butcher said. “We had it at 341 inches gross, and 316 inches net.”

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According the Boone and Crockett Club, a nonprofit conservation organization that keeps track of North American big game records, if the rack is being submitted for the club’s records, a net score must be deducted from the gross score based on the symmetry of the antlers.



Boone and Crockett Club guidelines state that a rack has to dry for at least 60 days before it can be officially measured.

Two measurers from the Boone and Crockett Club measured Butcher’s buck on Jan. 3, taking about 5 hours to complete the scoring process.

The measurers came up with a pending net non-typical score of 321 3/8 inches, the fourth-highest score in the world for non-typical whitetail deer if it stands.

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The current world record score for a hunter-harvested deer in that category is 327 7/8 inches, taken by bowhunter Luke Brewster from Illinois in 2018.

Butcher’s buck would hold the Kansas record for the largest non-typical whitetail ever taken in the state.



The current record score in Kansas is 264 1/8, taken by Dale Larson from Pottawatomie County with a bow in 1998. Butcher’s buck surpassed the record by 57 2/8 inches.

However, the score has yet to be officially verified and accepted. The entry materials and score sheet for Butcher’s buck have been mailed to the Boone and Crockett Club headquarters; a panel of measurers will score the rack again at the next Boone and Crockett Club awards ceremony in 2022.

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Skye Malmberg started out as an editorial intern for The Western Journal in 2019 and has since become a Staff Writer. Ever since she was 10 years old, she has had a passion for writing stories and reporting local news. Skye is currently completing her bachelors degree in Communications.
Skye Malmberg started out as an editorial intern for The Western Journal in 2019 and has since become a Staff Writer. Ever since she was 10 years old, she has had a passion for writing stories and reporting local news. Skye is currently completing her bachelors degree in Communications.




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