Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024 - 9

across decades of researching all sorts of
wildlife species here - not only followed
the new antler point rules, but in many
cases took things a step further. Some now
even pass on shooting legal bucks, hoping
that in time they'll grow larger still.
" People realized Pennsylvania can
grow bigger bucks, and then they set
standards for themselves, where they say
they're not going to shoot a buck that's
less than X points or inches, " Diefenbach
said. " As a result, that leads to higher
survival rates on antlered deer. "
Surviving longer term that way not
only allows bucks to grow larger antlers,
but, sometimes, grow unusual ones.
That, too, is a factor in hitting the 200inch
threshold. All 21 of Pennsylvania's
200-inch bucks are " nontypicals, " or deer
with asymmetrical antlers, including drop
tines, sticker points and other antler-shape
deviations.
That's not surprising.
" I think you will find that there are very
few 200-inch typical whitetails in Pope
& Young, given that the world record is
204-4/8, " said Tim Rozewski, Director
of Records for the club that serves as
record keeper of all big game harvested
with a bow.
Very few is right. Pope & Young has
66,845 whitetails sporting typical racks
in its record book. Just three - less than
one in 25,000 - top the 200-inch mark.
harvested a 17-point with an 8-inch drop tine and
a nearly 21-inch inside spread.
Then there's William Andrews, of Duncannon,
who got a buck scoring 204-7/8 in 2017 that ranks
No. 3 all-time among nontypical archery harvests.
It had a nearly 12-inch drop tine and 56 inches of
abnormal points overall.
According to the Lewistown Sentinel, Andrews
saw it for the first time in a field on a Friday night.
He and his grandsons hunted the next morning,
hoping to find it, with no luck.
NOVEMBER 2024
None of the additional 552 typical velvet
whitetails reach that level either.
Boone & Crockett likewise has 3,641
nontypical whitetails in its record book
scoring 200 or better, compared to just
23 typicals.
" A 200-inch whitetail is the deer of a
lifetime, and a 200-inch typical whitetail
is the harvest of many lifetimes, " Lehr
said.
Here in Pennsylvania, hunters harvest
these 200-inch-class bucks at two times
of year. One is in the statewide firearms
season. Gun hunters have taken eight 200inch
deer since 2002, in a season where
there are upwards of 500,000 hunters in
the woods, moving deer around.
The other time hunters find these massive
bucks is during the archery season,
and most specifically during the rut.
Krisher got his big buck on Oct. 1,
opening day of the 1988 archery season.
But four of the last five 200-inch archery
bucks in Pennsylvania's record book -
one each in 2007, 2014, 2016 and 2017
- were harvested between Nov. 2 and
Nov. 13. The fifth, taken in 2016, fell on
Oct. 17.
Coincidence? Maybe not.
Research done on 6,000-plus deer here
in Pennsylvania examining conception
dates revealed the rut kicks off in earnest
every year in mid-October, peaks on
Nov. 14 and winds down through midOne
week later, though, he got it in nearly the
same area from a seat on the ground.
All that goes to show that spending time in the
woods is maybe what matters most, Simkonis said.
Persistence, as much as all his other preparations,
benefited him, after all.
" Sometimes it just pays to stay on stand as long
as you can, and things will happen, " Simkonis said.
" People can just know that, hey, look, this guy had
an opportunity, and it worked out for him. Why
couldn't it work out for me? "
9
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024

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