King Buck

It Nets 215+ Inches, But It’s Not the World Record

On Nov. 18, 2006, avid whitetail hunter Johnny King of Mt. Horeb, Wis., shot a massive 12-point buck the likes of which were almost unparalleled in the annals of deer and deer hunting. As a straight 6-by-6 typical with no additional abnormal points, the great rack grossed more than 220 inches, a milestone few typical whitetail racks in history have attained.

King Buck
Photo by Shane Indrebo, courtesy of Classic Antlers by Klaus.

Yet, some 4½ years later, the rack remains in relative obscurity. In a time where antler scores and giant racks are the Holy Grail to most avid whitetail fanatics, how could this happen to a buck of this magnitude? How could Wisconsin, rich in whitetail history and proud producer of the former world-record James Jordan Buck, let a deer like this slip through the cracks?

The answer is perplexing and, in a way, maddening. For King, life will never be the same. Here, in a Deer & Deer Hunting exclusive, is his untold story.

A Stunning Revelation

Soon after recovering the buck, King and his cousin Brad Heisz realized — to their shock — that the left main beam had been hit by one of the .30-30 Win. bullets from King’s Savage bolt-action. The bullet damaged the beam just below the left brow tine. As soon as the cousins began to examine the rack, the beam broke off in Heisz’s hand. Yet, for days, friends urged King to have the massive rack officially scored.

King contacted official Boone-and-Crockett Club measurer John Ramsey, who green-scored the antlers before the required 60-day drying period had elapsed.

Ramsey measured the rack as a clean 12-point typical. As soon as he tallied up the numbers, he was stunned. The antlers grossed in the low 220s and netted more than 215 typical B&C points. Ramsey told King that depending on how the broken beam might be interpreted by B&C, he could be the owner of a new Wisconsin record  and possibly the new world-record typical!

(Note: The current typical world record scored 213⅝ and was taken by Milo Hanson in Biggar, Saskatchewan, in 1993. Ironically, the long-standing former world record before 1993 was taken in Wisconsin. In 1914, James Jordan shot a massive 10-pointer near Danbury on the Yellow River in Burnett County. The buck was later scored 206⅛ typical B&C points. The Jordan Buck wasn’t officially declared a world-record typical until the 1950s. It held the top spot, however, until Hanson killed his buck.)

According to King, Ramsey was reluctant to officially score the head until a determination could be made by B&C about whether the broken beam could be accepted into the record book. Steve Ashley, an official measurer of the prestigious Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club, contacted King and made arrangements to inspect the rack. According to King, after Ashley examined the massive rack, he apparently concurred with Ramsey’s score.

King Buck
B&C scorer Ron Boucher (left) and WBBC scorer Herman Feller (right) discuss the Johnny King rack as they examine its finer points.

“He insinuated that he thought I might have a new world record,” King said. “He asked me if I realized what I had. And then he told me not to let anybody see it.”

King was a little bewildered.

“Why shouldn’t I let anyone see the rack?” he wondered. “If it’s a new world record, everyone will want to see it.”

King said he was informed that his rack would need to be panel-scored by B&C if the issue regarding the break could be resolved. (A recent rule change by B&C makes it possible for bucks with broken beams like King’s to be entered in the record book under certain conditions.) 

An Emotional Roller Coaster 

King said he was urged to contact the B&C headquarters in Montana and make arrangements to have the rack examined and possibly panel-scored. King said he called the club office and learned that the Pope and Young Club (keeper of archery records in North America) would soon be conducting its 25th Biennium National Convention and Awards Banquet in April 2007, near Lancaster, Pa. King said he was told by a B&C official that he could take the rack to Pennsylvania to have it examined and obtain a ruling about the break in the main beam. 

So, thinking he might have a possible world-record whitetail that would need to be panel-scored if the break issue could be resolved, King jumped into his truck and drove 1,200 miles to Pennsylvania with his dad and a close friend. Expectations were high.

King said when he reached the Cabela’s store in Hamburg, Pa., where the actual scoring was being done by officials of P&Y and B&C, he was ushered into a room where Jack Reneau, executive secretary of B&C, and Glenn and Kevin Hisey of P&Y were scoring various big-game heads for the archery record book. Ashley was also there. King said Reneau asked him and Ashley to leave the room so he could examine the rack. Some time later, King and Ashley were ushered back into the room.

King said Reneau then informed him that because the break in the main beam was a clean break, the antlers could be accepted into the record book. However, he also dropped a bombshell. He told King he had determined the right G-3 was an “abnormal point” because it came more from the inside base of the G-2 instead of the top of the main beam. According to scoring procedure, that also put the left G-3 in the abnormal category. That meant the rack would have to be scored as a mainframe 5-by-5 with two abnormal points (both G-3s) instead of as a typical 6-by-6 with no abnormal points.

It also meant that instead of netting in the 215-plus range, the typical score of King’s buck would drop into the low 180s.

King said Reneau then informed him there was no need to panel-score the rack because B&C doesn’t panel-score typical racks with scores in the low 180s. King was also told that if he wanted to get the rack entered in B&C, he would have to take it back to Ramsey in Wisconsin and have him officially score it with the G-3s being listed as abnormal points. 

Somewhat bewildered and confused, King headed home. Basically the fate of his potential world-record buck had apparently been decided by the opinion of one B&C official instead of a panel of judges. As instructed, King took the rack to Ramsey who, on March 7, 2007, in accordance with Reneau’s implicit instructions, scored the rack and deducted the two “abnormal” G-3s, giving the deer a net typical score of 180⅛.

King Moves On

Despite the tremendous letdown, King signed the appropriate papers and submitted the 180⅛-inch score to B&C. In late March 2007, he took his antlers to the Wisconsin Deer and Turkey Expo in Madison. There, he was overwhelmed with the reception that his trophy received.

“Everyone who saw it, including a number of experienced measurers, said it was the biggest (typical) rack they had ever seen,” King said. “They kept asking me what it scored, and I would answer ‘180⅛.’ They all said ‘No way! This deer is clearly a 200-plus-inch 6-by-6 typical!’”

Because of the overwhelming response he received at the expo, and after more whitetail experts (including several experienced official B&C and P&Y measurers) had looked at his rack and agreed the right G-3 was, in their collective opinion, not abnormal, King decided to cancel his B&C entry.

“I simply felt like it was much bigger than the 180 inches that Jack Reneau had assigned it,” King said.

While attending the show in Madison, King struck up a friendship with local antler collector Jay Fish of Edgar, Wis. Fish, like numerous other whitetail experts, also questioned the ruling. After careful examination of the rack, he believed the right G-3 was a typical point, and thought the rack should have remained a 6-by-6 typical as it had originally been scored.

“I’m gonna buy that deer some day if you ever decide to sell it,” Fish told King.

After the expo, King took the rack to well-known antler artist Tom Sexton in Iowa to have the broken beam repaired.

Buckmasters Declares it a Record

In the meantime, King contacted Mike Handley, executive director of Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records of Montgomery, Ala. After reviewing photos of the deer, Handley promptly flew to Wisconsin and scored the rack on King’s kitchen table. Just as Handley had suspected, the rack was the largest typical he had ever seen. His composite score (gross) came in at 219⅝ inches.

(The rack’s official Buckmasters gross score came in at 1982/8, because the Buckmasters scoring system does not include a rack’s inside spread measurement.)

King’s buck was soon declared a new world record by Buckmasters Trophy Records. The BTR full-credit scoring system uses the same measurements as B&C, except no inside spread measurement is included in the final score (which in King’s case was 21⅜ inches) and no deductions are taken for side-to-side differences. The BTR perfect category is equivalent to the B&C typical category.

King’s buck was co-winner of Buckmasters’ prestigious Golden Laurel Citation for 2007. Handley, having scored hundreds of whitetail racks through the years, said there was never any question in his mind that both G-3s were typical points. According to his score sheet, there were 8⅛ inches in side-to-side differences. Thus, on the B&C scale, his measurements would have given the rack a net typical score of 2114/8 inches, slightly lower than Ramsey’s original score and not quite a world record, but definitely a Wisconsin state record. (The Jordan Buck still holds the state’s top spot at 206⅛ and ranks No. 2 all time behind the Hanson Buck).

The Plot Thickens

Many months passed. True to his word, Fish bought the rack in December 2009. Hoping the deer might be given a fair hearing, Fish called Reneau to discuss the deer’s score. Because of the overwhelming opinions of so many people that the rack was a 6-by-6 typical, he asked Reneau why the rack couldn’t be panel-scored by B&C.

“He told me that B&C didn’t panel score racks scoring only 180 inches,” Fish said. “He also mentioned the fact that King had signed a score sheet reflecting that score.”

Fish responded, “Yes, but he was pretty much coerced into signing it after the original score was changed. And he ended up deciding not to have it entered in B&C because so many people disagree with your ruling. Why can’t you reconsider your ruling and have it be panel-scored by a team of impartial judges to decide the issue once and for all? Wouldn’t that be the fair thing to do?”

According to Fish, Reneau told him that he had made his ruling and that was that: The King Buck would never be panel-scored by B&C.

King Buck
Johnny King of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, downed this mammoth 12-pointer on opening day of the Wisconsin firearms season on Nov. 14, 2006. Photo courtesy of Johnny King.

However, Fish said he would not rest until the deer got a fair shake. So, in early 2010, the rack was measured for the Safari Club International record book by master scorer Jim Beenken. With an SCI score of 2266/8, the King Buck took over No. 2 in SCI’s all-time record book in the Northeast Whitetail Typical Division. Like Handley, Beenken determined the rack was a 6-by-6 typical with no abnormal points.   

The Debate Rages On

Marlin Laidlaw is a past board member of the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club. Although he is not an official B&C scorer, Laidlaw has scored thousands of racks during his 27-year career with the WBBC. He first saw the King Buck on display at the Wisconsin Deer and Turkey Expo in 2007, and he said he immediately knew it was a giant buck. But at that time, Laidlaw was only vaguely aware of any controversy.

In 2009, Laidlaw said he received a call from a friend, Korey Schillinger, a local police chief, who asked him to look at a deer head. It turned out to be the King Buck.

As Laidlaw examined the rack, he listened to the story about the unfortunate ruling in which the right G-3 had been declared abnormal. However, it appeared to him that the rack could be scored as a typical. Schillinger told him the rack had never been scored for the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club.

Several more months passed. Laidlaw was haunted by what had happened, including the fact the rack had never been scored by the WBBC. His conscience would not let him forget about the King Buck. He called Fish, the new owner, and asked him if he could score it strictly for personal knowledge. Laidlaw said he made it plain to Fish that he would not be scoring the rack as a function of the WBBC or in any other official capacity.

Fish responded, “I’ve been accused of ‘shopping’ the score by B&C, even though I have never allowed one single official B&C measurer to score it. The only way I would ever allow it to be officially scored is if it goes to a panel. Since no one from the Buck and Bear Club has scored it yet, and since you’re not an official B&C scorer, I will make an exception and allow you to score it for your own purposes.”

Laidlaw measured the deer under the stated conditions and came up with a net typical score of 215⅛ inches.

“I found it easy to call this rack a typical 215-plus-inch rack and difficult to call it a 180-inch typical or a nontypical,” Laidlaw said. “I learned early on in my scoring career that if it’s a close call, give it to the animal. The rules are fairly clear, but judgment does enter in to any measurement. The facts, as they relate to this deer, are:

“All points come off the top of the main beams.

“All points have a matching point on the other beam.

“What draws attention to the rack is that the right G-3 is shorter than its matching point on the left side. But the rules clearly state that differences in point length are accounted for in the ‘difference’ column. 

“Then there is the question about ‘common base points.’ This occurs when two points share the same base, which increases the circumference between them. If this occurs, one point could be construed as ‘abnormal.’ This is a judgment call and, many times, results in confusion for hunters and scorers alike. Once you answer the question, ‘Do the points come off the top of the main beam and are they matched?’ it seems that any other determination that would change them to something other than ‘typical’ points is double jeopardy in my view.

“Under the common-base rule, to be able to count the tines as ‘typical’ they must have a figure 8 or peanut appearance if you removed both at the main beam. If they do, then you must draw the base line not at the beam but at the low point between the points — in this case between the G-2 and G-3. This is done so as not to give double credit because of the larger circumference as well as the extra point length.

“With the King Buck, I found the G-2s and G-3s do pass the figure 8 test, but I believe that although the points are growing close together, they are so evenly spaced that ‘common base’ might not necessarily be the call. I found this rack to be almost perfect with the exception of the length difference between the right and left G-3s.

“I have had numerous conversations with measurers who have a long history as B&C measurers, and they are of the belief that this deer is clearly a typical 200-plus-inch deer.”

Shopping for Justice

After examining the rack, Laidlaw told Fish that he would talk to some other WBBC officials and attempt to set up an objective panel-scoring session at the upcoming Deer and Turkey Expo in April 2010. Naturally, Fish and King were elated the deer might be given an impartial hearing. If nothing else, they hoped to get it recognized in the state of Wisconsin.

Their elation was short-lived. Just before the expo, Reneau allegedly caught wind of the possible panel-scoring session and contacted several WBBC measurers, allegedly telling them Fish was “shopping for a score” and instructing them not to score the King Buck under any circumstances. The end result: The deer was deemed too controversial to allow into the show, and the anticipated scoring session never occurred.

Because so many people asked to see the rack, Fish ended up sneaking it into the show, but kept it out of sight in a box at a friend’s booth. While the rack was there, several official measurers — including several members of the WBBC — got an opportunity to examine it. With the exception of one man, all agreed the rack should have been scored as a straight 6-by-6 typical.

In fact, a WBBC officer told Fish, “This really p…..es me off! This sort of thing never should have happened in Wisconsin or with B&C. This deer is typical all the way, no question.”

According to Laidlaw, proper protocol for scoring a deer of this magnitude was not followed, and that’s where things went astray. After it was officially scored by Ramsey as a typical 6-by-6, the next step should have been for the buck to be panel-scored by WBBC members. At that point, the final entry score would have been submitted to B&C. If that had happened, it’s likely that an impartial group of WBBC measurers would have scored the deer as a 6-by-6 typical. Then, even if Reneau had refused to accept a typical score, the WBBC would have been in a good position to protest the ruling.

However, because of the lingering question regarding the broken beam, proper protocol wasn’t followed. Instead, King was told to take the rack to Pennsylvania so that it could be examined by Reneau. Instead of allowing the WBBC to get involved and panel-score the rack and come to its own conclusion, Reneau made an arbitrary ruling declaring the G-3 tine to be abnormal. After that ruling was made, the WBBC felt like its hands were tied, and the club had to abide by the ruling.

Interestingly, Laidlaw later had the rack precisely measured by a laser-measuring device. Amazingly, all of the tines were found to be almost perfectly symmetrical from side to side as far as spacing is concerned, and both G-3 tines were found to be rising up off of the main beam at the same angle as most of the other typical tines.

In other words, if the G-3s were abnormal, all of the other typical tines on the rack would have to be scored as abnormal tines. In short, all of the upright tines on one of the world’s greatest 6-by-6 typical bucks with an almost perfectly symmetrical rack (except for the length difference of the G-3s) would have to be scored as abnormal points.   

A Master Measurer Weighs In

Several more months passed. Because so many people in Wisconsin believed the deer had not gotten a fair shake, another tentative panel-scoring session was set up for October 2010 in Marshfield, Wis. Several prominent WBBC measurers again were invited to take part.

Just before the session was to take place, however, one of the club officers called Reneau and asked permission to allow the club to panel-score the deer. Reneau adamantly refused, and for the second time in 2010, a scoring session was cancelled at the last minute.    

Ron Boucher, a highly respected B&C measurer from Vermont, had been following the plight of the King Buck since he saw it at the Iowa Deer Classic in 2010. Highly experienced in scoring deer, Boucher had been one of the panel members who scored the world record Hanson Buck in the mid-1990s. Because he planned to be bow-hunting in Wisconsin in late October, he also planned to attend the panel-scoring session — strictly as an observer.

“When I arrived, I knew that Fish and many others who were anticipating the scoring were deeply let down that the panel session had been cancelled, so I volunteered to score the rack myself,” he said. “I felt like it was the right thing to do. I wasn’t trying to go against B&C, but there were so many mitigating circumstances involving the rack. Jay never asked me to score it, I simply volunteered. After all, this is a pretty special deer. To my knowledge, it’s the only straight 6-by-6 with no abnormal points ever to gross over 220 inches.”

Boucher knew he might be castigated by B&C for scoring the deer. After careful scrutiny, he said he believed both G-3s met the criteria to be scored as typical points, so he scored the rack as a typical 6-by-6. When he added up his numbers, he did a double-take. Incredibly, his figures tallied up a net typical score of 2136/8 inches, beating Milo Hanson’s world-record score by ⅛ inch! 

Boucher submitted his score to B&C along with a six-page letter explaining his reasons for what he had done and why he thought the deer should be scored as a typical 6-by-6, according to the rules of scoring outlined in the B&C scorer’s manual.

Reneau refused to accept the score.   

Conclusion

Sadly, one of the world’s greatest whitetails has been denied a chance to be recognized as a potential world record by Boone and Crockett, and the hunter who took that buck by fair-chase means has been sorely disappointed time and again the past four years.

As a result, the King Buck has not been entered in B&C and probably never will be. Nor has it been recognized in any way by Wisconsin. Because of the way things were mishandled from the beginning, the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club has apparently been hamstrung to do anything to rectify the situation.

King often wonders, “Will this unfortunate situation ever change? Even if B&C reverses its one-man ruling and agrees to panel-score the rack at some future date, could my buck receive a fair and impartial scoring?  Will the WBBC ever change its collective mind and agree to panel-score the rack for the sake of the Wisconsin record book?”

In short, antler aficionados everywhere will be left wondering: Will the King Buck ever get its due? My guess: Only if someone has the courage to stand up and do what is right. Currently, it appears as though one of the greatest whitetails of all time has been unjustly condemned. What a tragedy — for the deer, the hunter who took it, the state of Wisconsin and the deer hunting world in general.

— Duncan Dobie is a whitetail hunting expert and professional outdoor writer from Georgia.

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