Buckle your seat belts, folks, the King Buck has landed in Montana for what could be a historic moment in deer hunting history tomorrow.
After six long years of waiting, the massive 6-by-6 from Grant County, Wis., will be panel-scored by the Boone and Crockett Club to see if it will unseat the Milo Hanson Buck as the new world record.
In case you missed it, this buck has been shrouded in controversy almost since the day Johnny King killed it while hunting with a bead-sighted .30-30. King, a construction worker from western Wisconsin, knew nothing about world records or scoring deer for that matter. He just knew it “was a good one.”
Upon learning from an official scorer that the deer might be a record, King set off on a journey to have it validated. He hit stone wall after stone wall after scoring officials changed their minds, lied, offered excuses and, essentially, tried to tell him not to worry his pretty little head over such matters.
BREAKING: FIRST B&C SCORER WHO SCORED DEER SAYS IT NETS 215
After years of trying to get the deer an honest examination, King sold the rack to antler collector Jay Fish, another average guy from Wisconsin. Fish vowed to fight for the deer because he — and dozens of official B&C scorers — knew the inner workings of what they call a “good ol’ boys society.”
Deer & Deer Hunting broke the story behind the story last year when Duncan Dobie — one of the hunting industry’s most respected journalists — took off the gloves and revealed shocking insights into why the King Buck was getting the run around.
D&DH has stayed on the story ever since, unearthing more corrupt, or at least dishonest, twists in why the buck and its supporters were being stonewalled.
Among the ground-breaking insights D&DH has revealed include a shocking 20-plus minute video made by ousted B&C scorer Craig Cousins of Wisconsin. In that video, Cousins scores the buck in accordance to the same B&C rules he has used to score bucks for the club’s record books for the past 25 years.
WATCH: CRAIG COUSINS SCORES THE KING BUCK
His opinion, among others, is the deer is a clean 6-by-6 typical that will net score 215 and some change, easily shattering Hanson’s record buck from 1993.
Throughout this whole ordeal, Deer & Deer Hunting has reached out to B&C for comment. B&C, for the most part, has refused to talk to us.
The deer is being scored tomorrow, but we might not know the outcome until next week or later. King and Fish arrived in Montana last night with the antlers. Both men told us that they have been instructed to hand the rack to B&C Records Chairman Eldon Buckner. They have also been instructed that they will not be informed of the final score until after they return to Wisconsin. They apparently are going to be informed via a certified letter.
Oh, it gets better.
Like the drunk guy who shows up at bar time and spills a drink on the bartender — and then blames the bartender for serving him — Field & Stream blasted D&DH for “kicking off this ruckus” by publishing Dobie’s article in 2011. F&S also reports they will have “breaking news” on the scoring session tomorrow.
Another conspiracy?
Who knows.