Mature whitetail deer learn to play hide and seek with hunters when they’re alive. This buck mastered the game for decades—even after it died.
At the Boone and Crockett Club’s 31st Big Game Awards Judges Panel, a team of Official Measurers crowned a new king in the Keystone State. In fact, this typical whitetail rack, scoring 204-6/8 points, broke into the top five All-time typical whitetails, sitting at number four overall. The numbers, though, are only half of the story.
Boone and Crockett records indicate that Frederick Kyress (other sources spell his name Kyriss) was hunting near the Graterford Prison, roughly 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Kyress owned a farm there, and sometime between 1958 and 1962 this buck was making a dash across the farm. That’s where Kyress killed the buck, but the story doesn’t stop there.
Someone, perhaps Kyress himself, tossed those antlers in a barn where they sat for 40 years—alongside dozens of other impressive antlers. In 2000, Luke Alderfer was driving through eastern Pennsylvania where he saw a yard sale. There, he caught a glimpse of a stash of antlers in a barn and asked if he could buy the largest set. He was told he would have to buy them all, but he wasn’t carrying enough cash. With main beams that measure well over two feet, it would have been tough to put them down. By the time he came back with more money, the antlers—all of them—were gone. Someone had beat him to the stash.
The antlers ended up sitting in the back of an antique store for 20 years, according to an article published by North American Whitetail. From there, the antlers were bought and sold numerous times for little more than beer money until an antler collector bought them and submitted them to the Boone and Crockett Club for scoring in 2019.
The buck initially scored 202-7/8, but at the 31st Big Game Awards Judges Panel the score was revised. The buck’s official score now sits at 204-6/8 points, securing its place as the number four typical whitetail of all time and the largest typical ever recorded for Pennsylvania.
Recently, the antlers changed hands again—quite possibly for the last time. Today, they are part of the King of Bucks collection at Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium in Springfield, Missouri. “This is a great buck, and we are excited to add it to the collection,” says Jeff Harper, curator of the King of Bucks collection.
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