When photos of Brian Butcher’s 67-point non-typical whitetail buck surfaced on social media in 2019, it was easy to tell that the Kansas bowhunter had bagged something special. Now we know just how special.
After an 18-month COVID-induced delay, Butcher’s freakish buck has finally received its official score, and it’s quite literally one for the record books. With a gross score of 343 4/8 inches and net score of 321 3/8 inches, Butcher’s deer is the second biggest bowkill in Pope and Young’s history, and the fourth-largest deer ever recorded by Boone & Crockett.
Only the Missouri Monarch, the Hole in the Horn Buck, and the Brewster Buck are bigger.
“I’ve heard and read so many stories of deer that were close to world and state record marks, but some of those haven’t panned out,” Butcher told Bowhunter. “I felt like I was teetering on the edge of all of that for about 18 months, and to be here and have it all finalized, it feels like a weight off my shoulders and it was a weight I never knowingly put there.”
Butcher tagged his buck on a piece of family land he hunts in the eastern part of the state. He told Field & Stream earlier this year that he’d had low expectations for the evening he killed his record-breaking deer. He’d jumped a few deer, and he and his hunting buddies had run into issues setting up tree stands and trail cams.
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He passed on a nine-pointer that fed in front of his stand within bow range for a half hour. When that deer left, two others showed up, one of which looked like it had something wrong with his head. He told the outlet that he at first thought it was carrying some tumbleweed.
When he finally got his hands on the animal after taking a 25-yard shot, he realized he’d taken down a monster. The left side of the rack looks like one side of a normal six-point, but the left boasts an insane 64 additional points.
Butcher has received his share of media attention, but he told Bowhunter he doesn’t feel like he did anything special.
“This whole experience, I feel so out of place,” said Butcher. “My hunting buddies and myself, we are just kind of looking at each other out here [at the Pope and Young Convention] and thinking that we’re just three guys from Kansas who like to bowhunt.
“I never thought in a million years that we’d be out here at the Pope and Young Convention and that I’d have a deer like this out here.”