Scott May thought he'd shot a buck that would score close to 160 inches on Nov. 13, 2013.
The 47-year-old electrical contractor had no idea his guess was off by 50 inches until he took the animal to a venison processor, where other patrons argued it would break the 200-inch mark.
Scott knew a great buck was passing through the area he was hunting. He'd been salivating over trail camera images of it long before the shotgun season opened that day in Cross County, Ark.
He and his son, Scooter, were in stands 100 yards apart before sunrise that day. At first light, a doe was browsing a few steps from Scott's ladder stand, oblivious to his presence. A few moments later, he saw the buck with which he'd been hoping to cross paths.
Before he could get a clear shot, however, both the doe and the buck ambled back into the brush.
A little while later, Scott heard what he assumed was the doe returning. He was taken by surprise when the buck suddenly strolled right out in front of him.
There was no time to relish the sight. Scott immediately shouldered his 20-gauge slug gun, pointed it at the buck's boiler room, and pulled the trigger. The deer bolted, but then it stopped at 50 yards to glance back, which is when a second slug anchored it.
Their encounter was so swift that Scott didn't know the buck he'd shot was not the one he'd seen earlier. Only when he saw that one running toward his son's stand - Scooter never saw it - did he realize he'd downed an even bigger one.
Scott was flummoxed when onlookers at the processor's plant insisted the 18-pointer's rack would surpass 200 inches. When Larry Jones, who wrote the story for Rack magazine, taped it for the BTR, the composite score wound up at 211, which makes it the runner-up to the state record.