Pennsylvania forester Cory Gulvas is as passionate about hunting shed antlers as he is about traipsing across the mountains in search of their former wearers.
"I found 102 sheds the year I shot this deer. They've helped me learn about bucks and their core areas," Cory said.
He first became aware of his 2020 whitetail through a nighttime trail camera photograph taken two years earlier, when its rack might've been pushing 170 inches. The deer was dining on chestnut oak acorns.
Cory hunted that animal the entire season, to no avail.
"Late in the year, I also started getting pictures of other hunters moving through the area, so I backed off, knowing the increased pressure would cause the buck to hole up in a safe place and only move at night," he added.
"Two days after gun season ended, my chocolate lab and I started shed hunting. I carried in two trail cameras, just to see what was still there," he said.
It was cold then, and the deer were stressed.
"There was still snow on the ground, and I came upon a place where the deer were digging in the snow for acorns. Eventually, I found the trail cam buck's left shed, which measured 77 inches. The beam was 29," Cory said.
"My wife, buddy and I, along with my dog, spent the next four months searching for the other side, but we never found it."
Cory was thrilled to collect a nighttime photo of the buck with its new rack in August. It was in velvet, but it had clearly added another 10 inches.
The south-facing oaks in the lower elevations yielded the most acorns that fall, drawing Cory's target buck to the other side of the mountain.
He neither saw the buck nor heard word of its demise.
On March 1, however, he found the freshly shed left antler in the deer's bed on a south-facing slope. The matching right side was nowhere to be found.
It would be September before Cory got a gander at the deer wearing its new crown.
"I set up a camera to watch an acorn flat before going downstate to hunt with my brother for a few days. When I got back and checked, I had a daylight picture of the buck taken on Oct. 3.
"That was the first-ever photo while the sun was up," he continued. "I had not intended to start hunting the buck until the rut, but this photo told me I needed to get out there.
"I took off early the next day and hiked in with a treestand on my back. I didn't have a stand hung there as I did not expect to see deer or hunt that exact location," he said.
He chose to scale a tree near a funnel.
About 6:30. a couple of bucks came in to feed on acorns. A couple of does followed them.
Cory was afraid he would end up spooking the does when he got down from the stand, but he had to get out of the woods. He had one photo of the buck on the flat at 8:00 Tuesday evening, so he worried about ruining the whole setup.
He did indeed spook them, but he was not sure they knew what he was.
"The next day, Friday, I had the day off work. I only planned to hunt the buck in the evening because that one daytime photo I had of him was at 6:59 p.m.
"At 3:00, I looked at the thermometer. It was 72 degrees. After walking a mile, I thought seriously of turning around and going home. I thought there was just no way any deer would be moving in that heat.
"Climbing the mountain was hot and sweaty work, but I continued. When I was about 80 yards from my tree, I spooked several deer.
"After I was safely in the stand, I saw those same two bucks from the previous evening come out at 5:00, followed by the three does.
"The steady north wind was good for me," Cory continued. "Soon, another doe appeared with two fawns, one a button buck. That little fellow came right over to sniff my tree. After that, it came unglued and took off running."
The two bigger bucks, which were feeding at 80 yards, took no notice.
"About 6:45, I heard a soft noise in a hollow maybe 35 or 40 yards behind me. A couple of minutes later, I heard a chuffing sound," he said. "While my bow was hanging on the tree, I turned around and saw big antlers at 30 yards."
The giant whitetail was standing still, nervously flicking its ears. By the time it began moving closer, Cory had grabbed his bow.
His limit, range-wise, is 20 yards. And because he was hunting with a recurve, he cannot hold his draw for very long. So Cory had to wait and anticipate when he might have a clear shot.
As the deer neared an opening, he pulled back the string and grunted to stop it. That tactic didn't work, however. The buck continued walking into a thicket.
"I thought, Oh, my God. There went my chance," he said.
"I had to let down. Adrenaline was coursing through my body. My heart was pounding out of my chest at least 200 mph when the deer stepped into another opening at 18 yards.
"When I drew the second time, I had nothing in my arms. The energy was sucked right out of me," Cory continued. "I was aiming for right behind the right shoulder. I shoot brown feathers because I do not want to attract attention in the tree, so I did not see the impact. I heard only a soft sound as the deer took off running.
"If I said I wasn't shaken by this, I would be lying. I managed to hang my bow and tried to get control of myself. I had to hang onto that tree for fear of falling. My wife knew where I was, and I didn't want her to have to come and find me on the ground," he said.
"I finally managed to lower my bow to the ground and then descended the climbing sticks. On the way down, I kept thinking about the shot and that soft sound possibly being dirt. I had totally convinced myself that I'd missed."
With flashlight in hand, Cory went to where the deer had been standing. He saw no blood, and there was no sign of an arrow.
Rather than continue looking, he called his dad and brother and went home.
Cory paced the floor for most of the night. He and his wife looked at aerial photos until she went to bed at midnight. The images revealed the buck had to have passed a huge rock outcropping.
About 3 a.m., his wife woke and came to the kitchen. After telling him to keep her posted on the upcoming search, she said she'd dreamed the deer was beside the rock.
Cory and a buddy left for the mountain at 6:30. They met his brother en route, and the threesome arrived at his stand about 8:00. A few minutes into the search, his brother found blood.
While his brother and friend stuck to the trail, Cory went to peer into the bottom. Soon afterward, he spotted his buck next to the outcropping. It had traveled a total of 70 yards from the point of impact.
"I'm sure you could have heard us for miles," he laughed.
With a Buckmasters score of 194 6/8 inches, the Typical is not only a new Pennsylvania recurve record, but it's also No. 2 in the world for its category.