HARRISBURG - History was made in the state once again this year.
On Thursday at the Pennsylvania Game Commission headquarters, officials said a trophy whitetail rack shattered the previous record in the Typical Archery category in state records.
Ron Shaulis, of West Newton, Pennsylvania, harvested the trophy buck on Oct. 24 with a compound bow on public land in Westmoreland County.
The rack had a net score of 185-4/8, which surpasses the previous record of 178-2/8 from a buck harvested in Allegheny County in 2004.
“The 13-point rack was very symmetrical, and lost only 7 7/8 inches in side-to-side deductions, which included an inch-and-a-half abnormal point off the right-side G-2 point,” Bob D’Angelo, Game Commission Big Game Scoring Program coordinator, said in a news release. “That’s not much in deductions on a set of antlers this size,” he added.
The rack had 25- and 26-inch main beams, more than 11-inch G-2 and G-3 points, a more than 20-inch inside spread and 4 1/2-inch or better circumferences at the four locations where circumference measurements are taken on the main beams.
Shaulis put in a tremendous amount of time scouting and monitoring trail cameras, and it certainly paid off. He credits the Game Commission for sound practices with deer management in the state.
“I didn’t know what I had until I took the rack to the taxidermist,” Shaulis said. “He told me I should definitely get it scored, as it might be a new record. That’s when I knew I wanted to take it to Harrisburg to get it officially scored.”
Last year a buck taken in Clearfield County scored 228-6/8 and was a new No. 1 in the Nontypical Archery category.
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