Gerald Simkonis, 53, of Allegheny County, killed this 36-point, non-typical buck Nov. 2 while bowhunting on private property. (Gerald Simkonis, Allentown Morning Call / February 5, 2008)

By Christian Berg | Of The Morning Call
February 5, 2008

It's been 20 years since Allentown bowhunter Craig Krisher killed a 23-point buck that shattered Pennsylvania's non-typical (asymmetrical antlers) archery record.

At the time, Krisher figured his record-breaking buck would hold the title for a year or two -- maybe five if he was lucky.

''Each year, whenever you are holding a record, you have to have in the back of your mind that there's a big buck out there, and you have to expect it,'' said Krisher, 44, who owns his own tree trimming and land clearing business.

But as the years turned into decades, Krisher started to wonder if his record would ever be toppled.

Then, on Nov. 2, the inevitable happened. Gerald Simkonis, 53, from South Strabane Township, Allegheny County, was bowhunting on private property near his home in Wildlife Management Unit 2B when he arrowed a buck that sported a massive, 36-point rack that would later receive an official Boone and Crockett score of 2081/8 inches, easily surpassing Krisher's mark of 2033/8.

''We'd all like to be successful and get this, and I was fortunate enough to do it,'' Simkonis said. ''You can be as skilled as you can be, but everything has to come in place right, or you're not going to get what you're after. It took me 41 years to get there, so, to any young hunters who are out there, don't give up.''

When news of Simkonis' buck reached Krisher several weeks ago, the former record-holder said he was excited and congratulated Simkonis in a brief telephone conversation.

''To just hold the record for one week is something special, and to hold that for 20 years was an unthinkable thing,'' Krisher said. ''My hat is off to [Simkonis].''

Simkonis, who started bowhunting when he was 12, grew up in Nanticoke, Luzerne County, and moved to Allegheny County six years ago to take a job as a contractor at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh.

''One of the reasons I took the job out here is that Allegheny County has so many entrants in the record book,'' he said. ''There's still a lot of farms out here, believe it or not, and if you pitch in and help them bale hay, they'll let you hunt.''

Simkonis said he had been hunting his record buck for three years without ever catching a glimpse of the animal.

''I knew he existed, but I never saw him,'' Simkonis said. ''Three years ago, the landowner told me there was a nice deer on the property and it looked like it had 18 points. I certainly got interested in that, but he would only see him like one night each year, right around the breeding period.''

After two years of unsuccessfully pursuing the buck, Simkonis waited until the rut kicked in last fall and decided to press his luck by hanging a treestand in the one area of the property he hadn't before -- a dense thicket with the kind of cover likely to hold a giant buck in need of a hideout.

''... It was filled with poison oak, and I really didn't want to go in there,'' said Simkonis, who ended up with a rash on his arms and legs. ''I really paid for it, but my hunch paid off.''

On the morning of Nov. 2, Simkonis snuck into the woods two hours before dawn, put down a scent trail of estrous doe urine around his stand, climbed up the tree and waited.

Early in the morning, Simkonis had two bucks -- an 8-pointer and a 6-pointer -- come past his stand, but he knew they weren't what he was looking for. Around 8 a.m., he decided to try some aggressive calling tactics and see what happened.

''I rattled, and I made a fawn bleat and I followed up with a grunt call,'' he said.

A few minutes later, Simkonis said, he spotted the record buck moving in his direction. ''I only saw the bottom of his right beam, and that was enough to get me shaking,'' he said.

When the deer walked into a shooting lane less than 20 yards away, Simkonis drew his Hoyt ProVantage bow and released an Easton aluminum arrow tipped with a Wasp, four-blade broadhead.

''I heard a loud crack, and he ran about 10 yards and faced away from me. I wasn't even sure if I hit him,'' said Simkonis, who explained that he watched as the deer briefly lay down before getting up and walking out of sight.

''I took another shot at him and it went over his back. I waited two hours for him in the treestand, and it was probably the most agonizing time I ever had, not even knowing if I had hit him.''

When Simkonis finally climbed out of the tree and found his first arrow, he discovered it was covered with blood. And after following the blood trail, he realized the buck had circled around his stand and died just 20 yards away from his stand, but the brush was so thick he couldn't see it.

''I got within five feet of him, and seeing how big it was, I got real nervous,'' Simkonis said. ''I thought, 'This is the deer the guy has been talking about. It's not just a story.' And I felt really relieved that I had him.''

Simkonis' buck weighed 181 pounds field-dressed. He gave one of the jawbones, used to estimate the age of the buck, to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. A preliminary examination of tooth wear indicated the deer was likely 41/2 years old, but the agency is sending a tooth to a laboratory where it can be cross-sectioned to reveal the exact age.

Simkonis took the rack from his buck to George Block, an official Boone and Crockett scorer from Eighty Four, Washington County. The mandatory 60-day drying period for the buck's rack expired Dec. 31, and on Jan. 1, Block led a three-person panel of certified scorers who measured Simkonis' rack and came up with a gross score of 2116/8 inches and a net score of 2081/8.

In addition to ranking as the largest non-typical buck ever taken by a Pennsylvania archer, Simkonis' buck ranks as the state's fourth-largest non-typical of all time. The largest non-typical buck in Pennsylvania history measured 2386/8 inches and was killed in 1942 in Erie County.

Simkonis said his buck had a total of 58 points, of which 36 were scoreable (measuring 1 inch or more). There were 15 scoreable points on the right antler and 21 scoreable points on the right antler.

Simkonis said he has submitted the certified score sheet from his buck to the Game Commission, which maintains the state's official big-game hunting records. Agency spokesman Jerry Feaser said the agency will recognize Simkonis' buck the next time those records are updated, which he expects will happen later this year

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ORIGINAL: DanesDad

Usually, an Amish guy just stands there and draws a picture of the buck he sees. The pics often come out amazingly well, considering the guy was belted to a tree at the time.