The Pa. record for largest deer antlers from a long-ago Montgomery County hunt remained something of a legend for years. But Josh Honeycutt, writing for the Realtree Store (a gear supplier from Georgia), has verified it.

The buck was tagged sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s by hunter Frederick Kyriss, near what is now Evansburg State Park.

The record-setting antlers weren’t verified (officially measured and “scored”) until years later. They were presented for evaluation by a purchaser who bought them at a Kyriss family garage sale after he passed.

Under official scrutiny, they measured slightly over 204 inches, beating the prior 1943 record by more than 16 inches.

That’s roughly 17 feet.

The antlers not only hold the state record, they also rank No. 5 in the world.

Bob D’Angelo, Pennsylvania Big Game Scoring Program coordinator, explained “It did come as a surprise being it took this long for someone to bring it forth for official scoring.”

The delay, he conjectured, could be explained by two factors: Kyriss, as was common in that era, was more interested in the venison than the rack. And the feat was accomplished well before the era of social media, when personal accomplishments like this spread widely.

More on the Montgomery County record for largest deer antlers is at the Realtree Store website.