When brothers Albert Jr. and Leland King first visited northwestern Kentucky's Sloughs Wildlife Management Area in November 2012, they were loaded for swamp rabbits.
"The area where we turned the dogs out had long strips of fields between woods - ideal habitat for both rabbits and deer. The place had chest-high weeds and saplings all grown up into some unreal cover," said Albert, who goes by the nickname Bubby.
The brothers had just started walking through their second strip when Leland yelled "BIG DEER!"
"This huge buck was running with a doe," Bubby said. "She veered off, but he came by me at about 40 yards. I'd never seen a deer that big in my life."
Rabbits forgotten, the Kings rounded up the dogs and left. All Bubby could think about was returning with some deer stands.
Subsequent trips yielded one of the giant buck's sheds from 2011 and both antlers from 2012.
The next summer, Bubby glassed the WMA's big bean fields. In advance of the bow opener, he hung stands and set out a trail camera.
He obtained four images of the buck during the snow that fell after the state's regular gun season.
At 2:00 on a Sunday afternoon, after he'd already told his wife he was quitting the buck, Bubby returned to the WMA. Soon afterward, a train of deer began passing in front of his stand, and the big buck was toward the caboose.
"I sat down, got my (muzzleloader) in the fork of the tree in front of me, and picked out a gap the buck was moving toward, about 100 yards out," he said. "When it hit the gap, I squeezed off a shot."
Although he missed the deer, it stood in place long enough, bewildered, for Bubby to reload and try again. The second shot nailed it.
The deer's BTR composite score is 203 1/8 inches.