Pennsylvania hunter Jason Kornbau's first impression of a buck his trail camera photographed in the summer of 2014 was that its rack was goofy. The deer was thusly named.
"It was early. We couldn't tell what it was (point-wise), but there were massive main beams and many places where points could develop," he told Lisa Price, who wrote the story for Rack magazine. "I said ‘Look at this goofy one,' and the name stuck."
Everyone who knew about the buck and could hunt the property in Franklin County wanted to shoot it, but not badly enough to hold onto their tags.
"When rifle season rolled around, I was the only one with a buck tag left," Jason said.
His only chance to hunt the deer with a rifle was on the rainy opening day, Dec. 1, when he was off work. He decided to crawl out of bed earlier than usual and walk to the mountaintop rather than ride his four-wheeler.
He didn't see a deer until midday, when he spotted four on the mountainside below him. At least two were bucks, a spike and an 8-pointer. He scoped the 4x4, but opted not to shoot it.
About 40 minutes later, Jason heard a limb snap and saw a deer stand up on the slope downhill from his setup.
"I knew it was big instantly," he said. "I could see the left antler, and I knew right away it was Goofy.
"He was only about 60 yards away, and all I could do was react," he said. "I got him in my scope and shot."
The hunter from York Haven was so discombobulated afterward that he almost began speaking in tongues. The reverse occurred when he found the deer minutes later.
He lost his voice.
"I just didn't know what to do, so I didn't do anything," he said. "I didn't jump up and down, and I didn't touch him. I just sat next to him for about 45 minutes."
Jason's 28-pointer has a BTR composite score of 213 6/8 inches. While the rack was still encased in velvet on the day he shot it, the velvet had been stripped by the time it was measured.
The Boone and Crockett Club requires the velvet be removed before they'll score and enter a deer into their records. Buckmasters, however, has a separate category for velvet entries.
If the rack had been taped by us prior to the removal of the velvet, Jason's buck would have been the runner-up to the world rifle-irregular-velvet record. As a hard-antlered specimen, it ties the 302nd spot.