DAVIDSON—Local hunters know some amazing animals roam pastures and fields in this part of the world.

Last Monday, Jan. 21, the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation (SWF) announced that one of its members, Dennis Bennett, had arrowed a deer of a lifetime in the Arm River Valley area.

Bennett was bow hunting Oct. 1, 2018 when he arrowed the non-typical mule deer. The deer was measured by the SWF’s Henry Kelsey panel measurers on Oct. 7 and scored 293 6/8 inches and was declared a Henry Kelsey provincial record. The Pope & Young Club, Jan. 9, 2019, convened a special panel of judges in Regina to measure Bennett’s buck as a potential Pope & Young world record non-typical mule deer.

According to its website, Pope & Young (P & Y) is recognized as the official repository for records on bow-harvested North American big game animals. Together with the Boone & Crockett Club, the P & Y Club maintains the universally accepted scoring system and sets the standards for measuring and scoring North American big game.

P & Y said Bennett’s buck has a five-by-five typical frame with 15 abnormal points on each side with a gross score of 303 0/8. The special panel of four measurers gave the buck a final score of 291 1/8 inches and confirmed it as the new P & Y non-typical world record mule deer. Bennett’s buck surpasses the previous world record deer shot by Kenneth Plank in 1987 by 16 and 2/8 inches.

A typical mule deer will have four points per side plus eye guards.

The size of Bennett’s buck was a surprise.

“When something like that is brought to official measure, the shock doesn’t hit until you get the official measure. It’s a shock to the hunter and to the official measurer,” said Warren Howse, chair of the SWF’s Henry Kelsey Big Game Records panel.

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