KAYLOR — Tylar Parker knows versatility.

The 17-year-old Kaylor resident and Karns City High senior was an all-conference lineman for the Gremlins football team this season.

He recently received the lead role in the high school play.

On Dec. 1, he bagged one of the biggest bucks ever harvested in Pennsylvania — and didn't know it at the time.

Parker shot an 18-point buck with a 21-inch spread on his family's 110-acre farm.

"At about 4:45 p.m., my dad and I saw it wander out of the woods and into a field," Parker said. "Then it started back into the woods, so I took a shot at it and it scampered off.

"We went into the woods looking for it and couldn't find any sign I hit it. It was getting dark, so we gave it up."

Scott Parker, Tylar's father, suspected his son hit the buck.

"Just its reaction, the way it hurried off," the elder Parker said. "We didn't see any hair or blood, but it acted as if it had been hit.

"We were cold and wet, so we went back into the house. Tylar went to school the next day and I went back out there looking for that buck."

He found it bedded down and dead. Parker had shot it through the buttocks from about 225 yards away.

"I started counting its points. I never saw anything that big," Scott Parker said. "It bedded down because no one was chasing it. Had we pursued it the previous day, we probably would have lost it."

"Dad called to tell me he found the deer, " Parker said. "When he told me it was an 18-point, I thought he was lying. I couldn't believe it. I just started going crazy — I'd never even heard of an 18-point buck before."

Tom Eiler, a friend of the family who raised whitetail deer in Bruin and knows the Pennsylvania Game Commission's scoring system, was asked to come out and score the buck.

Scoring a buck involves numerous measurements, including the antler rack's mass, thickness and length. Eiler gave the buck an unofficial total score of 188-6.

"That might place it among the top 20 deer ever harvested in Pennsylvania, maybe even higher than that," Eiler said. "It's the biggest buck I've seen and I've been hunting for 42 years.

"It has to be the biggest buck ever shot in Butler County, at least in the woods. There may been similar size bucks shot on preserves."

According to the Game Commission's records, Parker's buck would have to score at least 189-7 to crack the all-time top 20 list. Vernon Keck of Saxonburg owns the record for biggest buck harvested in Butler County. He bagged a buck scoring 179-7 in 1981.

Other top bucks bagged in the county include a 173-1 by William Curran of Mars in 1989 and a 168-4 bagged by Craig Govan of Valencia in 1987. The biggest buck scored in the county during this decade belonged to Garrett Drake of Slippery Rock with a 167-0 in 2000.

An official scoring of a buck can't be done until 60 days after its harvest.

The largest whitetail deer ever shot in Pennsylvania measured 238-6 and was bagged by Edward Dodge of Knox in Erie County in 1942.

Parker began accompanying his father on deer hunting ventures at age 8. Until age 15, he hunted deer near Petrolia before switching to the farmland.

"Last year, I got a 7-point with a 15-inch spread and thought that was pretty good," Parker said. "I know I'm never going to top this."

"A 12-year-old kid shot a 12-point near my house last Saturday," Eiler said. "I thought that would be the deer story of the year that I'd witness.

"You just never know."