Shocking Twist in the Story of the World’s Biggest Typical Whitetail

As if to show whitetail lore and legend are endlessly fascinating, considered one of searching’s historic tales took an sudden flip in 2025. The story, now 68 years outdated, started in 1958 close to the small, central Nebraska city of Sargent. A salt-of-the-earth rancher named Ben Barnhart noticed three big bucks. The next spring, he was tending to a new child calf when he noticed an enormous shed antler from one of many three bucks, hanging in a willow bush. 

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After ensuring his calf had what it wanted to outlive, a fast search turned up the matching antler. Barnhart took them again to his barn and dropped them in a nook on the filth flooring, not understanding that he, his ranch, and this pair of antlers had been destined for a central spot within the annals of America’s favourite sport animal. It wasn’t till 1996 that these antlers turned often called “The Common,” and in 1998 they had been acknowledged by the North American Shed Hunters Membership (NASHC) as the most important typical antlers a wild buck has ever worn. As much as that point, Barnhart’s discovery of the antlers remained a easy story instructed to some locals. Ben is gone now, however as tales typically do, this one has develop into difficult.

Onerous to Consider

Beginning with their sheer measurement, a lot about these antlers is difficult to consider. Among the many thousands and thousands upon thousands and thousands of white-tailed deer harvested in North America, just a few typical bucks have had an antler that scores 100 inches. A tape measure proves that The Common carried 100 inches of typical antler on each side of his head, and it’s the solely wild whitetail buck ever to do this.

Some individuals have doubted that three bucks of large measurement can be working collectively, however 1958 was the primary yr Nebraska had a firearms deer season in central Nebraska (Zone 7), solely a four-day season. Fertile soil providing loads of diet and 0 searching strain means it’s completely doable {that a} bachelor group of three may all attain a monster stage of maturity.

It’s additionally onerous to consider that anybody would discover the buck’s solid antlers, as a result of few individuals in that period had a lot curiosity in shed antlers. Chalk it as much as synchronicity — it so occurred {that a} cow giving delivery to a calf put Barnhart in the fitting place on the proper time. For nearly seven a long time now, individuals have puzzled how lengthy this buck lived. In 2025, it was confirmed that The Common went on to reside a number of years longer.

And, from the moment data perspective we have now in 2026, it’s onerous to consider that the most important whitetail antlers on the planet may stay hidden for 36 years, however that’s what occurred. In 1959, they had been only a large set of antlers. Within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, Barnhart’s son had them mounted to a board and hung them on a wall within the farmhouse the place members of the family and some neighbors may admire them. Nonetheless, they remained out of the general public eye till 1995.  

Didn’t anybody report the antlers to a scoring authority? No, as a result of in these days antler collectors had been uncommon in the event that they existed in any respect, and Barnhart definitely wasn’t considered one of them. It was simply pair of antlers, very large ones, however nobody gave a lot thought to how they measured as much as different large antlers. Few individuals knew what it meant to attain an antler anyway. The Boone & Crockett system of scoring had been adopted solely 9 years earlier, so antler scores weren’t on many individuals’s minds. And no group saved data of shed antlers on the time.

The shed antlers show that The Common survived that first central Nebraska searching season in 1958, however think about if a hunter had killed it throughout that four-day season and entered it into the Boone and Crockett document ebook at any time inside the 20 years that adopted. A lot of deer searching historical past would have modified. Wisconsin’s Jordan Buck (killed in 1914 however not declared the document till 1978) would have had a brief reign, or possibly no reign in any respect. Whereas we in all probability would have heard of Saskatchewan’s astonishing Milo Hanson buck (1993), it might by no means have been the world document.

Good Information, Then Very Dangerous Information

In 2025, West Virginia antler collector Josh Duncan determined to attempt to buy The Common and contacted Cody Idol to be the dealer for the sale. Cody, a son of famed artist, sculptor, and whitetail fanatic Dick Idol, is an knowledgeable in his personal proper. After negotiation, Keith Snider (who had bought them from Bass Professional Outlets in 2018) agreed to promote the antlers to Duncan. On March 26, 2025, the 2 events signed a contract for $1 million. That’s a giant worth to pay out-of-pocket, however the two males agreed to installments and Duncan turned the brand new proprietor.

Hunters will perceive Duncan’s love of antlers as a result of, like many people, Duncan examine The Common a few years in the past. He meant the acquisition “as an funding in one thing that’s method cooler than a inventory or a bond, however like different investments it’s a saved worth for my household.” Duncan mentioned, “Folks will purchase artwork and gained’t assume twice about it, however God made these antlers so that they’re mainly God’s artwork.”

Then the unhealthy information began, and none of it might have occurred with out Duncan’s buy as a result of it led to social media curiosity, which led Barnhart’s neighbor Invoice Saner to put up photographs given to him by Barnhart himself. These photographs revealed two extra factors on the antlers. If Duncan had not bought the antlers, they in all probability would have gone again to Bass Professional Outlets, the snapshots would by no means have been revealed, and the reality would by no means have come out.

Forty days after Duncan’s buy of lifetime, the whole lot modified. The whitetail world’s large, unhealthy, breaking information was that The Common isn’t fairly what anybody thought it was. Someday after March 1995 and earlier than the antlers had been featured in a December 1996 North American Whitetail journal article by Dick Idol, two small factors had been faraway from the fitting G-2 tine and the left G-3 tine — leaving no seen proof.

Who did it? And why? It appears clear that the factors had been on the antlers all the time Barnhart had them, evidenced by household images taken within the Barnhart farmhouse dated March 29, 1995 (37 years after Barnhart discovered the antlers and shortly earlier than he offered them to a collector). The Barnhart pictures had been posted to Fb on Could 5. Mike Charowhas, often called “The Antler Collector” noticed them and instructed Duncan. Charowhas and Duncan notified Shane Indrebo, a co-owner of the North American Shed Hunters Membership (NASHC), which had registered The Common as its world document set of shed antlers.

Just a few days later, Duncan obtained a textual content message from Indrebo, indicating the information of the eliminated sticker factors meant, regrettably, that The Common’s antlers would not be acknowledged as the highest white-tailed deer sheds. The membership doesn’t have an internet itemizing of its data and the NASHC document ebook isn’t revealed at common intervals. At the moment, the membership has no particular timetable, however Indrebo expects the newest version to be revealed in 2026. 

After all, amidst all of the questions, one main one was what to do concerning the million-dollar contract. Duncan and Snider wished to take care of a lifelong friendship over their uncommon frequent bond of proudly owning The Common. After a protracted and deep dialog about it, and although The Common was not the bona fide world document shed antlers, Duncan determined he wouldn’t search to void the contract. He wished to present The Common a future below his possession.

Who shaved the factors?

The chain of possession isn’t lengthy, and the window of time throughout which the factors had been eliminated could be very brief. Within the early Nineties Tim Condict, an Oklahoma whitetail clothes shop, was searching for property to lease for deer searching in central Nebraska. He requested locals in the event that they knew of any large antlers, and somebody pointed him to the Barnhart farmhouse. After seeing the antlers, he satisfied Barnhart they had been price promoting.

Earlier than promoting them, the Barnhart household took snapshots to protect the reminiscence of the antlers within the household and on the property the place they had been discovered. When Barnhart let the antlers go, they nonetheless had the 2 non-typical factors. Condict acted as a dealer to convey them to Brad Gsell, an antler collector in Pennsylvania. Earlier than delivering them to Gsell, Condict despatched them to a famend antler restore specialist Tom Sexton in Iowa.

The undated letter from Condict describes the work he was asking Sexton to do. First, the burrs on each antlers wanted restore as a result of the again edges had been trimmed to suit them to the board they’d been mounted on. Then, Condict mentioned he “fastened two mouse chewed spots on one G2 + [plus] on the opposite G3.” He additionally requested Sexton to color-match the repairs and concluded with, “Name me or Brad [Gsell] when you want any extra data.” The point out of Brad places the letter on the possession timeline of mid-1995 to early 1996. For unknown causes, Gsell quickly returned them to Condict.

Rodent injury through the lengthy years the antlers had been mendacity on the filth barn flooring isn’t shocking, however two areas described as “mouse chewed” appear to be the exact areas the place (to be discovered later) the antler factors had been eliminated. Sexton’s wonderful work was devoted to Condict’s request — he smoothed and polished the fitting G2 and the left G3 making them seem as if no injury or alteration of any form had ever been there. His good repairs went undetected till Could 5, 2025, when the Barnhart photographs had been revealed.

Within the chain of possession, we will ensure that nobody at Cabelas, and never Dick Idol (who brokered them from Condict to Cabelas), Keith Snider, Cody Idol, or Josh Duncan (nor the various antler specialists who had seen them by the years) had any concept the antlers had been altered.

Keep tuned for Half 2 as this story continues …