Ryan Booher of Seven Fields shows off the 9-point buck he bagged during bow season in Cranberry Township. The buck is being officially measured by Pope and Young and could be the biggest ever harvested with a bow in that area.

CRANBERRY TWP — His measurements are unofficial, but Ryan Booher is officially happy about his good fortune.

Booher, 30, of Seven Fields bagged a 9-point buck Sept. 22 that may turn out to be the biggest buck ever taken in Cranberry Township during bow hunting season.

“I measured it at 135 and 5/8 inches,” Booher said. “It's not the point size that's impressive. The spread was huge.”

Booher is having the buck officially scored by Pope and Young. The results won't be known for 60 days.

The current record biggest buck bagged with a bow in Cranberry is 130.2 inches.

“If this one doesn't surpass that, it will be awfully close,” Booher said. “It should wind up being among the top 20 taken with a bow in Butler County, for sure.”

His latest harvest continues a solid streak of deer hunting by Booher, who only took the sport up in 2010. A former Cranberry resident, he graduated from Vincentian in 2005.

“My parents lived in Central Pa. years ago and my father hunted out there,” Booher said. “I never got interested in hunting myself until a few years ago.

“I visited my cousins and uncles in Three Springs (Huntingdon County) and they took me out for the first time. I was in the woods for an hour and got an 8-point buck with my first shot.

“They nicknamed me 'Horseshoe' at that point, because of my luck,” Booher said.

Since then, Booher has gotten a deer every year. But none compares to this one.

“The irony is the only area I scout and do all my prep work for deer season is in Evans City,” he said. “The woods in Cranberry where I got this buck is near my parents' house. I did no scouting there at all. I used to go in those woods with a beebee gun when I was 12. That's about it.”

He went into those same woods Sept. 22 with a couple of buddies, not expecting to find much success.

Booher was in a tree-stand for two and a half hours on an 87-degree day.

“Not exactly ideal conditions for hunting deer,” he admitted. “I was tired from the heat and the sun was setting.”

But before he vacated the tree-stand, he heard a noise behind him.

“I turned around and it was right there,” Booher said. “I couldn't believe what I was looking at, a buck that big in Cranberry.”

The rest, as they say, may be history.

“We will see,” he said. “I'm anxious to get the official word, but we're probably looking at mid-November before we know for sure.”