The buck was the biggest Dess Schnur has harvested in 60 years of hunting.

But for the longtime Butler resident, it wasn’t the size of the kill.

It was the quality of the company.

Schnur joined his uncle, 88-year-old Vic Geibel, and nephew Robin Geibel for a deer hunting excursion in Randolph, Kansas, earlier this month.

They hunted on property owned by Robin.

“Vic used to take me out hunting when I was a kid,” Schnur said. “I’m about 11 years older than Robin, so I took him hunting when he was starting out.

“There’s a lot of history there between the three of us. I’m talking decades.”

The Geibel father-son duo has hunted together in Kansas for a number of years.

This year, Schnur decided to join them.

“It’s been a long time since all three of us were out there,” Schnur said. “I’m not sure how many more opportunities we’re going to have, so I decided to go.”

Schnur wound up shooting a 13-point buck with a gross score of 178 inches.

The buck’s live weight was 250 pounds.

He actually spotted it two days before, but a heavy fog prevented Schnur from getting a shot.

“I figured that was my chance and it was gone,” Schnur said. “I’d never seen a rack like that.”

Once he saw it again, Schnur didn’t miss — he hit it with one shot from approximately 250 yards away.

But he wasn’t sure right away.

“I saw it jerk ... then it took off,” Schnur said. “I didn’t know if I hit him or not.”

The trio walked to the spot where the buck was and saw no traces of blood.

A few yards away, blood was evident on the ground.

After following a trail of blood, Schnur figured he got him.

He sent his uncle over the hill to see the deer first.

“I was absolutely thrilled for Dess,” Vic Geibel said. “I was more excited than he was.

“When he came down and first saw how big it was, we embraced. We both started crying.”

Schnur said the emotion of 60 years of hunts together “just spilled out of both of us.”

While the buck would have been one of the bigger ones bagged in Pennsylvania, it was one of many that size in Kansas.

“I’ve had one score at 186 out there, an 11-point,” Robin Geibel said. “We’ve been hunting out there since about 1997.

“But that kill this year was a great moment for all three of us. I’ll never forget it.”

Vic Geibel has hunted in Alaska, British Columbia and numerous other places.

He still climbs into a tree-stand at 88 and goes out hunting every day during the season.

“My father took me when I was a little kid, I took my son ... It’s been a family tradition for years and years,” he said. “We’ve had hunting camps dating back to the 1940’s.”

Schnur made the trip to Kansas for a hunting reunion of sorts.

“I came back with the buck of a lifetime,” he said.

Schnur is having the buck mounted. He has bear and turkey mounts in his home as well.

This one will be a little different.

“That memory is always going to be there,” Schnur said.