The story of the majestic new world record archery velvet mule deer, crowned on Saturday, May 14, 2022, actually began 10 years ago, in Kane County, Utah. Although hunter Bowdy Gardner had no way of knowing that he had just felled a future world record that day in 2012, he knew that he had arrowed a very special animal. After the tag, Gardner submitted his prize to be measured and considered for Pope & Young's Records Program ... and immediately ran into a technicality.