Former Ferris State football player, Mike King matched up many times with big men of the gridiron and at 330 pounds he was victorious in many of these battles. On December 9 of 2009 the big man conquered another heavyweight when he successfully took a Lapeer County buck with his muzzleloader that field dressed an incredible 211 pounds. One can only imagine what this brute would have weighed before the rut.
Mike’s buck also carried a royal crown that matched his XXL body size. The XXL antlers adorning this “King of the Forest” measure 177 gross Boone and Crockett points. Appropriately, this impressive 13-point carries 55 inches of mass.
Mike drives by his hunting property when traveling to and from work on a daily basis. He first saw this big buck on November 30 when he was driving to work one morning. On December 9th, Mike was driving home from a business trip when the big buck walked across the road in front of him onto the property that he has permission to hunt. King’s home is very close so he drove home, got changed, grabbed his gun and quickly returned. Mike only made it 30 yards into the woods when the buck stood up and looked over his shoulder, giving the anxious hunter a quartering away shot. When the smoke cleared from Mike’s muzzleloader, he saw the deer sprinting away as if it wasn’t even hit.
A search of the area revealed no hair or blood, just tracks in the snow. Fortunately, those tracks led the hunter for 150 yards to a dead trophy buck. Mike states, “I dropped to my knees and started counting points and thanking God.”
After taking this impressive buck, Mike discovered that other area hunters had targeted this deer. One hunter nicknamed the whitetail “The Coke Can Buck” because his bases are the size of Coke cans and another group of hunters simply called him “Blade” because his brow tines looked like blades.
Mike King’s previous biggest buck was a 160 class 9-point that he took in Kansas. His largest Michigan buck prior to the taking of the one highlighted in this story was a 135 class, 8-point that he took with a recurve bow at the age of 15. Mike is very grateful to the landowner for letting him hunt his property and giving him the opportunity to take a buck that is definitely fit for a King.
