246 2/8″ nontypical Boone & Crockett
In the April issue of Woods-N-Water News, a cover story announced, “Michigan’s Biggest Buck.” On April 9, this became official when the 26-point, Lenawee County buck was panel scored by three Commemorative Bucks of Michigan scorers, Dennis Sheats, Roger Lockwood, and Bill Nash. This Grand Champion is the state’s biggest buck with a score of 246 2/8 net nontypical Boone & Crockett points. For those of you who think that “nets” are just for fishing, its gross score is 257 1/8 Boone & Crockett points!
This great deer was first seen by 15 year-old Madison Randall who had slept in on July 11, 2009. When Madison awoke around 10 a.m. she looked out the window and saw a large animal with an XL set of antlers. Madison has had success hunting deer and even shot a 10-point two years ago that now adorns a living room wall in the family home, but she had never seen a deer this big so she called her mom and exclaimed, “There is an elk in the backyard.”
Madison’s mother asked her to take some pictures and the young lady promptly got a digital camera and captured three images of the huge deer before it was scared off by a neighbor man yelling at his dog. When Madison’s father Jim and a friend of his arrived home and looked at the photos he told me via a phone interview that “we could not believe our eyes.”
July 11 was the only day that the big buck was seen on the Randall’s 10 acre property and the family concluded that the buck must have left the area.
On February 7, 2010 the Randall’s neighbor Sharon Weidmayer took her dog, an Australian Blue Healer named “Camie,” for a walk and found the big buck dead. Sharon told her friend Ron Waldron of her find and asked him if he would come take it. Two days later Sharon took Ron to the dead animal and Ron reacted much like Madison exclaiming in jest, “That’s not a deer, that’s an elk!”
Ron took the trophy to his hunting partner/son-in-law Mike Gunther. Like everyone else, Mike was in shock and awe when laying eyes on this Michigan Monster for the first time. Realizing that they had something really special, Mike contacted the authorities and acquired a permit to own the deer.
The Michigan state record and still current state record hunter collected buck belongs to Paul M. Mickey that scores 238 2/8 nontypical Boone and Crockett points. The Lenawee County buck eclipses this record by eight inches.
In Michigan hundreds of thousands of hunters take to the woods and fields for three months each year trying to get that once in a lifetime buck and the new state record for a pickup category was photographed by a young girl and found by a lady and her dog, neither of which occurred during the hunting seasons. These awesome animals never fail to astonish us.
Special thanks to Madison, Sharon, Ron and Mike for sharing this wonderful buck with us.
