STATE RECORD Non-typical taken with crossbow
Dundee is widely known among our native sportsmen and women as the home of Cabela’s. About eight miles from the ever-popular sporting-goods store, sits a one-hundred acre farm that Brad Burton hunts courtesy of his wife’s grandmother. On November 14, 2011, Brad tagged a 16-point buck that he shot with a crossbow which is big enough to be the new state record in the Non-Typical category.
Mr. Burton is 44 years old and has traditionally hunted the mitten state with a gun. This year he bought a Horton Crossbow at the aforementioned Cabela’s to maximize his hunting opportunities.
On November 2, 2011, Brad saw the heavy-antlered buck and enjoyed a close encounter. At 11:15 a.m., Burton saw the buck walking in a gnarly thicket. The deer was cruising through the thick stuff and traveled to an opening in front of the elevated hunter. Burton commented, “The buck stopped in an opening 42 yards away but I couldn’t pull the trigger, I thought that he was just too far away. The deer advanced into a winter wheat field, I bleated with a can call and he circled back towards me but never came any closer than 60 yards.”
Ironically, Brad practiced at this distance after the hunt and found out that he was dead-on at 40 yards. The ‘should-haves and could-haves’ have haunted every whitetail hunting veteran at sometime or the other and Brad wondered if he was going to get another chance.
Burton remained diligent and was rewarded with another sighting on November 14, the day before the Michigan firearm opener. On this fateful day the conditions were very calm. Brad could easily hear a farmer combining corn in a distant field. Shortly after first light, Burton saw a heavy racked buck walk through the hardwoods. Approximately 15 minutes later he saw the trophy-class animal enter the wheat field.
“I could hear him grunting even though he was still a long ways away,” commented the excited hunter. Burton continued with his narrative, “I bleated and he entered the woods. I bleated a second time and returned to the field. I then bleated and added grunts. This brought him straight to me. Eventually he was walking broadside in front of me. I blatted to stop him and placed the crosshairs on him when he was 32 yards away. After I tripped the trigger he ran across the field until he made it to a fence row. At this point he stopped running and walked along the fence until he eventually bedded down. Once he was bedded down I could no longer see him.”
Burton chose to wait about 45 minutes before approaching his downed trophy. Brad found both blood and hair at the point of impact and there was a very obvious blood trail. The bolt had successfully hit both lungs. When Burton walked up to the trophy he was pleasantly pleased that the massive rack carried 16 incredibly thick points. In addition, the antlers carry the unique palmated characteristic which is more commonly found in moose rather than whitetail deer antlers. The inside spread is 16.5 inches and both main beams measure over 23 inches. This Monroe County buck has a gross score of 188″ and nets out an official score of 180 7/8 Boone and Crockett points as a non-typical.
Earlier in the season a buck in Barry County, shot by Clinton Goyings also grossed 188 inches but its official net score settles in at 166 7/8. Before these great 2011 bucks were tagged the record was held by Patrick H. McCurly who took a Branch County buck that scored 166 4/8 pts.
Brad Burton concludes, “I come from a hunting family. I hunt hard and hunt a lot. In recent years I have only shot bucks with 8-points or better. It has taken 30 years to get this buck of a lifetime!”
