Cass County Giant Has 22 Inch Spread and 11 Inch Tines…
Word travels fast among the deer hunting community and in late November the internet was ablaze about a giant buck shot in Cass County, Michigan. People wanting instant gratification started firing off comments and questions. Who shot it? Is that a new state record? What is its score? Ranch or wild? Quite a few simply wrote; Congratulations!
On Monday, November 25, 2013, thirty-three year old, Jeff Toy shot a massive 12-point in the southwestern corner of the mitten. When I interviewed Jeff on the phone a couple of days after he shot the giant typical he kept repeating, “The whole intention of the night’s hunt was to just go out and have fun.”
Toy states that deer hunting is, “an event that draws my whole family together.” On this particular hunt, Jeff was taking his father Ed Toy, and his fourteen year old cousin, Bailey Adams to a “small piece of property to hunt with the expectation of at least shooting some does.”
Jeff Toy with his record book 12-pt taken Nov. 25 that could be the new state record.
Jeff placed his dad and cousin in blinds that he had on the property and he told them, “I’m just going to take a bucket and a Gatorade and go sit in that small clump of trees on the edge of the cornfield.”
The afternoon weather was brutal with high winds, cold temperatures and lake-effect snow. Toy says, “There was twenty plus mile an hour winds, snow, and my eyes were constantly watering. During the night, I heard both my dad and cousin shoot and was excited for them. I actually considered cutting my own hunt short but decided to stay since there wasn’t a lot of time left anyway. I then saw a deer slowly walking across the field. I could tell that it was a big deer and decided to shoot. When I shot it, it did the mule kick, ran a short ways and fell to the ground. I walked to where I saw the deer fall and was quite surprised to find this big buck in the corn stubble!”
What Jeff found was a massive antlered six by six, 12-point. The buck sports a twenty-two inch inside-spread and carries incredible mass throughout its trophy rack. The longest tine measures eleven and a half inches.
Jeff has to wait the mandatory 60 day drying period before he can have his buck officially scored but as of this writing (December 1, 2013) it looks like it has a chance of competing for the number one position in the state, which is currently held by Troy Stephens. Stephens shot a Jackson County typical in 1996 that scores 198 0/8 Boone and Crockett points. Preliminary green scores have Toy’s buck flirting with the two hundred inch mark.
To cap off the great achievement, both of Jeff’s hunting companions successfully connected on does that night. Jeff shot his trophy buck with an iron-sighted, smoothbore Benelli, 12-gauge shotgun at 198 yards. The heavyweight carried a live-weight of 235 pounds. Toy’s previous biggest buck was what he described as an “average Michigan 8-point.” In fact, he shot an 8-pointer earlier in the season. Jeff concluded our conversation with, “I’m not a horn hunter. My family owns a meat processing business. We hunt for the meat and to have fun.”
