Michigan’s Allegan County is generally not known for world-class whitetails…until now! Rifle hunter Mike Taylor changed all of that on Nov. 17, 2024.
Mike was hunting with his Bushmaster .450 on Nov. 15 when he saw a very nice 8-point buck at 7:35 a.m. Mike dropped his trophy and was thinking, what a great way to start off the rifle season!
While still in his blind at about 9:25 a.m. Mike was using his grunt call when he heard something and saw a much bigger buck sneaking through with a doe. He still had another buck tag to fill. But something made the buck decide to run off. If he had not run off, Mike would have had a chance at about 12 yards.
Hunting Allegan County on Nov. 17 proved to be extremely successful for Mike Taylor, who harvested this monster 19-point that scored over 170 by CBM.
A few minutes later, Mike heard a shot off in the direction the buck had gone. Mike mentioned there were a lot of hunters in this block and figured someone had shot him. The next day, Mike hunted another piece of property he had access. As it turned out, he was very fortunate that he didn’t take another shooter buck.
On Nov. 17 Mike decided to go back to the same blind he hunted on the opener and had harvested his 8-pointer. Mike knew there were a couple of nice 8-pointers still running around in the area. At around 8:30 that morning Mike saw a doe being followed by a really good buck heading in from the opposite direction as to the big buck on opening morning. The area Mike hunts is very thick and has few shooting lanes. When the buck was at 45 yards, Mike shot and immediately knew it was not a good shot. He was able to watch the buck travel about 30 yards from the impact and lay down. Mike was able to watch the buck and figure it had been hit harder than he thought, and when the buck stood, it dropped dead.
Prior to this, Mike had been sitting in his blind, thinking that if God sent another buck in please make it the same buck he had the close encounter with on the 15th. His wish was about to come true. Mike said “I am beyond grateful for God giving me this opportunity!”
After waiting about 30 minutes, a very long 30 minutes, Mike decided it was time to recover his trophy. Mike had thought it was a main frame 8-point buck. As he got closer, he would soon see that he had just harvested a buck of a lifetime. His trophy had 19 scorable points, with the 20th point broken off, and great mass throughout. The dressed weight was a whopping 235 pounds. He was aged at 7 ½ years old. After the 60-day drying period, CBM scored his trophy, and it gross scored 178 4/8, and the net was 173 5/8 inches! Truly a world-class whitetail buck!
Mike has harvested many bucks before, the biggest scored in the neighborhood of 130 inches. Nothing even close to this brute.
Mike doesn’t use trail cameras; he believes he might have seen him once or twice before. So, really not much of a history with this buck. Mike did hear from a couple of other hunters in the area who had seen this brute. But overall, not a lot of hunters had seen him or were aware of him. It is surprising a buck that old, living in an area that has a lot of hunting pressure was able to keep such a low profile and was able to live that long. Or maybe he just moved into the area. Regardless, he lived to be 7 ½ years old, which is a tremendous feat in any state, let alone in the state of Michigan.
Unlikely Mike will ever harvest a buck anywhere near the caliber of this buck. He will sure have a lot of fun trying.
The author is Jeff Pendergraff, a retired Captain from the Law Enforcement Division of the MDNR.
