# Footage of Rompola Scouting



## Jigin-N-Grinin (Jan 22, 2008)

swampbuck said:


> And all without habitat manipulation,TV shows, and boot camps, Imagine that! :SHOCKED:


 
You also forgot extreme pressure from other hunters...


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## jatc (Oct 24, 2008)

hartman756 said:


> You never know what???
> 
> That becous dalmer is a serial killer and is soft soken when he talks about how he is so twisted, and mitch is also soft spoken when he talks about deer hunting , mitch must have a twisted mine like dalmer I only watched the first part of dalmer but it is pretty obvious he is telling the truth............also seen no indication rompola was was being anything but truthfull in his interview.
> 
> ...


Ummm.... I think you might have missed the point I was trying to make and then read WAY to much into it.

ALL I was pointing out is that people can't always be judged accurately on the basis of being "soft-spoken". That is all, nothing more to it. I've heard too many people say that someone they don't know "Is a pretty good guy.", simply based on a two minute conversation they may have had. Dahmer's neighbors when interviewed all pretty much said he "seemed" to be a pretty decent person. Kind of scary when you really think about it.

As far as trying to compare Mitch to a serial killer, that's just funny to me. Even IF he did lie about a deer that wouldn't put him in the same league as what Dahmer did. My God, it is JUST a deer. Pretty insignificant in the grand scheme.


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## Mightymouse (Sep 19, 2007)

walleyedude said:


> x2. I am sure he is a wealth of knowledge.....


 
Yup, love to sit down and shoot the breeze with him and the Eberhart boys some time. Love to pick their brains and listen to their stories.


As for Rompola, regardless of what you think of the infamous Rompola buck or what you think of him it is hard to deny his abilities. The proof is in the pudding and he's got a lot of pudding hanging on his walls.


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## buttonbuck100 (Sep 13, 2006)

Hartman...I think the point that Fishx65 was trying to make is that you can't base your whole opinion about a person by the way they talk and carry themselves. I believe that Mitch did take his bucks legally and ethically. He has taken too many sizable bucks to have just been "Lucky".


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

Here is Mitch's story of shooting the big buck.

http://*****************************/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2952


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)




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## QDMAMAN (Dec 8, 2004)

I would classify Mitch as a serial killer.


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## Thumb Bucks (Nov 28, 2012)

QDMAMAN said:


> I would classify Mitch as a serial killer.


Now that's funny!

Sent from my AS740 using Tapatalk 2


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## Bomba (Jul 26, 2005)

QDMAMAN said:


> I would classify Mitch as a serial killer.


 
What kind? Fruit loops?, lucky charms?, he might just be a plain old cherios kind of guy! You can never tell.


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## FISHMANMARK (Jun 11, 2007)

bioactive said:


> Here is Mitch's story of shooting the big buck.
> 
> http://*****************************/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2952


WE need the secret code to figure out which forum this is from.


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## Diggdug (Sep 20, 2001)

If Avery believes in Mitch then I am sure he is the real deal. Just because he turned down tens of thousands of dollars by keeping the buck to himself, doesnt mean anything. Maybe he doesnt care about money. But then why would he steal from the post office? Or take upskirt videos?
Not for money or any personal gain of course.

And I'm sure that buck is real. After all Grand Traverse Co. Is known for superior genetics and great soil! And it's not that unlikely that a typical 12 point with a 30 inch spread, no broken tines, and almost perfect symetry is taken in northern Mi, is it?

No, I'm sure Mitch is a real honest guy, just a little misunderstood!


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

Jigin-N-Grinin said:


> You also forgot extreme pressure from other hunters...


The buck in question was shot in Grand Traverse county(as well as several others) On private land bordering public land which the deer spent much time on. He has done the same In other NLP countys on public land. Including one from Clare the year after the big one.

Deer dont crawl under a rock when season begins or at daybreak. They are still out there doing what they do. It is simply a matter of understanding what/where they do it during those time's.


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## walleyedude (Feb 7, 2011)

Diggdug said:


> If Avery believes in Mitch then I am sure he is the real deal. Just because he turned down tens of thousands of dollars by keeping the buck to himself, doesnt mean anything. Maybe he doesnt care about money. *But then why would he steal from the post office? Or take upskirt videos?*
> Not for money or any personal gain of course.
> 
> And I'm sure that buck is real. After all Grand Traverse Co. Is known for superior genetics and great soil! And it's not that unlikely that a typical 12 point with a 30 inch spread, no broken tines, and almost perfect symetry is taken in northern Mi, is it?
> ...


Where did you get all of this information from?


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

Diggdug said:


> . But then why would he steal from the post office? Or take upskirt videos?
> !


Are any of those videos on YouTube?


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## Riva (Aug 10, 2006)

Well, after watching the video, I can now easily conclude that if there is poop in the middle of my bed that either I have had a really bad night or, my wife is cheating on me!


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## stinky reinke (Dec 13, 2007)

William H Bonney said:


> Are any of those videos on YouTube?


Yes easy to find....

http://www.******shots.com


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## Thumb Bucks (Nov 28, 2012)

Riva said:


> Well, after watching the video, I can now easily conclude that if there is poop in the middle of my bed that either I have had a really bad night or, my wife is cheating on me!


Lmao!
Sent from my AS740 using Tapatalk 2


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

Riva said:


> Well, after watching the video, I can now easily conclude that if there is poop in the middle of my bed that either I have had a really bad night or, my wife is cheating on me!


Very well done, bravo! :lol: :lol:


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## TVCJohn (Nov 30, 2005)

Sounds like the Droopy Ears Club might be making a comback. 

That was the funniest thing I ever heard in this whole saga.


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## TRAVISW74 (Aug 23, 2012)

Yep still remember that day in 1998 when news broke of the Rompola monster buck. He's definitely a great hunter and his stats in other states proves it. In my opinion, I feel Rompola shot a trophy, didn't care that it may be the next record and just wanted to show off this beast but then the critics and much skeptism about the buck started to unravel and forced Rompola to "clam Up". Its my understanding that he has since shot large deer since this mystery???? Do I think its real?? All I know is a huge whitetail buck was shot and the only ones who will know the real truth is Rompola and the buck.........
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## goodworkstractors (Aug 7, 2007)

TRAVISW74 said:


> Yep still remember that day in 1998 when news broke of the Rompola monster buck. He's definitely a great hunter and his stats in other states proves it. In my opinion, I feel Rompola shot a trophy, didn't care that it may be the next record and just wanted to show off this beast but then the critics and much skeptism about the buck started to unravel and forced Rompola to "clam Up". Its my understanding that he has since shot large deer since this mystery???? Do I think its real?? All I know is a huge whitetail buck was shot and the only ones who will know the real truth is Rompola and the buck.........
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


After watching that video, I'd have to say he cares very much about trophies and records. the video starts off with him rattling off this buck and that buck and how they were state records or thought they might be record book bucks at the time. Seems like he's very interested in the record books if you ask me.


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## jdub (Feb 27, 2007)

http://www.rompolawhitetails.com/gallery/?album=3


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## dialed-in (Feb 7, 2011)

I wish I could scout with him for one year. 


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## METTLEFISH (Jan 31, 2009)

The Genetics in that area are great. Then throw in a high protien/mineral station for those Deer and WOW. I know people that know him and hunt in that area, the Deer had been seen on more than one accasion in the park (if not that Deer one simular) One day hopefully he'll divulge the truth and the animal, I believe in what he says, and more so what he does!


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## weatherby (Mar 26, 2001)

walleyedude said:


> I think Mitch is one of, if not the best whitetail deer hunter in the country.


 Ditto


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## rmw (Feb 21, 2006)

Deer season is almost over , time for another Mitch thread


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## QDMAMAN (Dec 8, 2004)

> rmw said:
> 
> 
> > Deer season is almost over , time for another Mitch thread


Heck, why not? All the TL threads are getting locked as soon as they're opened.:evil::lol:


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## Big Jon St.Croix (Feb 9, 2010)

bioactive said:


> Here is Mitch's story of shooting the big buck.
> 
> http://*****************************/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2952


Probably not accused of Plagiarism though.
How is your problem with TL going by the way?


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## Bomba (Jul 26, 2005)

Big Jon St.Croix said:


> Probably not accused of Plagiarism though.
> How is your problem with TL going by the way?


Should you be out dropping bait somewhere??


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## Munsterlndr (Oct 16, 2004)

METTLEFISH said:


> I know people that know him and hunt in that area, the Deer had been seen on more than one accasion in the park (if not that Deer one simular)


Which park would that be?


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## backstrap bill (Oct 10, 2004)

I love the rompola threads


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## rmw (Feb 21, 2006)

QDMAMAN said:


> Heck, why not? All the TL threads are getting locked as soon as they're opened.:evil::lol:


Maybe we could have a poll for most controversial person on or discussed on MSF . But we need to do it before next fri, I'm going muzz hunting for 5days . And these are the days of MSF :lol:


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

I have lived in TC area most of my life.... I've spent MANY hours driving around this area and bucks like the rampola buck are a dime a dozen around here! Most of the guys up here have had a shot opportunity at least once on a buck just as big or bigger! Most choose not to shoot because of the hassle associated with scoring it and x-rays and all the unwanted publicity that comes with it! Grand Traverse county is a mini Iowa!

Although I believe Mitch has shot some massive bucks.....that's all I believe! 

Tjstebb 


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## Big Jon St.Croix (Feb 9, 2010)

Bomba said:


> Should you be out dropping bait somewhere??


I did!
I caught a Bomba lol
Sucker lol


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## Critter70 (Sep 3, 2011)

jatc said:


> Interesting observation.
> 
> Jeffrey Dahmer Interview - Extended Footage - YouTube


This was probably the dumbest post I have seen ,really? Dahmer?you might be the one with issues!


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

Let's try it this way

LINK

The Story

Author's Notes: The following story is Mitch Rompola's first-hand account behind the amazing chain of events in his three-year quest that lead to him bow harvesting his mega-buck. Unlike many previous articles on Rompola that focused on negative speculation, this author offers you an inside look at Rompola the deer hunter and the incredible depth of his passion for pursuing big whitetails. Mitch opens his complex world of bowhunting whitetails not to boast of his accomplishments, but to pass along 40 years of whitetail wisdom to help you, the reader, better understand the keys to successfully pursuing world-class deer.

Insurmountable Odds

Our lives represent nothing more than the results of statistical probability. It's all a game of odds, really; jobs, spouses, the lives we lead, the deer we shoot.

Oh sure, we affect those odds somewhat every day by our actions and try to chart the course of our destinies. But try as we might, just what are the odds of any particular hunter taking the biggest whitetail of all time?

Staggering.

Consider that each year some 11,500,000 deer hunters go afield and only one of those fortunate hunters bags the biggest deer ever measured once every 40 to 50 years.

So how has just one man in his span of 40 years of hunting, harvested with a bow and arrow, close to 20 record-class bucks, three state records and probably the biggest typical whitetail ever taken with a gun or bow?

Quite simply by stacking the odds in his favor far beyond the limits of statistical probability.

A master ar****ect of his own success, Mitch Rompola began beating the odds when he was 9 years old. Armed with only a recurve bow and undaunted confidence, he waded into a cattail marsh to take the biggest deer ever arrowed in Missouri before 1958. Mitch topped his 153-inch monster five years later by arrowing a 206-inch non-typical when he was 14. And by the time he reached 18 and left home for Michigan, he had tagged three record-class whitetails.

Thrown into a foreign environment of hunting the cedar swamps of northern Michigan, Mitch realized the odds were against him now. So he set out to topple the obstacles of probability through an understanding of the deer he hunted.

Even as a teenager he knew secret to bowhunting bucks anywhere hinged on a solid foundation of understanding through scouting. So he waded into the tangled cedar swamps scouting endlessly until he knew the whitetails as well as they knew each other. While the rest of society, including many a wanta-be expert hunter, went about their daily lives of work, family, recreation, friends and watching television, Mitch roamed the woods for miles, backtracking deer through the snow and logging their patterns.

Spending an estimated 200 to 300 days per year scouring the countryside and relentlessly interpreting deer sign, Mitch recorded everything related to the sign he saw. His log books read more like the chronicles of deer than a man. They contained every scrap of information including; rubs, scrapes, trails, sheds, sightings, how deer interacted and reacted to other deer, to other hunters, wind direction relative to movements, patterns relative to terrain, all the way into the psychology of why particular deer did what they did when they did it. The years of mounting log books with their associated maps and aerial photos only hinted at the compilation of understanding that grew behind the dark, predatory eyes of Mitch Rompola.

Simply by spending 100 to 1000 times more effort scouting than the average hunter, Mitch vastly skewed the odds of success in his favor. But the real key wasn't in the scouting time alone. It hinged on the cumulative lessons they offered to an ever-inquisitive mind. Armed with both his vast knowledge base and refined hunting skills, Mitch entered a life-consuming pursuit of big deer that perhaps only one in a million hunters would consider let alone commit their life to. Many a hunter could imagine the passion that would drive Rompola, but few could comprehend the depth of recluse man who lived their dream.

Yet, however extraordinary his commitment as a deer hunter, Mitch modestly scoffs, "Oh, I suppose anybody could really get to understand deer that much if they were willing to spend the time and effort."

The big "if" is in fact what separates Mitch from the rest of the deer hunting world. And it's that big if that helped him in tallying more record-class bucks with a bow than anyone in Michigan history, including taking the current state record typical, a massive 183 5/8-inch 12-pointer that he took in 1985.

So maybe it's not so statistically remarkable that if any hunter in North America could conceivably take the world's biggest typical whitetail, it should be Mitch Rompola. But then again, there's the vital role of the deer and its habitat in the equation, and ultimately connecting both hunter and deer. That's where probability appears to have fallen into the hands of fate.

Urban expansion forced Mitch in the summer of 1994 to look for a new hunting spot. He wasn't happy with the long drive to a remote area owned by friends, but he was encouraged by all the components the new spot offered for harboring big bucks.

Irony or fate also changed another facet of his hunting that year. A long-time skeptic of deer scents, he tried a new concept in deer lures, a synthetic scent invented by a local hunter, Kevin Kreh. "I had tried most of the deer scents over the years," said Mitch, "and experimented with different scents where I had lots of deer. But I got such mixed reactions and negative results with just 1 ½ year old naïve bucks, I would never try that stuff on a mature whitetail that I have put a lot of time into and risk a negative reaction."

So when Kevin approached Mitch with the idea of trying his Buck Fever Synthetic Scent, Mitch became more reluctant than ever. "Synthetic scent? I thought what kind of a crackpot do we had here? But Kevin had killed big deer over it so out of curiosity I tried it and was shocked at what happened. The deer literally tore the place to pieces during late spring when they were totally out of the rut. I knew this was really unusual behavior. So I tried some behind the house and also got excellent hits."

Armed with a scent product he felt he could trust, detailed maps and an unquenchable thirst to learn all he could about the new area, Mitch began deciphering the subtle deer sign there. The new spot offered a remote blend of twisting ridges that dumped in a vast cattail marsh, an ideal security hideout for reclusive bucks.

In addition to his usual scouting and logging tactics, Mitch began to develop a new technique of patterning bucks using the synthetic scent. Through trial and error, he learned how to create synthetic trap lines that helped him key in on specific spots where he might ambush a big buck. "It was mostly by accident that I learned how to effectively use the synthetic scent. At first I began putting it in a lot of areas to see where I would get the best hits. Out of 50 to 100 synthetic scrapes I found that some barely got hit while others got hit hard. So at first I used it primarily as a scouting tool to help eliminate low percentage areas. That really helped me learn about the bucks in the area. But it was a big parcel of land and I knew it would take a couple of seasons before I could hunt it effectively."

Again, Mitch was using statistical probability with the scent to focus his efforts. Just one more method of stacking the odds. And they began to pay off when during late archery season that year he tagged a 125-class buck from another area over one of his Buck Fever scrapes.

Near the end of the 1995 season, he began to understand the complex patterns of big bucks in the new spot. One snowy day while heading into his stand, he caught a glimpse of what the area had to offer. "I only saw this big buck for a second before it vanished into the cedars. It was huge. Then I saw where it had dug up the dirt and scattered it on top of a foot of snow while making a scrape. That big guy was still actively in the rut that late in the season."

Undaunted by the big bucks that eluded him there, Mitch took advantage of the harsh winter of 1996 when the vast marsh froze over. Suiting up like a Navy Seal ready for a mission, Mitch donned his scouting outfit and headed for the remote swamps and ridges. "The only way that I can successfully do all the continuous scouting that I need to and not be scent-detected by these big bucks, is to employ TOTAL SCENT CONTROL. That means that I'm totally covered with rubber from my neck to my toes. I wear strictly rubberized outerwear including rubber gloves, boots, chest wader liners, and a rain suit top. Plus I spray myself down with Vanishing Hunter. That knocks down any remaining scent. I simply can't leave any scent when I'm out there walking around and setting up my synthetic scrapes. Because if I leave human scent around my synthetic scrape areas, those big deer aren't going to put up with that for one second.

"Scent control is one of the biggest problems that foil average hunters. They put up their one stand, toss out their bait and they think they're pretty well set up to hunt. Then they go in and hunt it during the wrong wind currents without proper scent suppression and they're being patterned by the deer. It's supposed to be the other way around. And soon their hunting spot isn't that productive."

Walking the ridges and frozen swamps that winter, Mitch began unraveling the secrets of the big bucks that called the marsh home. He soon learned their recluse bedding hideouts and the narrow travel corridors where they crossed creeks and ridges. But the most important revelation came when Mitch fit the pieces of the puzzle together relative to how the bucks approached and left their bedding areas. "I realized that I had been hunting the wrong side of the ridges," said Mitch. "I needed to be more on the northeast edges if I was going to intercept these big bucks. Their patterns showed that 90 percent of the travel skirted the northeast and southwest edges of a natural clearing in there."

Now armed with this new information, he began refining the crucial details of exactly how the big bucks would approach their bedding areas in the mornings and where they would leave in the evening. Like a general plotting a coming battle, Mitch meticulously mapped out every detail of the buck's movements, and when the snows finally melted, he once again began laying his synthetic trap line.

"I spent the entire next spring moving all my setups and my Buck Fever synthetic scrape lines to the east sides of these ridges. And boy did it make a difference. Those bucks started hitting my synthetic scrapes like you wouldn't believe in March and April."

Like an attentive gardener, Mitch tended his synthetic scrapes throughout the spring and early summer. By mid-summer they had grown into raw patches of torn earth yet things of beauty to a buck hunter like Mitch. But his biggest surprise at the buck's response to his synthetic scrapes came unexpectedly when he was checking them one cool July afternoon. "I saw a deer standing down in the meadow. I had my video camera so I started sneaking down there. As I got close I saw that it was a nice buck. Kneeling down, I zoomed in on the deer with my video camera when sudden it put its ears back and another big buck walked right into the viewfinder. Then they actually got up on their hind feet and started clubbing the heck out of each other with their front hooves."

Mitch recorded the unusual event on his video camera as the two magnum bucks in velvet fought with their hooves. Finally, the big 8 point clubbed the wider racked 10 or 12 pointer in the nose and the fight ended with both bucks disappearing into heavy cover. Now more than ever, Mitch knew the area held at least two dandy bucks.

As fall colors hinted at the coming season, Mitch kept refining is synthetic scrape setups and concentrating on the ones that offered him the advantages of scent and sight. But the terrain and wind currents challenged him at every turn. "My problem was I had three big ravines coming down into points and flattening out into a giant cattail marsh where the bucks bedded. That created all kinds of tricky wind currents and thermals. So it was very difficult to setup in some of these areas."

Despite the buck's advantages, Mitch discovered that his most productive setups blended proximity to the buck's security areas with their curiosity over nearby synthetic scrapes. "I try to think like a big deer as if I were in their hooves and how I would travel knowing people were out there trying to get me. They actually travel the way I would to be elusive enough to avoid or detect hunters during daylight. Most of their travel is in fact nocturnal. These big bucks aren't about to travel a quarter mile or more to a food source in the daylight. By the time they get there, it's dark. But what I did find out was that if I got close enough to some of their bedding areas with my synthetic scrapes, they would come out enough to check these key scrapes close to their bedding spots."

Forever the statistical tactician in his hunting, and with the 1996 season soon approaching, Mitch wanted to know exactly how long it would take him to get from work to his hunting spot. So on September 18 he timed his drive, and as he drove down a two-track near his prime area, he spotted two deer walking along a ridge. He grabbed his binoculars. As the second deer came into focus, Mitch's hands suddenly became unsteady. "I'll remember that day the rest of my life. I thought, my gosh BIG BUCK isn't even the word for this thing. When it turned and looked away, I saw clearly how wide the rack was and thought I was seeing things. It was the widest spread deer I had ever seen."

As Mitch watched the massive buck, he began jotting down the details of the approximate size of the rack on a scrap of paper. When the buck finally ambled over a ridge, Mitch walked over to check for sign. There, in the soft sand of a trail, lay another significant clue to hunting the giant buck - an odd shape to the right front foot of the buck, a track "fingerprint" that would allow Mitch to further detail its movements.

That evening Mitch tallied up the rough score on the scrap of paper then rechecked the unbelievable total. "I came up with something easily in the 190's and close to 200. But I have a tendency to field judge deer on the small side, so I knew I had a good one. Now all I had to do was get him."

Mitch knew it wouldn't be easy arrowing the buck. But he never imagined it would take another two years.


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

PART TWO - MITCH'S DATE WITH DESTINY

Author's Notes: Even with the emerging, well-documented information about this story, sadly, some writers persist on speculating in their wallows of negative conjecture. It would appear that either the anti-hunters have disguised friends calling themselves pro-hunting writers, or some writers are so pitifully spiteful about information they lack the professionalism to obtain -- or worse, that they're content to defame the image of hunting in their tabloid attempts to sell a few copies of their publications.

So why did Henry Ford invent the Model T? Or Leonardo da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa?

The same reason Mitch Rompola harvested the biggest typical whitetail ever taken with a gun or bow.

Romantics call it destiny. Realists call it the precise juncture of opportunity, time, space and the dedicated human element capable of turning a dream into reality.

Whatever the definition, it seemed that destiny began unfolding her plan on September 18, 1996 when during a scouting trip, Mitch Rompola spotted the biggest buck he had ever seen during his four decades of bowhunting big whitetails.

Besides getting a good enough look at the sprawling rack to know it would score near 200 inches, Mitch also discovered that the buck imprinted a telltale track with its slightly deformed right front hoof.

Mitch guardedly shared the news of the giant buck with a few close friends. Just before season, he set up a stand over one his hotter synthetic scrapes that had grown to over 12 feet across that was being hit by several good bucks. His first evening over the scrape gave him a chance any hunter would envy.

Hooves in the leaves snapped Mitch to attention and he readied for the shot. A huge buck ambled past at 12 yards. Mitch held off on the giant 9-pointer, hoping the wide racked buck would soon follow. But by dusk, the first day's hunt closed without seeing the monster buck. Mitch mused how the image of the wide racked buck had now changed even him. "That 9-point was one of the biggest typicals I ever let walk past me. And I would soon regret passing him up that evening."

October 12 again found Mitch near the scrape overlooking the marsh where he suspected the massive buck bedded. Just like 40 years earlier on his first deer hunt, Mitch Rompola heard the clattering of legs in the cattails. Seconds later, a massive 12-point rack floated through the evening shadows. Painfully slow, the giant buck worked around the clearing closer to Mitch. After 15 minutes, the deer had moved within 30 yards and Mitch readied for the shot of lifetime. The tip of his arrow began to quiver like a bird dog on point. "Boy did I get excited then, because I thought, man, I'm going to get a crack at this thing. Its rack looked so wide as it was looking around I just about started coming unglued. It's been a long time since a deer has unraveled my nerves like that, but this deer sure did a number on me."

Mitch raised the bow. Fingers tensed on the string. He took in a long breath to steady his nerves. But suddenly the massive buck tensed and threw back its head as the huge 9-point Mitch had passed opening day charged off the ridge. Mitch stood stunned as the 9-point dipped its head, eyes wild, nostrils flared, and chased after the wide racked buck. Both huge bucks disappeared into the thick cover in a hail of breaking brush. Moments later, the dominant 9-point strutted back toward the ridge where it had been guarding "its" scrape.

Fearing that the 9-point would injure the massive 12-point if given another chance, Mitch now turned his attention to the ridge behind him where the agitated buck was now tearing up every bush in sight. Mitch grunted softly on his Bow Grunter call.

The commotion stopped. Ten minutes later he grunted again. This time hooves began stalking toward him. Mitch knew from the deliberate walk that the deer was attempting to pinpoint the grunt. Again, his fingers tensed on the string as he quietly waited. Heavy hooves slurped through the mud only yards behind him. As the buck finally emerged from the thick pine boughs, the string's twang broke the silence. The giant 9-point wheeled and bounded into the shadows for the last time. The pecking order over Mitch's scrape had just changed. "I shot him as much out of anger as anything else because I was so upset that he ran that wide racked big buck off. He actually had 10 points; 9 points typical with a 2 ½-inch sticker point on one of his back tines. He was lot better than I thought and ended up scoring 168 and some change."

Despite tagging the big 9-point, Mitch's thoughts remained focused on the sprawling 12-pointer. Spending countless hours the rest of that season dogging the odd shaped track, Mitch learned more of the buck's secrets without avail. He ended the 1996 season more committed than ever to tag the buck the following year.

During that winter Mitch continued his relentless scouting and backtracking the giant 12-pointer. He learned where the buck set up its approaches to its bedding areas and revealed more locations where Mitch should setup morning stands.

Again, Mitch continued to use his Buck Fever synthetic scrapes to help monitor the buck's patterns. He also raked out places on the runways the buck was using to reveal certain repeatable patterns of how the buck traversed his domain.

During the summer of 1997, Mitch began using an experimental scent dripper to dispense his Buck Fever synthetic scent. The programmable dripper, made by a local friend and accomplished deer hunter Dean Broecker, allowed Mitch to scent up his main scrape without disturbing the site. While checking on the dripper one day in late July, Mitch was greeted with one mighty welcome sight. "I noticed movement on top of a ridge and it was him; the big wide buck in velvet. His rack was already way out past his ears. He had been laying up there watching me and when I stopped to look at him, he just walked over the ridge and disappeared."

Mitch bowhunted the area the first two weeks of October without spotting the giant buck. Nonetheless, he felt confident with his setup and the synthetic scrape being hit. And upon returning from his annual hunt in Michigan's UP with friends in late October, he headed for his setup.

When leaving his truck for the woods, Mitch usually sprays his boots with Buck Fever to help lay down a scent trail as he walks into his stand. But this Sunday morning he was anxious to get back to the site before sunup and didn't take the time to scent his boots then. Instead, he waited and put synthetic scent on his boots at the scrape site that had again been freshly hit. After squirting scent into the fresh scrape and on his boots, Mitch walked over and climbed into this stand.

Later in the grayness of first light, a blocky shadow drifted through the timber. Wide beams ticked against the brush as the buck moved into the scrape and dipped its head. The buck immediately picked up Mitch's boot scent and zeroed in on the trail, heading right for Mitch. "I got ready for the shot and saw that it wasn't the wide12-point but a real nice buck. He tracked my synthetic scent trail right to my stand like a bloodhound with his nose to the ground. I drew and let him come until he was standing directly underneath my stand. He looked up and our eyes met, I released the arrow."

The big buck slammed to the ground as the arrow hit spine and heart. Moments later, Mitch suddenly realized he had seen this buck before - on videotape. "He was a nice 13- point that I had videotaped fighting with the 9-point in July of 1996. He scored 150's typical and 160's non-typical. A real nice buck."

Mitch kept scouting and relocated the wide rack's odd track near a clear cut in some pines. Forever the opportunist hunter, Mitch moved right into the area and setup one evening. He watched as the giant buck negotiated the sprawling rack through the pines. Though he didn't get a clear shot, Mitch noticed the rack touch two particular branches on each side of the antlers. He returned the next day and measured the distance between the branches "They measured 34 inches wide and that's when I really knew how much wider he was than I originally thought. I was actually embarrassed to tell anybody I was hunting a buck with a 3-foot spread because it was so unbelievable."

Though Mitch kept tabs on the buck without seeing it, firearms season came and went, and both the buck and Mitch moved into heavier cover. With the seasonal change in the cover and buck's pattern, Mitch moved into a ground blind that served mostly as an observation outpost to help him pinpoint the buck's new movements. Mitch sat one morning until after 9 AM and figured the buck wasn't going to show or had already passed through unseen. But as Mitch picked up his bow quiver and snapped it back on the bow, a haunting apparition rose from the nearby cover. "There he stood, 30 yards away, looking right at me. He had apparently bedded before I had gotten in there and I had snuck in without him hearing me. I knew I wasn't going to get a shot, so I took out my camera and zoomed in on him. I focused with him looking at me and snapped one photo before he turned and just walked away."

Mitch later projected the photo on paper and scaled the projection to fit the 34-inch spread. With the scaled image, it didn't take a skilled measurer like Mitch long to tally over 200 inches on the buck's rack.

In the winter of 1998 and entering his third year of patterning the buck, Mitch cautiously avoided scouting the buck's bedding areas. Though he was tempted to look for its sheds, he was afraid of tampering too much in the old buck's security cover and possibly scaring it off.

During the summer of 1998 Mitch continued tending his synthetic scrapes and looking for some sign of the big 12-point. But by late October, without so much as an encouraging track from the old buck, Mitch began to think the unthinkable; a poacher, dogs, a wire fence or possibly a car had taken the giant buck quietly, without a trace.

Disappointed at the grim possibilities and slogging back to his truck after another uneventful morning hunt, he noticed a flicker of gray in the timber. Mitch froze. Massive antlers swayed in the sunlight. And in another frozen instant, Mitch's spirits soared. "It was him, alive, and looking bigger than ever. He stepped out on the two-track looking in the direction of my truck, looked down my way, then just walked over the ridge and disappeared. Boy, was I ever happy to see him again."

Now more than ever, Mitch committed to trying only for the giant buck or nothing at all. Despite two other record-class bucks, a magnum 10-point and a wide racked 8-point that began hitting the scrape and following the patterns of the giant 12-point, Mitch focused on the one chance of a lifetime that had eluded him over the years.

But terrain and wind at his prime setup seemed to work against him at every turn. "First, I knew I had to set up near his bedding area because most of his travel was in fact, nocturnal. That's why I set up my synthetic scrape close enough to his bedding area that he could come out to check it. A buck like that isn't about to travel a quarter mile to a food source in the daylight. By the time he gets there, it's nighttime.

"The other problem was that three big ravines came down to points and flattened out into the giant cattail marsh where he bedded. That created all kinds of tricky wind currents with the surrounding hilly terrain. Besides paying attention to the thermals, I controlled my scent by using Vanishing Hunter. I spray it on my outerwear, exposed areas, hair, and mouth. That allowed me to hunt some of these areas that I normally couldn't at all."


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

On November 3, Mitch slipped into his evening stand overlooking an area near his synthetic scrape. On its apparent date with destiny, the giant buck materialized from the thick cover and moved into the scrape. Without a chance to shoot directly to the scrape, Mitch again grabbed his camera and snapped a photo of the buck as it lifted its nose toward the synthetic dripper. As Mitch looked through the camera viewfinder, he realized with a start that the buck was leaving the scrape, coming toward him. He put down the camera and grabbed his bow.

Screened by the thick cover, Mitch waited until the buck paused broadside at 20 yards. He drew in a deep breath, again trying to calm the swelling nerves. Despite the decades of shooting huge bucks, all the times he had seen this giant whitetail and the focus of his life's energies for the past three years, buck fever began to nibble at the edges of his consciousness.

He looked past the sprawling mass of antlers and focused on the spot behind the shoulder. The graphite arrow leaped through the shadows. The buck jumped. Three bounds later it stopped. Mitch strained to see the hit, the weak legs, the buckling hindquarters. But the buck simply wagged its tail and casually walked into the tangle of spruce.

For a moment Mitch stood there, his mind struggling to accept the cruel reality of what his experience knew - he, Mitch Rompola, had somehow missed the shot of a lifetime.

Numb with disbelief, Mitch climbed down and walked over to where the buck had stood. There lay his arrow sticking almost straight down in the ground, clean as it had been moments before. "It must have deflected off some brush that I didn't see and the arrow dropped right underneath him. It never touched him."

Mitch tried to find comfort in the fact that the buck didn't appear overly startled by the missed shot. Like Mitch, the buck was more confused than anything.

He got the photo developed and stared down at the picture; the buck's nose lifted toward the synthetic dripper, the rack spreading into the tangle of branches as if the expanse of beams and tines were part of the forest.

Now hoping beyond hope for yet another crack at the buck, he continued to hunt every day. But as the early bow season drew toward an end, Mitch tried to quench the rising fear that he might never see the buck again once the crack of rifles filled the woods.

On November 12, he slipped into an evening stand near the scrape where he had taken the now haunting photo. As evening shadows lengthened, a mass of antlers emerged from the cattails. Mitch tensed, but then lowered his bow when he recognized the 10-point and 8-point that often followed the wide rack. The bucks emerged from the swamp and moved into the synthetic scrape. They pawed around the scrape and glanced toward the ridges before disappearing back into the cattails. Mitch turned to the sound of hooves coming off the ridge. "Here he came, the big 12-point. He walked right into the scrape but didn't offer a shot. He appeared to be checking out what those other bucks had been doing in the scrape then followed their trail into the cattails.

"As big as he was, I never saw him being aggressive towards any other deer. He was strictly a loner to the point of actually being shy He would hang around near the outskirts of other deer but never with them. Plus, he always walked away and never ran, even if he spooked. It was as if it was an effort for him to even walk. And every step was thought out like he knew exactly where he was going."

After a fitful sleep that night, Mitch crawled from bed the next morning and headed for his spot. During the drive, he noticed the increase in vehicles at cabins and hotels. Only two days now until the crack of rifles filled the woods and sent the giant buck running deep into his dense hideout, or worse, maybe one of the gunners might get lucky and Mitch pushed the unsettling though aside. He parked his truck and headed for his stand.

As fingers of light began to stitch the outlines of the marsh below and the ridges behind him, Mitch glanced down toward the scrape. His dark eyes looked past the network of branches, wondering if the bucks had already hit the scrape.

Suddenly, heavy footfalls on the ridge above gave him the answer. Mitch snatched his bow and turned to the sounds now bearing down on him too quickly. A tangle of antlers came toward him. He barely got poised for the shot as the now familiar 8 and 10 pointers veered slightly around his stand and passed at 12 yards.

As the two smaller bucks disappeared into the cattails, Mitch positioned his feet solidly on the stand as he collected his senses. He stared at the hillside, his eyes locked on nothing in particular.

Hooves carrying 300 pounds of buck announced what Mitch knew before he saw it. Next came the sprawling tangle of antlers through the timber toward him, supported remarkably by one very familiar deer following the same trail as the other bucks had used minutes before.

Mitch stood poised, bow up, focused yet again on the spot he wanted to hit, pushing back all other thoughts except the shot. The buck's head passed behind a large tree and Mitch made the crucial movement of drawing his bow unseen. Onward came the deer, looking bigger than life as it passed at the scant 12 yards.

The buck stepped clear of the tree. Mitch centered his sight on the massive body, now quartering away.

The arrow sliced through the morning air.

Powerful muscles responded too late.

Hooves churned.

Sprawling antlers carved a three-foot swath into the brush for the last time.

After a long moment, Mitch gasped for air, realizing he had been holding it since before the shot. The hit was unmistakable this time, solidly in the vitals with a resounding crack as the broadhead hit the far shoulder.

Mitch blinked as if to be sure it wasn't all a dream. But he knew he wasn't dreaming as the impact of his three-year quest surfaced and his knees became too weak to stand. He sat down, replaying the shot over and over in his mind until his legs could again hold him. Wobbly, he climbed down and inspected the hair and splashes of red where the buck had bolted.

Finally, Mitch shook himself free from the trance of what he had done and headed for home. He knew it was going to be a long day and he needed to share the news that would soon rock the world of hunting. "I was so excited that I had to tell my girlfriend I had actually shot the deer this time. Plus I needed to let her know I was okay because we have a pact that if I'm not back by a certain time, she would come looking for me. And I didn't want her to send the National Guard out after me."

Though tempted to take up the trail, 40 years of bowhunting savvy had hardened Mitch's resolve into the responsible decision on such a buck; give the deer some time before tracking it. He slipped out of the area and returned home. He also knew the magnitude of what he had just accomplished and wanted to get his video and still camera to document the recovery.

Mitch returned with his recovery gear and began by recounting the story from his stand to the recording video camera. With the camera continuously recording, he then took up the sparse blood trail. Just beyond a large scuffmark in the leaves, Mitch saw the fletching of his arrow sticking up over a small rise. As he pointed the video camera in the direction of the arrow, and walked over the crest of the rise, there lay the enormous deer.

The sight of the fallen buck, dissolved away Mitch's usual stony exterior as a flood of emotions washed over him; the bittersweet rush of excitement flavored with the humility of what he had done. The photos he later took, with his characteristic somber pose, only hint at the feelings beneath. "Even with all the big deer I've taken, that moment still gets to me. I always regret taking the life of a mature whitetail buck. They're just the most beautiful and magnificent animals, and there's nobody who respects them more than I do. And especially one like this that I've hunted so hard for several seasons. This buck showed me quite a bit of humility as most of them do. When I've spent so much time working on him, hunting him and understanding so much about him, it's tough when you realize that all of that has finally come to an irreversible end."

Mitch knelt beside the deer. His 35-inch Gold Tip arrow had penetrated 18 inches with the quartering away shot. One of the blades of the Gladiator head had broken where it had lodged in the far right shoulder.

For the better part of the day, Mitch muscled the huge deer, a body length at a time, over the remote ridges. Finally, with exhaustion tapping the last reserves of his adrenaline, Mitch slid the deer up a special loading ramp into the back of his truck.

As any proud hunter would do, Mitch showed his deer to a few close friends that evening. The next morning, the news began spreading faster that a jack pine wildfire. The parade began at first with admiring friends, including several official measurers. But by late afternoon, the carloads of curious strangers, were quickly growing out of control.

By Monday morning, Mitch's phone began ringing non-stop. The media had got a sniff of the story and swarmed upon him relentlessly from across the country. By Tuesday, the media onslaught hammered Mitch into seclusion.

Mitch knew enough about scoring big deer to know that his buck could possibly rewrite the history books when the time was right. But the media wasn't about to wait for drying periods, official scoring, Mitch Rompola or anything else, and immediately began bannering the deer as "The New World Record".

Overnight, Mitch's personal pride at taking the deer began turning into bitter regret as much of the media, lost in the vacuum of accurate information, began dredging up tabloid style stories of their own that personally attacked Mitch and the deer from every conceivable angle. Suddenly, what could had been scores of positive wildlife management and hunter impressions to the public, turned into a rampage of negative speculation that blackened the eye of Mitch and hunters everywhere.

Much of the irresponsible media remained indignant and actually blamed Rompola himself for his poor portrayal in print. Didn't the fool know that once he shot the big deer, the entire three-year story, the nearly 50 years of his private life, even the unscored rack belonged to them -- to the world? What a fool Mitch was to even think he could maintain some shred of control or sense of direction over his life.

Dismayed at the whole affair, while unrelated tragic events transpired in his personal life, Mitch withdrew even further into seclusion. "It's a darned shame the way it's all turned out. I don't regret shooting the deer as much as I do presenting it to the media. What really hurts is the fact that I have two grown sons who have to hear all this misrepresented junk that happened years ago that doesn't have anything to do with this deer or my life now.

"It's odd how some hunting writers and hunters can accept a lucky hunter getting a deer of this size on some deer drive because that doesn't challenge their egos. But because of my past bowhunting success and the fact that I hunted this deer for three years, they end up becoming jealous critics. But in the end, now that I've told the whole story, how people judge me and what I've done, is now up to them."

So why did Henry Ford invent the Model T? Or Leonardo da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa? Or Mitch Rompola arrow the biggest typical whitetail ever?

Romantics call it destiny.

Realists will flatly say, "Because they could."

Author's Notes: Hunters interested in learning more about the science behind the Buck Fever Synthetic Scent System that Mitch used to harvest his mega-buck and many others, visit the Buck Fever Synthetic web site at www.hawgslimited.com or those wishing to order Buck Fever products direct can call 800-522-2728.

FACTS ABOUT THE ROMPOLA BUCK

Hunter: Mitch Rompola, Traverse City, Michigan Date: November 13, 1998 7:47 AM Hunting Method: Bowhunting From a treestand. Bow: CSS (Custom Shooting System) Signature Series Compound, 34-inch axle to axle, set at 58 pounds with Adjustable Pro-stop set to 30 inches draw with letoff adjusted to 75 percent. Arrow: Gold Tip 5-layer Laminated Graphite shaft, 5575 spine, full length 32 inches, crown dipped. Broadhead: Gold Tip Gladiator, 125 grain expandable, four blades Scent Control: Buck Fever Vanishing Hunter spray, Scent Lok Suit Scent Used: Mock scrape made with Buck Fever Synthetic Scent Shot Distance: 12 yards Distance traveled after shot: 70 yards Deer - typical whitetail, mature adult, 7 ½ years old (biologist aged) Weight, Field Dressed: 263 pounds, certified scales (estimated live weight 300+ pounds) Antlers: 38-inch outside spread, measured 216 5/8 inches net typical, by a respected panel of official Michigan measurers.


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

Apparently there is an algorithm at work that protects a forum from the evil of someone being redirected to a competing forum.

So you will have to do this if you want to see the original:

Type in the following in your browser bar, with a . wherever it says dot:

http://wwwdotmichiganoutdoorsmandotcom/Forum/viewtopicdotphp?f=1&t=2952


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

Wow!

Even that does not work.

Try this:

type in the letters h t t p : / / then the letters dubya dubya dubya (without any spaces)

then michigan outdoorsman dot com without the spaces

then 

/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2952


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

http://www.whitetail.com/rompolagate2.html

Try this one 


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

For all those who believe read the link above. Read the whole story and see what answer you come up with? 

Tjstebb 


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## stinky reinke (Dec 13, 2007)

tjstebb said:


> I have lived in TC area most of my life.... I've spent MANY hours driving around this area and bucks like the rampola buck are a dime a dozen around here! Most of the guys up here have had a shot opportunity at least once on a buck just as big or bigger! Most choose not to shoot because of the hassle associated with scoring it and x-rays and all the unwanted publicity that
> comes with it! Grand Traverse county is a mini Iowa!
> 
> Although I believe Mitch has shot some massive bucks.....that's all I believe!
> ...


World record bucks are dime a dozen???
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

stinky reinke said:


> World record bucks are dime a dozen???
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


It was sarcasm. Real world record bucks don't come from Michigan, let alone Grand Traverse county. 

I would love to be proven wrong but that not gonna happen as long as you have to prove your buck is real for it to count. 

Tjstebb 


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

tjstebb said:


> For all those who believe read the link above. Read the whole story and see what answer you come up with?
> 
> Tjstebb
> 
> ...


I dunno man,, it's hard to take that link seriously with all the spelling and grammatical errors. :lol:

I say the deer is real.


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## stinky reinke (Dec 13, 2007)

Gotcha...I was in the process of looking for land up there!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Waz_51 (Jan 10, 2010)

William H Bonney said:


> I dunno man,, it's hard to take that link seriously with all the spelling and grammatical errors. :lol:
> 
> I say the deer is real.


to go along with the EXTREMELY biased opinion of the writer!... :SHOCKED:


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

William H Bonney said:


> I dunno man,, it's hard to take that link seriously with all the spelling and grammatical errors. :lol:
> 
> I say the deer is real.


I agree but I call a spade a spade. Mitch was all about this monster being a world record until they asked for it to be x-rayed???? Who in their right mind says NO I won't have it x-rayed??? He already has book bucks so that tells me he LIKES the recognition so why not this one? 
I believe it's a fake and he wants the story to die now that he has been called out. 

Tjstebb 


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

tjstebb said:


> I agree but I call a spade a spade. Mitch was all about this monster being a world record until they asked for it to be x-rayed???? Who in their right mind says NO I won't have it x-rayed??? He already has book bucks so that tells me he LIKES the recognition so why not this one?
> I believe it's a fake and he wants the story to die now that he has been called out.
> 
> Tjstebb
> ...


I agree, there is an easy way to end all the speculation, just have it x-ray'd. 

I was laughing more at the author of that link and his "evidence"... The discoloration of the antlers,,, in a grainy newspaper photo, of a photo...:lol:


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## football12 (Dec 3, 2009)

Thanks allot, I spent the last 2 hours reading articles about the guy, watching videos, doing criminal searches to see what he was convicted for. In the end I have deterrmined he has shot some really nice bucks, but the big one remains a mystery.


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## hartman756 (Nov 21, 2008)

tjstebb said:


> For all those who believe read the link above. Read the whole story and see what answer you come up with?
> 
> Tjstebb
> 
> ...


 

I have seen all that befor .......what a hoot:lol: Clearly not somene that has *any clue* what he is babbling about. And not just becous he is trying to discredit mitch either he cearly has no idea what he is talking about !


I read the the whole story on mitch that boi posted, and although you loose a lot with a printed story or a interview( I do not know the man personally ) I can CLEARLY see reasons for why the money or fame would no longer matter. 


c hartman


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## GIDEON (Mar 28, 2008)

coldskins said:


> I personally wish he would write a book. I would love to read it.


 I think I would try and memorize the book........he has probably forgotten more than many of his critics have ever known about hunting.....personally I LIKE HIS kiss my a** ATTITUDE...........I think that it is real, and as demonstrated by many of his critics, ENVY is a self consuming mistress


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## TVCJohn (Nov 30, 2005)

If he has all these logbooks of his observations....he could probably put it in a book form as is and do pretty good.


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## Hardwoods89 (Oct 8, 2008)

TVCJohn said:


> If he has all these logbooks of his observations....he could probably put it in a book form as is and do pretty good.


I agree, but for a man who spends 200-300 days a year in the woods scouting deer, what would he do with all that money anyways? Hunting is obviously his passion/obsession and he is already one of the best in the world at it....say he does make a bunch of money off a book, what would he do with it? Go out of state and pay thousands of dollars to shoot a fenced in deer like all those "great" TV hunters do when he shoots comparable deer just miles from his house? 

I am fascinated by this story and have been for years and one of the few things most people can agree on when it comes to Rompola is that he is a different bird, guys like that don't see the world in terms of dollar signs like many people do.


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## hunting man (Mar 2, 2005)

Mitch is the best buck hunter in Michigan.


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## KPC (Jan 29, 2000)

bioactive said:


> Try this:
> 
> type in the letters h t t p : / / then the letters *dubya dubya dubya... *


I knew at some point, even *this* would be blamed on Bush.

:lol: :mischeif: :lol:

KPC


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## anon11252019 (Dec 1, 2005)

Interesting thread...what we really need is William Bonney to post a picture of the carbon covered man holding onto a deer rack....or maybe he has something better in his picture vault.


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## atr2425 (Oct 24, 2011)

i've read about this quite a bit. i really hope the Rompola is in fact a legit deer. 

Antrim-Hunter...your comment along with a couple others on here have made me wonder if 
William Bonney is a son, or close close friend of Mitch's...?


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## Bomba (Jul 26, 2005)

atr2425 said:


> i've read about this quite a bit. i really hope the Rompola is in fact a legit deer.
> 
> Antrim-Hunter...your comment along with a couple others on here have made me wonder if
> William Bonney is a son, or close close friend of Mitch's...?


 
:lol::lol::lol: I don't think so, WB is just the resident smart azzzzzzz:lol:


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## FISHMANMARK (Jun 11, 2007)

atr2425 said:


> i've read about this quite a bit. i really hope the Rompola is in fact a legit deer.
> 
> Antrim-Hunter...your comment along with a couple others on here have made me wonder if
> William Bonney is a son, or close close friend of Mitch's...?


 
Gay lover. Have you seen the pic of him in his chaps?:yikes:


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## eino fishere (Jun 18, 2008)

All this talk makes me wonder what he has shot in the past few years? Anyone know?


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## roger carv (Dec 7, 2004)

hunting man said:


> Mitch is the best buck hunter in Michigan.


 I thought I was... wait a minute


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

tjstebb said:


> I agree but I call a spade a spade. Mitch was all about this monster being a world record until they asked for it to be x-rayed???? Who in their right mind says NO I won't have it x-rayed??? He already has book bucks so that tells me he LIKES the recognition so why not this one?
> I believe it's a fake and he wants the story to die now that he has been called out.
> 
> Tjstebb
> ...


The so called X-ray offer by Calderone, Who Mitch had a fued with already. Was part of a much larger smear campaign by a few guys with an agenda. He is not the type to play that game.


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## uptracker (Jul 27, 2004)

swampbuck said:


> And all without habitat manipulation,TV shows, and boot camps, Imagine that! :SHOCKED:



Yup, great point. Some of the biggest bucks in the woods live a long ways away from any type of a food plot etc....waste of time IMO.

On a side note, the Dahmer video is the typical response you'll get out of a prisoner...killer or not. Others will completely deny their wrong doing though. They get very spiritual and soft spoken...


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

swampbuck said:


> The so called X-ray offer by Calderone, Who Mitch had a fued with already. Was part of a much larger smear campaign by a few guys with an agenda. He is not the type to play that game.


So having Calderone do his x-ray was the only option he had? Huh.....There was nobody else that could do the x-ray to prove Mitch was not trying to pull a fast one over on everyone? 

Tjstebb


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## William H Bonney (Jan 14, 2003)

I don't know the man, I just think it's a pretty interesting story.


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## Jeff Sturgis (Mar 28, 2002)

Very cool...the guys lives and breathes whitetails...something I can greatly appreciate! Great video...enjoyed that.

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## Freestone (May 15, 2003)

I don't picture Mitch as the kind of guy that felt he had to prove anything to anyone. He probably enjoyed his life as it was before taking the big buck and decided the route he took would be the quickest way to get back there. The last thing he'd want to do is dredge it up all over again so I doubt we'll ever hear from him again.


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## anon11252019 (Dec 1, 2005)

Sure seems like a long time ago when the story of the Rompola buck came about. I have not read all the articles about him and am not about to try to understand why this, why that.. From what little bit I did read, he sounds like a very accomplished hunter. It would be neat to see such a rack too. I wonder if they are hanging above his coat rack, or if they could even fit in the door!


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

tjstebb said:


> So having Calderone do his x-ray was the only option he had? Huh.....There was nobody else that could do the x-ray to prove Mitch was not trying to pull a fast one over on everyone?
> 
> Tjstebb


I think the situation/past between them and including P&Y is pretty well known.

It was examined and scored by 3 scorer's, including Berger a B&C, P&Y, and CBM scorer with decades of expierience. He chose not to register it, His is far from the only big buck not listed. Although he does have over 20 with 3 state records in the book.

So say we dont count the big one.....He's still has by far the most listed, and is the best in Michigan at a minimum.


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## spine_splitter (Nov 18, 2009)

Don't know much about rompala, never cared. Thought the video was pretty cool.
Just wonder will happen when he passes will the buck be x-rAyed then? What if it is legit then what will people say,


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

swampbuck said:


> I think the situation/past between them and including P&Y is pretty well known.
> 
> It was examined and scored by 3 scorer's, including Berger a B&C, P&Y, and CBM scorer with decades of expierience. He chose not to register it, His is far from the only big buck not listed. Although he does have over 20 with 3 state records in the book.
> 
> So say we dont count the big one.....He's still has by far the most listed, and is the best in Michigan at a minimum.


See what puts a bad taste in my mouth about this is. If you have already put 20 in the books and hold 3 state records why not this one? 

If you went through the trouble to have it measured and you know by the measurement it's a world record how come you stop as soon as they ask for a x-ray? 

How come you supposedly sell the mount to prevent any further speculation? 

Don't make sense to me. I could probably be talked into believing Santa Claus is real before I believe that buck was real. 
Tjstebb


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## uptracker (Jul 27, 2004)

"Forget the x-ray, just hunt" ~Rompola's Slogan


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## SMITTY1233 (Dec 8, 2003)

No matter if that buck is real or not Mitch Rompola has probably forgotten more about whitetail deer hunting then most know in this forum... Being great at anything has little to do with ones character, just see some professional athletes. The thing that bothers me the most is the lack of recognition he gets as one of the states greatest hunters ever. The guy knows what he's doing I dont think anyone can deny that fact... No sense in trampoling on a mans grave if its fake so I doubt they xray after he's gone. I like to believe its real but I wouldn't bet a lot on it. However I'm smart enough to know that Mitch Rompola is a very skilled hunter and has a deep passion for hunting "trophy" bucks which he has been very successful doing. I admire his hunting skills and passion.


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## kerby1 (Oct 17, 2006)

Have not read every comment, but was not one of the issues the threatening of a lawsuit against him if he registered the deer from the current world record holder. I am not sure the x-ray would have prevented a lawsuit from being filled. I have learned through business that you can often spend large sums of money in legal fees proving you are right in a situation. 

I have a saying, three sides to every story, his side, my side, and what really happened. In this case only he and god know the truth, so I guess we can just enjoy the story.


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## miruss (Apr 18, 2003)

tjstebb said:


> See what puts a bad taste in my mouth about this is. If you have already put 20 in the books and hold 3 state records why not this one?
> 
> If you went through the trouble to have it measured and you know by the measurement it's a world record how come you stop as soon as they ask for a x-ray?
> 
> ...


More then likely he seen what kind of junk people were stating to pull and he said F^%$ this i don't need this s&^%. He hunts for himself not to please everyone else. When was the last time he had one put in the books. I think he moved forward and doesn't need his name in the books or cares about the books. Believe it or not there are people out there that shoot big bucks and don't care about having there name in the BOOK.


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## Lumberman (Sep 27, 2010)

This is my favorite controversy ever. A couple years ago I read everything I could find on the topic and it was interesting to say the least. 

Understand I desperately want that deer to be real. 

That being said I don't buy it. Just too much nonsense involved. 

You always hear the guy is kind of a recluse yet he loves bragging about his bucks and had a ton of press before the big buck. That being said his reason for not having the deer tested is because he hates people is nonsense. 

I hope some day that deer/rack gets verified but I'm not sure that will ever happen.


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## wintrrun (Jun 11, 2008)

WHat i can't wrap my head around is why some are still talking about Rompola when we got the latest and greatest in SpookGate going on in another thread.


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## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

http://www.whitetail.com/rompolagate2.html


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## michgundog (Feb 22, 2008)

walleyedude said:


> I think Mitch is one of, if not the best whitetail deer hunter in the country.


I agree!! Myles Keller is awesome too! Mitch's monster buck is the real deal! 

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## habitatwizard (Jun 14, 2012)

TL and Rompola by far the best in the whitetail world. You guys can say snake oil all you want.

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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

bishs said:


> http://www.whitetail.com/rompolagate2.html


I love that the author states that two different images of the buck taken by different cameras at different times are proof that: "The antlers have been recolored. Pictures don't lie." :lol::lol::lol::lol: 

Here are two pictures of the Henson buck. They come up in the top few images when you do a google image search on *milo hanson buck*. I did not change the colors.

How come no-one uses these pictures to say Milo used stain on the antlers?:lol:



















It is patently absurd to say that color differences from one photo to the next indicate staining of the antlers.

It depends on what the lighting was, what the camera settings were, what kind of printer was used, what the printer settings are...:lol:

Check out the distance between the ears and droopy ears of these bucks posted by TVCJohn. LINK


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## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

The deer is real, Its the antlers that are fake.


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## bioactive (Oct 30, 2005)

bishs said:


> The deer is real, Its the antlers that are fake.


You know that because the color was different from one picture to the next?

Or because it had droopy ears?

Or because the distance between the burrs was too far apart to be real?

I don't know whether Mitch's story is true or not, and probably never will. But I know for sure that article is a bunch of hooey. :lol:


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## sbstar (Feb 15, 2009)

I've got plenty of opinions as to the rompola buck, as does everyone else, what no one has is proof either way. We may never know. 

As for those pics of the Milo Hanson buck, one is a reproduction, they are two different mounts. Or it was redone, they are two different mount forms!


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## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

I went to a seminar in August prior to the buck being harvested. Watched this guy give a seminar on his new Buck Scent lure. Showed us a fuzzy, shadowy picture of "The next world record Buck".
Told us Mitch has him working his scrapes with his lure in August. Low and behold the deer was taken. It looked like the perfect set up for a perfect storm.

Then it disapeared from site when questions were asked. Had no problem talking about his state record buck he took at 9, with a field point, Then another state record at 14. Then all the articles of his 20 record bucks. Then he suddenly becomes shy, and hides. 

Seems pressure to produce, broke his soul.

I was a big fan of Noel Feather when I was a teen. Thought he was the real deal, Then he fell to pressure and got caught...


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

bioactive said:


> I love that the author states that two different images of the buck taken by different cameras at different times are proof that: "The antlers have been recolored. Pictures don't lie." :lol::lol::lol::lol:
> 
> Here are two pictures of the Henson buck. They come up in the top few images when you do a google image search on *milo hanson buck*. I did not change the colors.
> 
> ...


Two different mounts there..... One set is real one set is a repro! LOL Pics don't lie. 
Tjstebb


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## michgundog (Feb 22, 2008)

Milo Hansen couldn't even carry Mitch's bow. Probably shot the deer off a combine.



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## sbstar (Feb 15, 2009)

Call me crazy but I can't seem to picture how a guy who owns no land, got permission on enough land to track down a "book buck" or two every year in an area not known for producing large antlered deer. No offense but the big guys don't all get together and hide in the same swamp year after year. It's possible, but not probable, I would venture a guess that he was on the radar of the local CO as a possible trespasser. Not saying he did, but it would raise my suspicion levels a bit. Now I'll stand back and watch myself get crucified for suggesting such a notion without proof from the Mitch worshippers lol.


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

michgundog said:


> Milo Hansen couldn't even carry Mitch's bow. Probably shot the deer off a combine.
> 
> 
> 
> posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


You're ABSOLUTELY correct.... Before Milo Hanson shot the real world record he was a ordinary guy, he'll I don't think he ever put a buck in the books. Just got lucky and shot the right deer BUT, he also had the buck scored and x-ray'd to prove it was legit! He is more of a honest sportsman then Mitch will ever be. 
As I stated before I would love to be proven wrong and I would love to give Mitch the credit he deserves IF the buck is real. 

Tjstebb


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## michgundog (Feb 22, 2008)

tjstebb said:


> You're ABSOLUTELY correct.... Before Milo Hanson shot the real world record he was a ordinary guy, he'll I don't think he ever put a buck in the books. Just got lucky and shot the right deer BUT, he also had the buck scored and x-ray'd to prove it was legit! He is more of a honest sportsman then Mitch will ever be.
> As I stated before I would love to be proven wrong and I would love to give Mitch the credit he deserves IF the buck is real.
> 
> Tjstebb


Good points I too wish that Mitch would step up to the plate. My gut instinct tells me he has the real world record. There's a lot of $ and politics involved when it comes down to it. 

Myles Keller told me that it's real common for big bucks to take over another dominant bucks domain once they're gone ie. Dead. Which is why these guys are able to keep putting bucks in the books and of course passing on the little guys.


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## dialed-in (Feb 7, 2011)

I only wish I could shoot a buck on a deer drive, with a group of unskilled hunters, miss it multiple times, kick it up again, finally hit it, and whoa a new world record!! Why question his credibility when you already know?! Lol




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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

Lumberman said:


> This is my favorite controversy ever. A couple years ago I read everything I could find on the topic and it was interesting to say the least.
> 
> Understand I desperately want that deer to be real.
> 
> ...


Best post I've read on here and exactly what I've been trying to say all along. He was a glory hound until someone said "hey we want to prove that bucks real" then he crawls in a hole and disappears????? Who does that unless they are hiding something?
Now he has nothing to offer the hunting world except some old videos. I think they should have told him they would pull his name from all the books and remove his state record status unless he had this buck properly checked and x-ray'd 

Tjstebb


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

dialed-in said:


> I only wish I could shoot a buck on a deer drive, with a group of unskilled hunters, miss it multiple times, kick it up again, finally hit it, and whoa a new world record!! Why question his credibility when you already know?! Lol
> 
> 
> 
> ...


ME TOO....but with Milo you at least know what you got. He stumbled on the world record. No elaborate story of months of stalking or using HIS special scrape juice, just on a deer drive and got lucky 

Tjstebb


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

People seem to think that because of the rack's configuration that its fake.....What about these.















And the one










Another thing....Look a the mounts in that video, A clear display of Rompolas taxidemy skills. Do you really believe that he could fake one that would fool 3 scorers and a C.O.


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## miruss (Apr 18, 2003)

tjstebb said:


> Best post I've read on here and exactly what I've been trying to say all along. He was a glory hound until someone said "hey we want to prove that bucks real" then he crawls in a hole and disappears????? Who does that unless they are hiding something?
> Now he has nothing to offer the hunting world except some old videos. I think they should have told him they would pull his name from all the books and remove his state record status unless he had this buck properly checked and x-ray'd
> 
> Tjstebb


Glory hound i don't think you could find 100 people in michigan that knew who he was til he shot this buck


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## michigander II (May 27, 2002)

swampbuck said:


> People seem to think that because of the rack's configuration that its fake.....What about these.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

miruss said:


> Glory hound i don't think you could find 100 people in michigan that knew who he was til he shot this buck


I guess glory hound was a bad choice of words on my part. But I know he was promoting his scrape scent and he was obviously making videos before he shot that buck. If he was such a PRIVATE person how come he brought the buck forward in the first place? He didn't have to run around promoting everything he wore down to his socks on the day he shot this buck,he could have stayed secluded if that's what he wanted. He didn't stop saying it was a new world record till he was threatened with a lawsuit. 

Tjstebb


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## GIDEON (Mar 28, 2008)

Personally I believe that a lot of people are envious because:

1). he didnt bait it

2). he didnt plant a deer attracting garden

3). He evidently dont belong to some wackos management program

4). He found out they were there, he located them, he hunted them.....as simple as It gets.....................


If I remember correctly, it was after some pillars of the hunting community dragged his girlfriend into the fracas was when he decided to tell everyone to basically kiss his A** 






0


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## whitetailassassin (Oct 16, 2012)

michigander II said:


> swampbuck said:
> 
> 
> > People seem to think that because of the rack's configuration that its fake.....What about these.
> ...


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## tjstebb (Jun 5, 2006)

whitetailassassin said:


> michigander II said:
> 
> 
> > I agree... and just as Rompola said, and I'm paraphrasing here: Some average Joe hunter gets lucky and shoots a world class deer and everyone cheers for him, but someone puts in the kind of time AMD effort
> ...


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## backstrap bill (Oct 10, 2004)

michigander II said:


> swampbuck said:
> 
> 
> > People seem to think that because of the rack's configuration that its fake.....What about these.
> ...


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## hunting man (Mar 2, 2005)

miruss said:


> Glory hound i don't think you could find 100 people in michigan that knew who he was til he shot this buck


He was doing seminars at the deer and turkey spectaculars way before he got this deer. I knew of him before he took the current state record bow deer

.


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## michgundog (Feb 22, 2008)

hunting man said:


> He was doing seminars at the deer and turkey spectaculars way before he got this deer. I knew of him before he took the current state record bow deer
> 
> .


I heard about him a long time ago, never met him. Wasn't he an official scorer for CBM? I believe he was also behind getting a guy down in Jackson county buck removed from P&Y and CBM? I read the story back I'm the late 80's. The guy shot a 14 pt buck, but it was later found out he had violations for shining or some BS charge??? Im sure there's someone on here that knows the full story. But wasn't Mitch a driving force behind the guys buck being yanked? With all that said, I still think there's no way Mitch's kill is fake. 


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## camp42 (Jul 5, 2011)

I want to believe that the buck is real. I even believe that the antlers are real. There is no way. At all that one guy is that good. No way. You can be the best hunter in the world but if you hunt in that area I'm sorry but there are not booners ever damn year there. And just so happens to be where he hunts. Bull*****. My theory is that the deer are high fenced. I don't care how isolated your area is the genetics do NOT perpetuate themselves that closely from deer to deer. The pics of his recent kills in this thread just sealed the deal for me. It is not a wild whitetail. No way. I know a taxi that mounts tons of bucks for a high fence operation each year. Those racks are so close to each other in configuration it's unreal. The racks in those pics are so close in configuration that it proves it. You expect me to believe that this guy has an area so isolated that only these bucks breed the does. And then out of all the bucks in that area he can find and kill a deer with these characteristics? Bull*****. A booner is a genetic marvel even in Iowa or an area like that. And Mitch can kill them at will in north east Michigan. You guys are kidding yourselves. I don't care what you say no one I mean no one is that good. Kind of like 70 home runs in a year. And then 72 home runs. No one is that good. We waited a while to find out about baseball. Mitch just won't let us find out about this. 


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## Hardwoods89 (Oct 8, 2008)

camp42 said:


> I want to believe that the buck is real. I even believe that the antlers are real. There is no way. At all that one guy is that good. No way. You can be the best hunter in the world but if you hunt in that area I'm sorry but there are not booners ever damn year there. And just so happens to be where he hunts. Bull*****. My theory is that the deer are high fenced. I don't care how isolated your area is the genetics do NOT perpetuate themselves that closely from deer to deer. The pics of his recent kills in this thread just sealed the deal for me. It is not a wild whitetail. No way. I know a taxi that mounts tons of bucks for a high fence operation each year. Those racks are so close to each other in configuration it's unreal. The racks in those pics are so close in configuration that it proves it. You expect me to believe that this guy has an area so isolated that only these bucks breed the does. And then out of all the bucks in that area he can find and kill a deer with these characteristics? Bull*****. A booner is a genetic marvel even in Iowa or an area like that. And Mitch can kill them at will in north east Michigan. You guys are kidding yourselves. I don't care what you say no one I mean no one is that good. Kind of like 70 home runs in a year. And then 72 home runs. No one is that good. We waited a while to find out about baseball. Mitch just won't let us find out about this.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


You say it's impossible that anyone is that good to shoot that many big bucks, how many people have you ever heard of that spend 200+ days per year scouting and keep years worth of journals of meticulous deer activity? You think this guy (who hasn't entered anymore of his books into CBM since the controversy) is shooting trophy fenced deer (even though he has little money) in the years since the controversy so he can NOT enter them in the record book? Most people who produce truly extraordinary results in nearly any field do so because they put in the type of work and effort that the other 99% in the field are not willing to do.


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## unclecbass (Sep 29, 2005)

Great video, thanks for posting.


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## kenn1320 (Aug 6, 2004)

camp42 said:


> I want to believe that the buck is real. I even believe that the antlers are real. There is no way. At all that one guy is that good. No way. You can be the best hunter in the world but if you hunt in that area I'm sorry but there are not booners ever damn year there. And just so happens to be where he hunts. Bull*****. My theory is that the deer are high fenced. I don't care how isolated your area is the genetics do NOT perpetuate themselves that closely from deer to deer. The pics of his recent kills in this thread just sealed the deal for me. It is not a wild whitetail. No way. I know a taxi that mounts tons of bucks for a high fence operation each year. Those racks are so close to each other in configuration it's unreal. The racks in those pics are so close in configuration that it proves it. You expect me to believe that this guy has an area so isolated that only these bucks breed the does. And then out of all the bucks in that area he can find and kill a deer with these characteristics? Bull*****. A booner is a genetic marvel even in Iowa or an area like that. And Mitch can kill them at will in north east Michigan. You guys are kidding yourselves. I don't care what you say no one I mean no one is that good. Kind of like 70 home runs in a year. And then 72 home runs. No one is that good. We waited a while to find out about baseball. Mitch just won't let us find out about this.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


 Im sure Mitch is a great guy, however I have to wonder why he never got video footage of this deer, other then going home and getting his video camera after he killed it. He had encounters with this deer and took still images, even though he had a video camera at home? Also strange he had enough cash to buy scent lock and yet didnt run trail cams back then? Plenty of trail cams in the woods every year, nobody else has stumbled upon 160" bucks up there? I wonder how many of his bucks are really from MI, knowing he has family back in MO?


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## Hardwoods89 (Oct 8, 2008)

tjstebb said:


> Best post I've read on here and exactly what I've been trying to say all along. He was a glory hound until someone said "hey we want to prove that bucks real" then he crawls in a hole and disappears????? Who does that unless they are hiding something?
> Now he has nothing to offer the hunting world except some old videos. I think they should have told him they would pull his name from all the books and remove his state record status unless he had this buck properly checked and x-ray'd
> 
> Tjstebb


Sorry, this is America, you can't blackmail the man to remove all of his previous record book entries because he CHOOSES not to have HIS deer x-rayed to satisfy the public opinion....If the DNR started putting a clause on licenses that any buck shot under said license was legally obligated to be investigated and entered into a silly record book if it is large enough, then you would start to have a point...until then your suggestion is extremely foolish


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## camp42 (Jul 5, 2011)

Hardwoods89 said:


> You say it's impossible that anyone is that good to shoot that many big bucks, how many people have you ever heard of that spend 200+ days per year scouting and keep years worth of journals of meticulous deer activity? You think this guy (who hasn't entered anymore of his books into CBM since the controversy) is shooting trophy fenced deer (even though he has little money) in the years since the controversy so he can NOT enter them in the record book? Most people who produce truly extraordinary results in nearly any field do so because they put in the type of work and effort that the other 99% in the field are not willing to do.


My point is that you could spend 365 days a year scouting and it wouldn't help you kill what isn't there. Oh you're right there probably is like 10 booners on that same property. Give me a break. And most of the racks are the same shape? No way. Some people hunt the same property their whole life and don't kill 2 that look the same. And he does it like 5 times in 8 years or whatever? Screw that. The best hunter in the world can't make a 5 year old buck grow 170 inches. They are genetic exceptions in that area. Something is crooked with this deer and him. Whatever it is something is not right. Sorry but world class genetics don't follow a guy wherever he goes. If they were 140 or 150 inch bucks it might be believable. Not ones that big. It's not possible. 


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## dialed-in (Feb 7, 2011)

The only thing that keeps me on the fence of believing is the state records when he was young. Why or how would a 9yr old cheat the system? Does anyone know more about the state record bucks he shot when he was 9,12, and 14? Did he enter them right away or did he enter them later in life?


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## wintrrun (Jun 11, 2008)

and in the end with all the internet detectives it still merely.............................speculation. :lol::lol::lol:


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## hartman756 (Nov 21, 2008)

And most of the racks are the same shape? No way. 


I have got several sets of antlers scattered around here somewhere, all from the same property, and the simmularities in them are unbelieavable. 


Just saying:idea:




c hartman


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## hartman756 (Nov 21, 2008)

Another thing....Look a the mounts in that video, A clear display of Rompolas taxidemy skills. Do you really believe that he could fake one that would fool 3 scorers and a C.O
[/COLOR] 
 
BUT.........BUT........The color makes it obviously faked and .....and.....the proof is the color looks different in the later pics where he relized it was too obvious so he tried t fix it....... but it is still so obvious they are fake becous it is better, but still obvious:lol::lol:



c hartman


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## mattwins1 (Oct 29, 2008)

You are very gullible if you believe anything Mitch Rompola says. He is a convicted felon liar scam artist. I don't believe any of the big bucks he has shot were legitimate. He either poached them with a gun or shot them off his families deer farm in Missouri. That is the ones that are actually real. Him and his buddy the taxidermist had plenty of practice before they come up with the fake world record. Look at the pictures on his website. Almost all the bucks look fake with the horns coming out the side of the scull like his big one. None of them you can see a arrow hole in.

1.Fact: It stands to reason that a man that has been dishonest before might be again. One of Mitch's arrests was a lot more serious than some youthful DUI or petty vandalism charge. One of his arrests was in 1994 and can't be dismissed as a youthful indiscretion. In 1981 Mitch was arrested for stealing $20,000 worth of food stamps while working as a postal employee. If not for the intervention of Roger Smith, the U.S. postmaster in Webberville, who wrote a letter to the judge asking for him to be lenient Mitch would have probably gone off for quite a while. In 1994 Mitch was arrested at a mall while using a camera mounted on his boot to take photos up womens skirts. He was convicted on the illegal eavesdropping and got 90 days, serving a month of it before being allowed to enter a work release program.

2. Fact: Only a handful of people supposedly saw the intact deer. All were friends of Mitch. (Yes even the Game Warden.) I have heard some of their names mentioned but not a single one has stated that they closely examined the back of the deers head. In fact I have only seen a quote from one of these alleged witnesses and it was of a very general nature. 

3.Fact: No one was allowed to see the bare skull cap after it was removed from the deer. It had been wrapped or encased in some type of bonding material before anyone got a look at it. 

4.Fact: Mitch showed a photo of this deer when it was supposedly still alive to people in Michigan. It was a photo of the deer lying down with snow all around it. Problem? It hadn't snowed in the area he says he killed this deer that year. So the photo would have had to have been taken the previous year. Setting aside the "EXTREME" improbability of slipping up and photographing a buck of this size in his bed, the other problem was that the deers rack in the photo was identical to the rack of the deer when it was supposedly killed the following year. No deer, especially when you are talking about a rack of this size, grows the same exact rack two years in a row. 

5.Fact: The Milo Hanson agreement. Mitch signed a legal document renouncing all claim to calling or entering this deer for official recognition as a world record. This defies all logic for an honest man with nothing to hide. The only possible explanation of how this agreement benefits Mitch and his associates is that it prevented a certain lawsuit from Milo's Lawyers in which the rack would have surely been seized by the court for examination and testing. If it's legit then why would that be something to fear? 

6.Fact: Mitch has entered other bucks in CBM but for some reason decides not to enter the biggest one he's ever killed with them. Why? Well here's some food for thought. It is not illegal to manufacture a fake rack. Its not illegal to display it, sell photos of it or even use it to endorse products as long as the sponsors and customers are not directly lied to about its validity. However it is illegal to try and enter a fake rack into CBM, P&Y or B&C. Now ask yourself, "which of the above things have Mitch and his associates done and which have they not done?" 

7.Fact: Mitch told reporters in Michigan that he had the rack x-rayed but refused to say where or show anyone the x-ray. Again, why would he do this? To prove to himself and only himself that the deer was real? Wouldn't he know that answer already? LOL!

8.Fact: No lawsuits filed. Several widely distributed hunting magazines have ran articles that flat out called this rack a fake. As yet not a single one has been sued over these stories. This is especially telling when you consider the fact that if this rack was real it would be a slam dunk easy win for Mitch and his lawyer. 

9.Fact: Mitch was offered 10,000 dollars to have this rack x-rayed and the results made public by one of his harshest critics. He has steadfastly refused. 

10.Fact: Mitch nor any of his friends have ever disputed the following story by Jim Dean a man that is not one of Mitches enemies and has no ax to grind. QUOTE"My favorite story about Mitch is how he came over one day and asked me to score a deer for him. He admired one of the heads on my wall and asked about it, so I told him. It takes 30, 40 minutes to score a rack, so I went into a lot of detail about how I came to kill that one. "A few months later, I was just amazed when I got a copy of Buckfax in the mail" -- the Commemorative Bucks of Michigan's monthly magazine. "There's my story about how I shot my deer, but now it was Mitch's story about his deer.") 

11.Fact: Roger Smith (the same guy who used his pull to keep Mitch out of prison over the 20,000 dollars worth of food stamps) said the following about him. Quote"The first deer he killed at our camp (near Iron Mountain), he tried to shoot at 55 yards and hit it in the rear leg," Smith said. "It ran away, and the only reason we found it was that the arrow cut the femoral artery and it bled to death. He hunted with us for five years, and the biggest deer we ever saw him kill was a 5-pointer. Smith said hunters at the camp "finally told him that we didn't want him coming up anymore.") Now this is from a man that could hardly be called an enemy. 

12.Fact: The statistical probability of killing the number of P&Y caliber bucks Mitch has supposedly killed in this one area was calculated by an expert hired statistician an found to be a virtual impossibility. There are people who have killed large numbers of P&Y whitetails with a bow but all of them either hunt land that produce large quantities of big bucks or hunt in multiple states. Jim Dean who used to score bucks for Mitch summed it up this way. "We have so many hunters here that very few deer live long enough to develop real trophy antlers." "Other very good hunters have one, two, maybe three record bucks from Michigan. Mitch has, what, 20? But he never had a decent picture or a witness on any of the deer I measured for him." 

13. Fact: the following comment has never been disputed by Mitch or any of his pals. ("In 15 years of hunting with us, I can't remember him getting one buck," Ashley said. "Then he starts hunting on his own, and suddenly he's killing a big buck every year."(John Ashley, a former golf shop owner from Traverse City)


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## spine_splitter (Nov 18, 2009)

The similarity thing is silly. I can show pics of our deer. The genetics here all suffer from.really short G2's


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## mattwins1 (Oct 29, 2008)

What did this one die of Black Tongue Cancer or what? You can see the patch job slippage around the horns and no hole just like the others.


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## Hardwoods89 (Oct 8, 2008)

camp42 said:


> My point is that you could spend 365 days a year scouting and it wouldn't help you kill what isn't there. Oh you're right there probably is like 10 booners on that same property. Give me a break. And most of the racks are the same shape? No way. Some people hunt the same property their whole life and don't kill 2 that look the same. And he does it like 5 times in 8 years or whatever? Screw that. The best hunter in the world can't make a 5 year old buck grow 170 inches. They are genetic exceptions in that area. Something is crooked with this deer and him. Whatever it is something is not right. Sorry but world class genetics don't follow a guy wherever he goes. If they were 140 or 150 inch bucks it might be believable. Not ones that big. It's not possible.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Ok let's get the facts straight before I attempt to get you to think outside the box of denial that you seem to be in. No one ever said he has shot "10 booners" he has shot many fine deer in the mid 100's range, his state bow record is his highest entered deer at 185, so to suggest all of his deer have been "booners" with "world class genetics" is simply false. 

Ok now imagine a man who scouts deer more meticulously than probably just about anyone else in the state of Michigan.....as a product of all that scouting it's fair to say that he probably has stumbled across areas that hide large deer that nearly all others hunters haven't thought to, or put out the effort to, access, scout and actively hunt right?? 

Now in a state with insane amounts of hunting pressure like Michigan, isn't it fair to say that deer, especially older ones (who just happend to grow bigger racks) are much more likely to stay confined to areas where they won't be bothered? Now if those deer arent leaving those "safe haven" areas over time when they reproduce, eventually the genetics would be very similar as the gene pool is smaller, and not as wide open as the general deer population, where gene pools are "randomly" mixed from year to year, would they not? 

Now if you had a hunter who was seasoned enough to have the restraint to allow these deer grow to their maximum genetics before harvest, would you not end up with a case where one hunter ends up with many large deer that appear to share very close genetics?


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## BIG DAVE (Mar 3, 2003)

mabe he got sick of you nasayers of calling him a fake!!!! as soon as the picture hit the internet people were bashing mich, saying its a fake or fenced deer!!! i'm sure he was on the computer reading stuff!!! that would piss me off also, me, do i know its a legit deer??? no!!! but he has stuff to back it up.....


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

michgundog said:


> I heard about him a long time ago, never met him. Wasn't he an official scorer for CBM? I believe he was also behind getting a guy down in Jackson county buck removed from P&Y and CBM? I read the story back I'm the late 80's. The guy shot a 14 pt buck, but it was later found out he had violations for shining or some BS charge??? Im sure there's someone on here that knows the full story. But wasn't Mitch a driving force behind the guys buck being yanked? With all that said, I still think there's no way Mitch's kill is fake.
> 
> 
> posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


The guy you are refering to is Calderone.....The same one who demanded the x-rays. Rompola also washed his hands of P&Y back then.

For those who wonder why he would pass up the financial windfall......He didnt, the contract that was signed with Hanson and Arkansas County Seed Co (buck forage oats) specifies that Rompola signed "*for good and valuable consideration*" Or in laymans terms, MONEY!


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