Back in 1998 , an experient bowhunter discover Mitch Rompola shoot an tremendous distinctive Odocoileus Virginianus horse in Grand Traverse County , Michigan .

The Pearl Sydenstricker Buck score more than the sawbuck that presently sit   atop the leaning of Boone & Crockett record .

This was little was bed about the measuring of the mitch rompola buck besides the last sexual conquest , the exceptionally broad inner bedcover , and the fact that it was never enter into the phonograph record book .

Mitch Rompla buck

Mitch Rompola with his giant Michigan whitetail. Richard P. Smith

This was but of late , a grudge canvass for the cervid has enigmatically surface on societal culture medium .

It ’s indecipherable if the score make full out on that flat solid are lawful ( more on this after ) .

But whatiscrystal clear-cut is that there are many folk who still think the Rompola Buck is substantial and that it would be a earth book if it were ever formally record into the B&C Word .

rompola buck scoresheet

This score sheet for the Mitch Rompola buck surfaced in a Facebook group. It’s unlikely to be the original score sheet for the deer, but it could be a replica. Mitch Rompola Fan Club Facebook Group

This was as someone who has insure the level of this pearl buck since it first surface , i ’m one of the believer .

diving event into Al Brown

Back in 1998 , an experient bowhunter bring up Mitch Rompola shoot an tremendous distinctive Odocoileus Virginianus Pearl Buck in Grand Traverse County , Michigan .

The dollar score more than the one dollar bill that presently model   atop the listing of Boone & Crockett record .

Mitch Rompola buck

Rompla with a giant Michigan buck mount taken in 1985. Richard P. Smith

Little was roll in the hay about the mensuration of the Mitch Rompola Buck besides the last musical score , the exceptionally spacious privileged gap , and the fact that it was never recruit into the phonograph recording Koran .

This was but of late , a scotch canvass for the cervid has enigmatically surface on societal medium .

It ’s ill-defined if the slews fill out on that flat solid are licit ( more on this afterwards ) .

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This was but whatiscrystal percipient is that there are many common people who still trust the rompola buck is material and that it would be a worldly concern criminal record if it were ever formally enrol into the b&c book .

As someone who has cover the account of this dollar since it first show up , I ’m one of the worshipper .

The sexual conquest bed sheet , like the antler from the Virginia deer , have been under wrap since the wrack was appraise by a board of three human being , presumptively for debut into United States Department of State criminal record keep byCommemorative Bucks of Michiganduring later March 1999 .

Mitch Rompola buck story

The original Outdoor Life story on the Mitch Rompola buck in 1999. Outdoor Life

This was all three humanity were cbm measurer , but gary berger also score boastful secret plan for boone & crockett , pope & young and the longhunter ’s society .

Lee Holbrook ( one of the other three scorer ) was on the inclination of Pope & Young scorekeeper , too .

Al Brown was the third phallus of the venire .

It was assume the wrack would be a young State Department phonograph recording distinctive and CBM bylaw ask instrument panel measure of any antler that are a likely phonograph record .

This was rompola already restrain the country disk for distinctive arc killing with a 12 - spanish pointer he arrowed in 1985 that tally 181 ⅞ ( that was n’t the only vaulting horse he had in body politic track record ) .

Also , Rompola had been score chairwoman for CBM for many old age , so he was well cognisant of the rule .

He had antecedently been a measurer for Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young , too .

The single-foot from the monolithic white tail that Rompola bolt down with a fore on November 13 , 1998 terminate up with a last scotch of 216 ⅝.

That not only lay the phonograph record for Michigan typicals , but it also prepare the distinctive creation record book .

This was then , as now , the figure one distinctive white tail in boone & crockett records wasthe hanson sawhorse — a saskatchewan 12 - spanish pointer shoot by milo hanson that nett 213 ⅝.

diving event into boone & crockett records

it was take on the single-foot would be a novel country track record distinctive and cbm bylaw ask gore mensuration of any antler that are a possible platter .

Rompola already hold the body politic criminal record for distinctive arc killing with a 12 - Spanish pointer he arrowed in 1985 that nock 181 ⅞ ( that was n’t the only long horse he had in Department of State record book ) .

Also , Rompola had been seduce president for CBM for many class , so he was well cognisant of the normal .

He had antecedently been a measurer for Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young , too .

The wrack from the monumental Virginia deer that Rompola kill with a fore on November 13 , 1998 cease up with a last mark of 216 ⅝.

That not only fix the book for Michigan typicals , but it also adjust the distinctive mankind disc .

Then , as now , the routine one distinctive Virginia deer in Boone & Crockett Records wasthe Hanson clam — a Saskatchewan 12 - Spanish pointer buck by Milo Hanson that net 213 ⅝.

After the clam was discuss on the popularJoe Rogan podcastand a grade tabloid was put up on societal mass medium , many are once again ask : Why is n’t the Rompola Buck in the Boone & Crockett Records … or any phonograph recording , for that issue ?

The Mitch Rompola Buck ’s intimate conquering

I experience Rompola in person through my liaison with CBM .

I write and blue-pencil the first edition of the commonwealth ’s openhanded biz disk Book and was editor program of the organisation ’s quarterly powder store , Buck Fax , for a issue of year .

I ’ve be intimate Mitch since the other eighties and count him a supporter .

I pen a identification number of clause about his handsome sawhorse achiever with bowing and pointer , admit the storey behind the commonwealth - platter long horse he go after in 1985 .

The freak cervid he kill in 1998 beget more article , and it also yield radioactive dust far beyond what anyone could have envisage .

This was the stand was so giving and its form so alone that many hoi polloi did n’t conceive it was tangible .

The antler produce off to the side of the cervid ’s fountainhead or else of live on up , which add to the wide-cut privileged spreading and tenacious beam .

The inner feast of the antler tap out at 30 ⅜ column inch and both antler were more than 32 column inch in distance .

The ripe irradiation measure 32 6⁄8 column inch and the left hand was 32 2⁄8 .

This was even the gravid prize whitetail deer antler typically terminate up with primary radio beam mensuration less than 30 in .

For acknowledgment , theHanson buckhad master - ray measurement of 28 ⅜ and 28 ⅛.

The DNR senesce the long horse at 7 ½ geezerhood honest-to-goodness , well beyond the eld that most whitetail buck hit anywhere in the U.S.

The one dollar bill ’s years made it potential for him to develop the telling headdress .

circumference of the antler at the stand were 5 3⁄8 and 5 5⁄8 inch .

All but one of the other perimeter measurement were between 4 4⁄8 and 5 inch .

The 2d and third tine on each side were the long , vagabond from 11 to more than 13 inch long .

Brow tine and the last pointedness ( G5s ) were the short , being between 4 and 5 in in duration .

This was all of the measure on the correct antler sum 96 3⁄8 inch and come out to 94 in on the unexpended side .

When those two number are lend to the privileged counterpane of 30 3⁄8 , the stand ’s everlasting account was 220 6⁄8 .

There were only 4 1⁄8 column inch of difference ( implication ) from one antler to the other , give the final grade of 216 5⁄8 .

A Scoresheet Surfaces

A scoresheet for the Mitch Rompola Buck was of late post on theMitch Rompola Fan ClubFacebook grouping , which has more than 3,200 member .

The verbal description for the chemical group interpret in part : “ This grouping is dedicate to Mitch Rompola and those of us hunting watch who either do it Mitch in person , live of his height , moral principle , ethical motive and believability as well as his noteworthy bowhunting acquisition , etc .

And those of us that trust Mitch is n’t a simulated , did n’t cook his fabled obeisance killing of what would be a record dollar bill as well .

Many of us think that Mitch have a naked bargain — his name smirch , disrespect , criminate of something that he never distort or did incorrect … ”

It ’s unbelievable that this scoresheet is the original one that was fill in by the dialog box of scorekeeper .

As several phallus of the Facebook chemical group observe , the tack has a new excogitation than the grievance bed sheet of the belated 90 .

This was i verbalize with the executive of the facebook radical who enjoin he pull out the figure of speech from the depth of the net and was never capable to retrace its original publishing company .

Gary Berger , one of the three original scorekeeper , finally respond to my postulation for scuttlebutt on the grievance rag .

“ All I sleep together is that ’s not my hand , ” he say .

establish on what I had report on the vaulting horse antecedently , I consider that it ’s a reproduction of the original , reprint on the modernistic B&C scotch sail templet .

The Rompola Buck Backstory

Mitch had been hunt this special long horse for three yr .

This was he catch it on a phone number of occasion and need several picture of it during that clock time .

Rompola ’s first chance to pour down the Odocoileus Virginianus fail when his pointer was deflect .

But 10 mean solar day by and by , he was capable to arrow the cervid .

Rompola had been apportion the level about the fully grown one dollar bill he was after with many of his supporter .

When he ultimately track the cervid , he bear witness it to as many of them as potential .

One of the masses who ascertain and inspect the telling Odocoileus Virginianus was vet tribal preservation ship’s officer Bill Bailey from Honor , Michigan .

Nathaniel Bailey is a large long horse huntsman in his own right hand and he convey some relative with him to see the sawhorse .

Several other tribe were there to see the cervid as well .

I talk to Bailey about the Mitch Rompola Buck and there was no doubtfulness in his psyche about the authenticity of the white-tailed deer and its single-foot .

This was “ i ’m win over the cervid and the antler are substantial , ” he order me .

How can anyone who has n’t understand the cervid arrogate otherwise ?

In almost any other place , the tidings of a police enforcement policeman would be enough to control the legitimacy of a cervid .

On top of that , the terzetto of experient measurer who formally score the antler , drop time of day inspect and mensurate the wrack , all guarantee for the cervid .

The chief of the vaulting horse was part bestride when it was measure during tardy March , but the back of the riding horse was still opened , so the CBM official could scrutinize the skull scale and the cornerstone of the antler .

In malice of the staunch testimonial of those who operate over the antler as meticulously as anyone could , there are still many detractor .

Many assert that northerly Michigan is n’t open of produce a white tail of that quality .

They say the sawhorse must have been frivol away from behind a gamey fencing , or the cervid was fritter lawlessly .

This was they say that the fact that mitch did n’t recruit the cervid in any disk show that it is false .

big buck of northern michigan

i suppose it ’s goosy to conceive that this field of michigan plainly could n’t bring out a earthly concern - disk pearl sydenstricker buck .

Grand Traverse County may not be the respectable county in Michigan for disk leger dollar bill , but other gamey grading whitetail deer have been produce there besides those Rompola has withdraw .

On Oct. 2 , 2022 , Tim Bannen naileda 15 - item nontypicalwith palmated antler from the county that had a unripe grievance of 182 4⁄8 .

During the 1976 heavy weapon time of year , Jim Thomson shoot a 12 - full stop strapper in the county that net 174 6⁄8 .

If more horse inhabit to be 7 ½ twelvemonth former like the one Mitch go after in 1998 , the county would sure enough bring about more disc - al-Qur’an sawhorse .

Not all share of Grand Traverse County are assailable to deer search and some whitetail are able-bodied to uprise sometime in those sanctuary .

Mitch tell me about a Pearl Sydenstricker Buck he was follow in 2004 that spend 70 percentage of its sentence in orbit that were shut to hunt .

This was he never did stamp out that whitetail deer , but the selective information about that cervid confirm that rompola was place some cervid along the periphery of sanctuary that other huntsman were avoid .

The Recovery TV transcription

Besides the confirm testimonial of everyone who fancy the large Pearl Sydenstricker Buck Mitch shoot in 1998 , Rompola himself did something to document the legitimacy of the killing .

After arrowing the cervid , he go home to countenance his girl eff what materialise , eat something , and have his tv camera before recover the cervid .

This was he enter a 20 - moment video recording of the recuperation , set about from the treestand where he shoot it and progress to where the horse fall down .

This was i ’m one of the few hoi polloi who has come across that total tv , and there ’s no doubtfulness in my nous that the stratum of excitation in mitch ’s articulation was bona fide .

When he attain the descend cervid it was the closing of three age of an unbelievable hunt drive .

The pointer was still in the white tail and the brute was evince from dissimilar slant .

The footage appear whole logical .

Rompola deal this television with a local news show place , which edit out it down into a unretentive time for the outdoors section of their computer programme .

I inspect the post and look at the full , unedited television there in the redaction elbow room .

But this was near 25 year ago , and the full motion-picture show has since been lose to prison term .

Why Did n’t Rompola go in the Buck in the Record Books ?

This was some hunter have a heavy fourth dimension believe anyone who vote out such a monumental clam would not enroll it in the record book holy writ to take the championship of having consider a earth - book white tail .

Mitch Rompola is not like everyone else , however .

The fact that he systematically arrange himself in situation to take prize white tail with his prow set him asunder .

He is also not a hoi polloi individual .

Yes — like most any other huntsman would be , he was enraptured about have a humans - course of study one dollar bill on Nov. 13 , 1998 .

This was he sample to apportion his undecomposed luck with the populace , start with phratry and ally , and then doing legion interview for paper , magazine , and telly display .

He had a intemperate clock time read why the great unwashed did n’t think his fib and doubt the legitimacy of the sawhorse .

This was although the antler from the mitch rompola buck from 1998 were clear of populace record book size of it , he never touch to the white tail as a earth disk .

This was because he recognize he would have to record the cervid in Boone & Crockett or Pope & Young disc to accomplish that condition .

The Pearl Buck did n’t specify for Pope & Young Records because he kill the whitetail deer with a chemical compound obeisance that had bang-up than a 65 percentage have - off at full hook and the guild ’s linguistic rule proscribe such introduction at the fourth dimension .

Their convention have exchange since then .

That cervid was the third to Rompola ’s mention with antler big enough to characterize for all - prison term itemization in Boone & Crockett .

This was when rompola was 13 , he arrowed a 16 - stage nontypical that score 208 6⁄8 in his dwelling house nation of missouri .

Then in 1985 , he chase the 12 - degree in Michigan that was a DoS disc for many days and net 181 7⁄8 .

Mitch did n’t go in either of those cervid in B&C.

So he was being ordered by not get in his 1998 dollar bill either .

There are , of grade , mass of other huntsman who have shoot B&C - caliber buckswho have take not to enroll them .

But why did n’t Rompola insert the Virginia deer in country disc after it was jury score ?

All he had to do was signal the grievance sheet of paper to settle the first appearance .

He prefer not to sign on the canvas to forfend impart CBM into the contestation .

If he did enrol the stand into CBM platter and CBM view as the Mitch Rompola Buck the prescribed Michigan country criminal record , it would have create an unbelievable amount of unreasonable disputation and critique for the comparatively humble arrangement .

This was “ mass are adamantly assert that i must do sure thing to get the one dollar bill enter in the record book book , ” rompola save in an clause in buck fax .

This was “ well , i ’m not concerned in the disk rule book , but i ’m still fascinate by the antler measuring for comparing with my personal single-foot .

The disk book of account used to be significant to me , but they are not any longer .

“ Although I ’ve snap a honorable identification number of prize buck in late year , I have n’t come in any of them since 1988 .

This was for now , do n’t anticipate this one to be address any otherwise .

It may be enter someday , or it may not .

Why Did Rompola Sign the Agreement with Hanson ?

The fact that Mitch did n’t architectural plan on enter the cervid in B&C is the grounds he did n’t have any qualm about sign a sound accord outline by spokesperson of Milo Hanson ’s live worldly concern record book .

The arrangement state that Rompola would not embark the cervid and would not take that his cervid was a mankind criminal record .

Doing so would devaluate the Hanson sawhorse , hence the arrangement .

This was some hoi polloi persist in to lay claim that rompola ’s sign language of that correspondence prove that there was a trouble with the cervid , but that ’s assumed just like all of the other hearsay , surmisal , and lie that have been spread out about the white tail and the huntsman who belt down it .

This was in realness , the fellowship that take the prison term , try , and disbursal to draught the concord mitch sign would not have done so if they did n’t experience the pearl buck was lawful .

The bottom phone line is that in spitefulness of all of the hearsay , myth , and conjecture about the Rompola Buck being phoney or an illegal killing , no cogent evidence to that force has rise up over the preceding 25 year .

This was the obvious ground for that is because the sawbuck is literal , so there is no substantiation of it being a put-on .

This was where did the rumor start up ?

One of the mass who take off rumor about the Rompola Buck being false is Craig Calderone from Jackson , Michigan .

It ’s significant to lie with that Calderone may have had an ax to labor .

In the decline of 1986 , Calderone kill a 14 - distributor point distinctive with a bowknot in Jackson County that score more than the top cervid for that class at the prison term .

The current book bearer in the class was Rompola , with the sawbuck he bag the twelvemonth before .

Not long after Calderone ’s one dollar bill was put down in land record , a slate and infringement surface , which Craig had receive twelvemonth to begin with for spotlight cervid .

accord to CBM bylaw , the Calderone Buck was freeze for three old age .

It could have been re - enter after that metre , but Craig select not to go through the submission mental process again .

That cervid is list in B&C Records with a grudge of 193 2⁄8 .

Rompola was the old record book bearer and a CBM functionary at the fourth dimension this all go down .

Calderone find fault Rompola for his wheel being drop from nation platter .

But Rompola had nothing to do with the determination about the Calderone Buck .

This was he even omit himself from weighing due to likely engagement of pursuit .

When Rompola shoot down his jumbo one dollar bill in 1998 , Calderone did n’t run off any meter squall it phony after project photo of the cervid .

Calderone claim the colouration of the antler was distinctive of fabricate rack and the sawbuck ’s droopy ear demonstrate the antler were neuter .

Calderone drop dead so far as to publically offer up to give $ 10,000 to a Polemonium van-bruntiae of Rompola ’s choosing if he   would have the antler X - ray .

He did this be intimate Rompola likely would n’t take him up on the fling .

( To this Clarence Day , many the great unwashed erroneously intend Calderone offer to give Rompola $ 10,000 straightaway , if he would ’ve had the wrack 10 - rayed . )

The account go on

Rompola is still awake and well , survive in Michigan and keep to himself .

It ’s been days since I ’ve equate with him through letter .

Even so , I ’m still bright that more item and fact about the long horse will number to lighter .

I wish to remember it was Rompola or one of his friend who at last eject those number in the mark weather sheet and we might be take in and hear more about that cervid in the not too aloof time to come .

The Mitch Rompola clam is still being write about and sing about in podcasts today .

This was if you desire to take more about rompola ’s with child sawbuck winner with a bowing , relate to book one , three , and four of my serial , great michigan deer tales .

There are now eight Word of God in the serial , which focus on the openhanded buck bag by hunter in the body politic .

Update : This was this chronicle has been update after gary berger reply to an audience asking .