The Rompola Buck

[Swingin' Free]

artificial antlers are hard to pic out, even holding them in your hand. I can see someone scoring a set , thinking they’re legit.

look at the skull / rack angle, vs eye angle. It’s off..
once again the ears

I do taxidermy. As soon as you make a V-cut behind behind the ears, they flop down like. that.

Ah, so you're an expert. Excuse me, I'll move on...

 

[HuntNorthEast]

Why should he have to go out of his way to prove anything to anyone? Especially a butt hurt manby with more money then brains. X-rays aren't a requirement to get it certified....

Did I ever say he SHOULD have to? No, I didn't.. I stated that any logical person would just do it to shut people up... I also never said anything regarding Milo Hansen being a cry baby about it, but since we are on that, he sure was.

 

[Plebe]

artificial antlers are hard to pic out, even holding them in your hand. I can see someone scoring a set , thinking they’re legit.

look at the skull / rack angle, vs eye angle. It’s off..
once again the ears

I do taxidermy. As soon as you make a V-cut behind behind the ears, they flop down like. that.

One of the most-forgotten sources in the Rompola Buck story was that of another man who saw the buck: Bill Bailey of Honor, Mich. At that time, Bailey was an 18-year veteran conservation officer with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. In the Dec. 6, 1998, issue of the Traverse City Record-Eagle newspaper, Bailey told staff writer Bill O’Brien that he took several family members to see the Rompola Buck.

“I saw the deer, I saw it closely” Bailey told O’Brien. “I handled the deer.” He added that there were “no questionable open doors with it.”

Bailey also discounted rumors that Rompola somehow attached the rack to the animal.

“Ridiculous,” he said. “Something like that would be pretty easy to tell.”

 

[HuntNorthEast]

Disagree. The story is that the people pushing for the X-ray, and those 2 who offered him money to get it done had a long time feud with Mr. Rompola. He even turned one of them in for spotlighting a few years prior if I remember correctly. In short, they hated each other’s guts. I am certain he in no way felt like he wanted to give in to the demands of people he very much disliked just to prove to people he wasn’t lying and possibly destroy his hunting area in the process. Makes sense to me. Guy spends his life obsessed with deer, kills some really big ones wayyyyy before this world record (see the interview on YouTube above), does winter scouting and bed hunting before anyone knew about it, tells people 2 years in advance that he’s hunting a deer with a massive spread. He finally catches up to this deer after a lifetime of achievement and effort in the whitetail wood and all he gets is hate, doubt, and lawsuits. He even has THREE scorers and a conservation office look it over and give it their professional thumbs up. I would be tempted to give everyone the bird and disappear too if I was him.

I didn't know about the feud, now I can see why he said no haha.

 

[Swingin' Free]

Did I ever say he SHOULD have to? No, I didn't.. I stated that any logical person would just do it to shut people up... I also never said anything regarding Milo Hansen being a cry baby about it, but since we are on that, he sure was.

You should have stated "you" would have done it. Believe it or not some people could not care less what others think. In today's times with social media people are looking for and getting the attention they so missed in their childhoods.
Hugs for all at the next Saddlepolozza...

 

[Plebe]

You should have stated "you" would have done it. Believe it or not some people could not care less what others think. In today's times with social media people are looking for and getting the attention they so missed in their childhoods.
Hugs for all at the next Saddlepolozza...

I think a better explanation is:

People do lots of illogical things. Don't apply the "reasonable person" standard to ANYTHING related to trophy game, and we'll have better footing on this site.

 

[Topdog]

One of the most-forgotten sources in the Rompola Buck story was that of another man who saw the buck: Bill Bailey of Honor, Mich. At that time, Bailey was an 18-year veteran conservation officer with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. In the Dec. 6, 1998, issue of the Traverse City Record-Eagle newspaper, Bailey told staff writer Bill O’Brien that he took several family members to see the Rompola Buck.

“I saw the deer, I saw it closely” Bailey told O’Brien. “I handled the deer.” He added that there were “no questionable open doors with it.”

Bailey also discounted rumors that Rompola somehow attached the rack to the animal.

“Ridiculous,” he said. “Something like that would be pretty easy to tell.”

That man right there is probably one of the most compelling pieces of evidence that the buck may be legit every time I research this stuff.

 

[BackSpasm]

artificial antlers are hard to pic out, even holding them in your hand. I can see someone scoring a set , thinking they’re legit.

look at the skull / rack angle, vs eye angle. It’s off..
once again the ears

I do taxidermy. As soon as you make a V-cut behind behind the ears, they flop down like. that.

Since you do taxidermy, you must know about the DOZENS of examples of bucks shot on film and by average joes that had droopy ears right?

 

[Bigterp]

This has turned out to be an interesting thread, how about we let people have differing opinions & move on.

 

[Swingin' Free]

That kid in pic one looks awfully suspicious.
Just sayin' you may want to keep an eye on him

 

[Tjraley2]

That kid in pic one looks awfully suspicious.
Just sayin' you may want to keep an eye on him

See the fence behind him? Gotta be a game farm kill...

 

[HuntNorthEast]

You should have stated "you" would have done it. Believe it or not some people could not care less what others think. In today's times with social media people are looking for and getting the attention they so missed in their childhoods.
Hugs for all at the next Saddlepolozza...

Now you want to suggest the way I should have I made MY statement... haha okay, move along. Find someone else to have a petty arguement with.

 

[Noonespecial]

This has turned out to be an interesting thread, how about we let people have differing opinions & move on.

How about we close the thread!

 

[Swingin' Free]

Now you want to suggest the way I should have I made MY statement... haha okay, move along. Find someone else to have a petty arguement with.

No, you want to lump everyone with yourself and how you "feel". I don't give a flying dung what you "feel". I don't crave/need what you do....

 

[HuntNorthEast]

No, you want to lump everyone with yourself and how you "feel". I don't give a flying dung what you "feel". I don't crave/need what you do....

We get it, you're a keyboard hero that likes picking fights online. I'm done here you've come at multiple people in this thread alone. ✌

 

[Deerkins]

My God.. not all deer have droopy ears,
BUT all deer with their skull caps cut out do
And apparently, all of mitch’s deer as well...just sayin

Hunting Celebrity Marc Anthony Fakes Buck Kill

Hunting celebrity Marc Anthony may have bit off more than he can chew when he posed in North American Whitetail with a buck some are claiming was a dead head found years earlier and sold several times over.

www.google.com

here’s another example , of how easy it is to swap a real rack, with a replica.


another taxidermist, but Marc Anthony does better work..IMO

 

[redsquirrel]

Now you want to suggest the way I should have I made MY statement... haha okay, move along. Find someone else to have a petty arguement with.

No, you want to lump everyone with yourself and how you "feel". I don't give a flying dung what you "feel". I don't crave/need what you do....

This is over now. Next we start with warnings and vacations.

 

[Plebe]

artificial antlers are hard to pic out, even holding them in your hand. I can see someone scoring a set , thinking they’re legit.

look at the skull / rack angle, vs eye angle. It’s off..
once again the ears

I do taxidermy. As soon as you make a V-cut behind behind the ears, they flop down like. that.

As someone with knowledge of taxidermy, I don't think being a taxidermist necessarily qualifies as a credential for forensic examination.

A few thoughts:

1. One of the rules of taxidermy is to know that nature can do weird things, therefore follow specific reference.

2. The techniques and materials being used to manufacture replica racks and repairs was not highly advanced at that time. Even today, most fake racks are quite identifiable via various tells (weight, texture, density, staining and/or paint). There is a taxidermist (goes by Antlerman on the taxidermy forums) and his method reportedly makes very realistic racks but is heavily guarded and was not perfected at that time.

3. Not all taxidermists are of the same level of knowledge and skill. Fact is there is no certification or indeed real qualification to be a "taxidermist." We can apply this many ways, but, keeping to the matter at hand, if you look at pictures of the buck during mounting, clearly the skill level there was not high. It is hard to believe that such a taxidermist was highly skilled at making a rack realistic enough to fool 3 official scorers and to have installed said rack well enough to pass examination by a Conservation Officer.

Again, anything is possible, but some things are less probable than one might conclude at first glance. So, who really knows?

 

[BackSpasm]

My God.. not all deer have droopy ears,
BUT all deer with their skull caps cut out do
And apparently, all of mitch’s deer as well...just sayin

Hunting Celebrity Marc Anthony Fakes Buck Kill

Hunting celebrity Marc Anthony may have bit off more than he can chew when he posed in North American Whitetail with a buck some are claiming was a dead head found years earlier and sold several times over.

www.google.com

here’s another example , of how easy it is to swap a real rack, with a replica.


another taxidermist, but Marc Anthony does better work..

I do completely see your point about the pattern of his bucks having drooping ears, and it is a good one. Could it be something to do with the wide frame? Other bucks antlers can much more easily get in and destroy the ear cartilage than a typical/tight spread? I just don't think its the "smoking gun" here. Again, dont you think the professionals who examined the deer would be able to detect a transplanted rack? How many recently killed bucks does a conservation officer examine in 18 years? Do you think he swapped the skull plate and then drug it out into the field to film a walk-up video? What about the other images of the deer he produced in different conditions? Its hard for me to imagine a drooping ear would give it all away when there are plenty of examples of this happening naturally.

 

[BackSpasm]

There is also this legitimate buck, killed in southern Ontario in 2018, not too far at all from ole Mitch. And in the kill photo the ears are exactly perky either.

Massive Ontario Buck Sends Shock Wave Through Province - North American Whitetail

Southern Ontario resident Jordy Hope carried no preconceived ideas into the 2016 deer season.

www.northamericanwhitetail.com

Or this droopy eared Ontario giant:

A Real Life 200-Inch Canadian Buck with a Shotgun

Have You Ever Hunted in Canada? What Province?

www.realtree.com

Pretty convincing pattern to me