# Another big MN buck.



## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

This is the third 180+ buck ive heard about coming from MN this year.

210 gross.


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## bearhunter (Jan 30, 2009)

me wants one


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## deacon (Sep 12, 2003)

Wow!


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## Jmnhunter (Feb 9, 2009)

where was this one taken BBJ do you know?


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Somewhere down south to my understanding. Suburb buck by the sounds of it.


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## Hamm (Dec 10, 2007)

http://www.twincities.com/outdoors/ci_13535184?nclick_check=1&_requestid=1670972

Moby Deer: Hunter's obsessive, three-year pursuit of huge buck pays off
By Chris Niskanen 
[email protected]
Updated: 10/14/2009 01:15:13 PM CDT

Michael Versland of Hastings was obsessed with a single buck.

Starting in 2007, after finding some enormous shed antlers, Versland began pursuing with bow and arrow a giant whitetail buck roaming the woods of southeastern Washington County. The high school biology teacher saw the buck twice in 2007 and once in 2008 but never got a good shot.

Over three years, he was able to collect all or some of its shed antlers going back to 2005. He collected a handful of pictures of the deer from his trail camera.

This year, Versland, 33, bought and practiced with a new, fully outfitted $1,700 bow and arrows, hoping that if buck came by, he would make the perfect shot using the best equipment. "It was quite an obsession," he said. "As soon as I picked up his first antler, I knew I wasn't going to shoot anything else."

On Oct. 2, about 7 p.m., his patience paid off.

The buck came within range and Versland hit it perfectly, eventually recovering the buck just 40 yards from his deer stand. 
The buck is a 10-pointer with four nontypical points. The antlers' gross "green" score (before it dries) is 210 1/8 gross inches on the Boone and Crockett scale. The antlers have a width of 22 1/4 inches.

Perhaps most impressive is its weight. Its live weight on a taxidermy scale was 350 pounds, extremely rare and heavy for a whitetail, experts say. Versland estimates the field-dressed weight is about 280 pounds.

He plans to have a full-body mount of the buck. 
"This will be my 21st year working deer check stations, and the biggest deer I've ever seen is 247 pounds, and that was a buck down in Illinois," said Lou Cornicelli, big-game program coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "That weight is definitely outside the bell curve."

The antlers on Versland's buck are far from being a state record. They qualify for the official archery record book, Pope and Young, which has a minimum 155 score for nontypical whitetail antlers. Chances are the antlers will rank high among state archery-killed deer. 
Versland's buck is unique for the effort he put into hunting it.

In March 2007, he found one side of the buck's shed antlers from fall 2006. On another trip, one of his students found another shed from the 2005 season, and a farmer later found the matching side from 2006.

Versland found a single shed in 2007 from the same buck and the matching set of antlers from 2008.

"The six antlers were found on five different properties over the course of four years,'' he said. "From one end to the next, (the properties) covered a full mile." He took the sheds to antler competitions and won first place with them.

In 2008, he captured six photos of the big buck on his trail camera. He also got the buck on video in 2008 and the night he shot him.

"He was largely nocturnal," Versland said. "Most people in the area did not know he was there. And I seldom saw him even when hunting his core bedding area."

Versland was hunting Wednesday, Sept. 30, of this year when he spotted the buck on nearby private property. He got permission to hunt the property on Thursday, bought a new stand that night and erected it on Friday, the day he shot the buck.

Despite getting his dream deer, Versland said he would continue hunting in Minnesota and Wisconsin this fall. "I learned so much from (this buck) that I believe I can go out this year in Wisconsin or next year in Minnesota and take another great buck â€" not this big, of course," he said.

Once the mount of the deer is complete, Versland hopes to display it at deer shows.


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## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

Talk about a happy hunter...and that story! Good grief. Obsessed was used a bit and I'd say it fits. More power to him for sticking to his guns. I know a lot of guys that would have settled for less the first year. 
Full body mount, though? Yikes! That's gotta be spendy. What they paying those biology teachers down in Hastings? :lol:


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Duckslayer100 said:


> Full body mount, though? Yikes! That's gotta be spendy. What they paying those biology teachers down in Hastings? :lol:


Im betting someone else pays for it.


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## Feather Freeks 2 (Jan 13, 2009)

VERY nice deer!!!


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## CrabClaw (Jul 28, 2008)

What a giant! Washington Co. is the best county to bowhunt IMO prolly cuz it's where I lived before I moved to ND-







"Paradise", you guys see this one taken last week at Camp Ripley in MN??


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

CrabClaw said:


> What a giant! Washington Co. is the best county to bowhunt IMO prolly cuz it's where I lived before I moved to ND-
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah the guy who shot it's one of the guys at my deer camp. Scotty O'konek. He seems to always shoot the biggest deer at camp every year, but this one's a wee bit bigger than the ones he's taken previous years, lol.


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