Massive South Dakota Buck Could Unseat Two State Records
OutdoorHub Reporters 02.02.15
Mike Mettler, a seasoned bowhunter from Eureka, South Dakota, says he does not get buck fever as often as he used to. Yet last November, Mettler felt that familiar tingle when he finally got within range of a massive buck that he had been following for more than a month. That buck is now under evaluation by two record-keeping bodies for both the state archery whitetail record and the overall typical whitetail record by any weapon.
“I knew the buck was nice, but I didn’t know it was that nice,” Mettler told OutdoorHub.
The former Marine said that the official score came to 194 1/8 inches net, as well as a gross of 209 7/8 inches. The buck is now pending approval from the Boone and Crockett Club and Pope and Young Club, two prestigious conservation organizations that record North America’s big game records. For Mettler, however, the buck is not just a series of measurements. It was the result of endless preparation and countless hours on a treestand overlooking his family’s farm.
“I sat for him for about a month straight—I spent a lot of time on him,” Mettler explained. “The only time I had him on camera within shooting light was the same day that my daughter, Sadie, was born so I was down at the hospital. At the time I thought that was my only shot at him.”
That missed chance was not his last. Several weeks later on November 17, the bowhunter nearly ran into the buck while stalking a nearby cornfield.
“The day I got him, I climbed into my treestand and found that the waterhole below it was froze up. So I decided to go down and stalk through the corn instead, which is one of my favorite things to do. There was a doe up in there, about four rows over from me, and then I saw the top of the buck’s rack. That corn was really thick, up to your waist at least, so there was now way I could get a shot off the ground. I tried to get closer and that doe, as she was eating the corn, would look in my direction every once in a while. I didn’t want to get busted, so I just waited him out.”
It was Mettler’s best chance at the buck, which he had been keeping an eye on since the previous season. As soon as he got within range, the hunter said he could not stop shaking. He took his shot.
“That’s when buck fever set in and I had the shakes pretty bad,” Mettler recalled. “I heard the whack of the arrow hitting him, but I could hardly look through my binoculars I was shaking so bad.”
The buck fled and it took Mettler several hours to track him down. At one time, he spotted another buck lingering nearby with a group of does, and worried that maybe he had hit the buck much further back than he intended. Mettler made up his mind that it was probably a different deer, and later was rewarded for his patience when he found the buck dead not too far from where he initially shot him.
“I didnt know if I was more relieved or more excited, I just spent so much time on him,” Mettler said. “I never even thought of a state record until a day or two later when some people mentioned it. I measured him at home, off of my cellphone with some instructions, and the gross score I came up with was 203, and I knew there were going to be some deductions. I took him to the taxidermist who later called me and asked if I was sitting down. The number he came up was 211 and he told me that it will be the new state record. That’s when it sank in.”
Mettler said his gear included a Mathews Chill R bow, Carbon Express arrows, and Slick Trick 100-grain broad heads. According to southdakotahunting.com, the current South Dakota record for typical whitetail belongs to a buck harvested in 1948 by Glen Mclane, which scored 193 2/8 inches. The current archery record stands at 182 7/8 inches, by Curtis Courtney in 2004. If Mettler’s measurements are approved, he will become the new record holder for both records—not a bad reward for his hard work.
