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Roger Pankey had been after the buck for 2 months straight when it lastly daylighted for him in early December

Roger Pankey with the 18-point buck he nicknamed “Bullwinkle.” Picture courtesy Roger Pankey

Retired Michigan Division of Pure Assets worker Roger Pankey has spent a lifetime looking whitetails in his residence state. He primarily hunts fringe farmland habitat in southwest Michigan, the place he owns a 100-acre parcel in Cass County. And over the previous two years, he’s had his eye on a particular buck there.

Pankey first caught the buck on path digicam in 2021, and in 2022, he discovered its large sheds on his property. By the 2023 deer season, the buck had grown right into a wide-racked monster with large most important beams, and the nickname “Bullwinkle” was born.

“Bullwinkle was hanging out lots on neighbors’ land, they usually had been looking him, too,” Pankey tells Out of doors Life. “However the deer began displaying at night time frequently on my property [in October], and that’s after I actually devoted the 2023 deer season to getting him.”

Pankey captured this path cam picture of Bullwinkle making a scrape in mid-October. Picture courtesy Roger Pankey

Retirement allowed Pankey to hunt for his goal buck practically daily between Oct. 1 and early December. After putting out by archery and rifle season, Pankey switched to a rifle chambered in .450 Bushmaster to benefit from the state’s 10-day muzzleloader season that began Dec. 1. (The rifle is assessed as a short-range firearm in Michigan and subsequently authorized in the course of the particular season.) On Dec. 5, Bullwinkle lastly confirmed.

“I had a path digicam picture of Bullwinkle the night time earlier than I shot him,” Pankey says. “My grandson Hint and I hunted that subsequent afternoon, entering into two completely different elevated field blinds about 3 p.m. We had been about 100 yards aside, close to the place we had night time images of [the buck].”

Later that afternoon, Pankey had a number of does stroll right into a meals plot to feed. Quickly after, he noticed Bullwinkle from about 120 yards away. It was the primary time he’d seen the deer in the course of the daytime.

“I needed to calm myself, as a result of I knew how large he was,” Pankey says. “He was strolling straight towards me, and I couldn’t get a superb shot on him for some time. When he quartered only a bit, I took a shot.”

The buck ran about 80 yards to the place Pankey watched it fall.

An in depth-up view of the buck’s large, 18-point rack. Picture courtesy Roger Pankey

Pankey says Bullwinkle was lean from the rut, with an estimated dressed weight round 175 kilos. Considered one of his pals green-scored the 18-point rack at 192 1/8 inches, and Pankey believes the buck will make the Boone and Crockett e book no matter whether or not it’s scored as a typical or a non-typical. He’ll know for positive after the 60-day drying interval is up.

“I’ve deer hunted all my life, and this buck is by far one of the best one I’ve ever taken,” Pankey says. “And I’ve acquired 30 buck mounts from the deer I’ve been lucky sufficient to take over time.”