A 20-year-old compound bow in the hands of a dedicated hunter during the rut can be a winning combination for a big buck. Just ask Mitch Bogumill of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who tagged the biggest buck of his life in November.
“I spent 50 hours this season hunting at a favorite spot on our family’s 80 acres in Taylor County,” Bogumill tells Outdoor Life. “We’ve tried hard not to shoot small bucks, and I think I passed on 20 bucks through the season until the morning of Nov. 16.”
The Wisconsin rut was in full swing by that time, Bogumill says. So, on the morning of Nov. 16, he placed a doe estrus-scented rope on the edge of a logging road near his 20-foot-high ladder tree stand.
“I also put on some ‘Nose Jammer’ cover scent so deer wouldn’t smell me,” says the 35-year-old bowhunter. “My brother Marcus told me about using it after he got busted by a buck a week before that morning I hunted the logging road trail.”
Bogumill explains that the full moon was so bright that morning he didn’t need a flashlight as he walked to his ladder stand before daybreak. His stand was overlooking a logging road that was like a funnel for traveling deer, as it was located near a place where some whitetails bedded.
“About 8 a.m. I used a commercial bleat can call, and within a couple minutes a giant buck stepped out of a grassy area into the logging trail and walked my way with his nose to the ground,” Bogumill recalls. “He came to my scent rope 20 yards from my stand. The wind was perfect for me, and when he was 20 yards away, I made my shot.”
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Bogumill used his 20-year old Hoyt “Ultra Sport” compound bow. He’s taken plenty of other deer with it and cherishes the bow like an old friend. His arrow passed through the buck, hitting its heart and both lungs. The 125-grain expandable 3-blade broadhead had devastating results.
“I could see blood pouring out of him as he ran. He went about 30 yards, hunched up, then just tipped over. When I got down from my stand and walked to him, the blood trail was about five feet wide.”
Bogumill phoned his wife Valerie to tell her the good news. Then he called his brother Marcus and his father John. The two met Mitch at their nearby hunting cabin, and they used an ATV to recover the huge buck. They then took the buck back to their cabin to clean it.
Field dressed, the 16-point buck weighed 200 pounds, Bogumill says, and he believes it was 5.5-years old. His taxidermist green scored the rack at 193 inches. He will have a shoulder mount made of the buck and will hang it seasonally in their hunting cabin as well as in his home.
“This whole thing is such a great family event, and none of it would have happened without help from my dad and brother,” Bogumill says. “It’s the biggest buck we’ve taken off our property. We sure hope some other bucks that are even bigger are in our future. Hopefully my daughters Abby and Aubrey will be part of that.”
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