Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Rompola buck -- any news?

Mike:
I was not implying that you were one of the people who confuse evidence with proof. Actually, most of us do that from time to time on various issues. I think you and I are on the same page here. The link you provided pretty much sums it all up. Thanks again.

Steve

Back in the early 80's the company I worked for built a machine assembly plant in an industrial park on the backside of Traverse City Airport. I had to make a few trips up there to disassemble machines for shipping. I don't recall the area being condusive to holding big bucks.

I'd hear of big bucks being seen by UPS drivers, postal employees, auto-part delievery drivers, utility repairmen (phone/electric) etc. Can't say it didn't happen but I tend to think someone else would have caught a glimpse of a buck this size.

Steve-
I did not take your post that way at all. I just wanted to put out a blanket statement covering all my biased rantings and ramblings.

Here is a link to a pro-Rompola article (which I again should not post):

http://groups.msn.com/TheMichiganHuntingandFishingClub/thestory.msnw

The first thing I notice is that Mitch appears to use this synthetic deer lure year 'round. Some of these scrapes were 12 ft square throughout the year. There are 'scrapes' like that around Iowa as well. Except we call them mineral licks and salt licks. But around here they are considered illegal to hunt around.

Unrelated, I was thumbing through an old Rompola article in D&DH Sept. 2003. This article had all kinds of trophy deer Mitch had taken 'since' the controversial 1998 buck. Interestingly, the pictured bucks also had some scores shown. I thought Mitch did not care about scores anymore.

I thought Mitch wanted to just be left alone, which is why he signed the contract concerning the Hanson buck. How did Deer and Deer Hunting magazine get all that info on his (then) recently taken deer? For a recluse that did not care about what other people thought, the article sure looked like a grasp for some credibility.

The contradictions seem endless.

I could be wrong about the whole hoax, but I really hope I am not. This whole deal makes me appreciate Milo Hanson as the hunter that harvested the typical World Record Whitetail.

MW

Mike,

Mitch had endorsement deals set up ahead of time with CSS (bow), Buck Fever (the synthetic lure you mentioned), and ScentLok. None of those places have anything to do with him now, but all of them were fledgling companies at the time of the "kill"...

He WAS very interested in fame and scores but it made it more legendary for him to be a recluse.

Remember fellas, there has NEVER been a B&C buck taken from Grand Traverse county. So, all of a sudden it produces the largest typical of all time...I don't think so. AND, for all of you guys that say there is this secret cult of trophy hunters up there that doesn't enter their deer in the book...that is not how it is done up there ;~)

SteveO-
You mentioned in a past post that Craig Calderone got busted last November for jacklighting with a weapon.

It sounded like Rompola and Calderone had quite the rivalry. Almost like each would do whatever it took to get one up (whether legally or illegally). Calderone gets busted spotlighting, after wanting to pay to prove Rompola's buck was a hoax (by X-ray).

I have always heard that when something doesn't seem quite right, it usually isn't. No different than steroid use in athletes or getting caught not passing tech in racing.

If Rompola refuses to X-ray the rack, doesn't that kinda (almost) narrow it down to the possibility of fabricated horns? If the deer was pen-raised, why would he be afraid of the X-ray?

Just by watching the video, my farfetched 'theory' is that the mainbeam was lopped off about 3 inches from the base (on the deer that actually was shot). Then another couple of modified horns were attached from there. This would explain the freakish spread of the rack, as well as the wide distance between the brow tines (too far up main beam). Looking at the rack, the portion from the base burr to the brow tine is unusually dark, which would account for staining the area where the 12 pt rack extension was attached. This would make the skull plate appear normally attached as well.

Is there any evidence to date that would nullify my theory?

MW

Mike,

CC got busted in a November MANY years ago...he doesn't even hunt anymore, apparently the "business" of trophy bucks got to him. He has a whitetail museum and charges people to see his penned up bucks. One day I will have to stop in and ask a few questions.

They had a FIERCE feud going; exactly how you pictured it.

There are many theories on how the fraud was done; I don't pay that much attention anymore. But, like the car wreck, I just had to look here. It boggles my mind that people, after all the time Mitch has had to prove he was legitimate, actually still believe he is being truthful. He has not done one thing to prove his honesty and the folks that were greasing the wheels on the money train are LONG gone.

If I shot the world record whitetail, I would have no problem letting anybody x-ray it, dna test it, give me a lie detector test, whatever...but I would not have anything to hide. $10,000 to x-ray my deer...line 'em up, everybody can do their own ;~))

Regurgitated for overmax.

Last April 1st........they announced the Rompola buck is now the legitimate world record.

Happens every year......right around the same time.

Who is "they"?

"they" being the people who alwayss stir [bleep] on Aprril 1st

Interesting to see this churned up. I think he was an excellent bow hunter and if he shared what he knew, a lot could be learned. That said, I don't believe for a minute this buck was legitimate. Too many red flags that can't be explained.

I pulled out my MI record book and a few facts about him and the area (as of the #8 edition). He does still hold the largest bow killed typical whitetail in Michigan with a score of 181 7/8 in 1985, claimed to have been killed in...Grand Traverse County. In the 150 largest typicals killed by bow, only one other is from Grand Traverse County, the #87....from Rompola in 1982. The vast majority are from the southern lower peninsula. There is not one non-typical in the top 150 from there. In the all time scores in Grand Traverse, there are only four bucks scoring over 160, two of them from Rompola. And two that qualify for B/C, his 1985 buck and another that scored 174 5/8 killed in 1976 during firearm season. Defiantly not the place you'd think the world record would be lurking. I always thought this raised some good points:

http://216.92.51.156/rompolagate.html

http://216.92.51.156/rompolagate2.html

i read someplace Hansen paid Rompola not to have his buck scored and had him sign a form he would not have this buck scored while he was still alive, so when Mitch Rompola dies those buck antlers then can be legally scored by his son. maybe Rompala made enough quick money that he did feel it was a better deal for his family ? i have read a lot about the Rompola buck ,even a game warden from the area said that buck was taken legally, is not a farm deer and Mitch Rompola did shoot this huge buck with his bow. yes it is a true world record and maybe this way: this old bowhunter Mitch Rompola still gets plenty frame for killing this true giant record antlered buck with a bow ? here is another question > why would Hansen be so worried ? reason is because Hansen knows the Rompola buck is the true world record typical Whitetail buck.

Very eye opening article. Thanks for sharing

Read the link M1 Garand posted and then you'll stop posting your nonsense

OH ITS TRUE ! i don`t trust Hansen either seems strange Hansen paid Rompola to keep quiet ?

Even stranger is the fact that if he had a legitimate world record, he didn't tell him where to stick it because he could've cleaned up. $20,000 just to have it x rayed in addition to numerous endorsement deals for every piece of clothing and gear he used.

i wonder if that was part of the agreement Hansen had Rompola sign to get the money no nothing could be done which probably included x-rays ? Hansen was and is making alot of money every year off his world record buck so he probably gave Rompola a lot of money to keep quiet too ?

Here's my take on this whole mess, I am not a trophy hunter BTW, but I do follow rules .
Something is not a record unless it was done in a match, a race , or registered with the particular governing body , in this case the Boone and Crocket Society.

That bloody deer is NOT the world record unless that has happened , no matter how big it is .
Was this buck actually registered and in the book?
I'm betting no or it in fact would be recognized.
This whole mess stinks as bad as the the other big scandals put there people got caught at trying to make big bucks and a name for themselves - like Kirk Darner !
Cat

I dunno but I doubt it would even be close to what he would have made with endorsements and appearances.

Lived in Michigan quite some time. Most of it was when all this Rampola mess started. As far as I know it never was offically scored and did not get scored by a panel neither Pope and Young or Boone and Crocket which all "Worlds Records" need to be offical. Or Commemorative
Bucks of Michigan for that matter. How many inches would be lost due to shrinkage after all these years?