- Hey everybody, welcome to "Michigan Out-of-Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We are excited to bring you Big Buck Night East on this week's show from Outdoorama down there in Novi.

We had a ton of fun, some big deer, some big stories.

Make sure you stay tuned, I'm Jimmy Gretzinger, It's time for "Michigan Out-of-Doors."

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(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Jay's Sporting Goods.

Trust the tradition.

(gentle music) - Well, how is everybody doing tonight?

(audience chatter indistinctly) Good.

(audience cheers) Well thank you for being here.

We're gonna get started with mister.

All right, we're gonna get things started with Cody Pohl.

This scored 163 and 3/8.

It's a 12-point shot with a .350 Legend, Clinton County.

Cody, let's hear the story.

- So I was just getting out of school.

It was a perfect day out, northeast wind, three miles per hour.

Sun was out and shining.

So I was like, all right, we'll go hunting, chase them.

- And what part of the season?

- November 19th, so firearm.

And I get out there, set up.

Within a half hour of getting out there, a whole bunch of doe started coming out and, all right, they're gonna be, he's coming.

And eventually they started working their way out in the field.

And by the time they're about halfway to midfield, he steps up.

- And how far was he at that point?

- 250, I would say.

And time goes by the doe start making their way towards the middle, and now I got about a group of 10 in front of me, like 10 yards and they're right on my win.

And he's chilling behind a little bit in the middle.

And now, the doe is skeptical on my win.

And I was like, all right.

He sees him, he's a little on edge, so I was thinking, they're gonna run, he's gonna run, hunt's over.

But then it was like, five minutes go by, I have a little spike come running across from behind me and he starts chasing the group of doe in front of me.

They head towards the rest of the doe in the middle of the field.

And then I look at him and he keeps on moving towards the middle.

So, all right, here we go.

It's going, so I open my window, and by the time he gets to the middle and stops, I range him at 150 and I pull my gun up.

By the time I'm aimed on him, there's a doe behind him.

So I couldn't shoot.

- So you were watching this thing for quite a while?

- Yeah, for about a half hour, I'd say.

And then once she got out from behind him, I slowly squeezed the trigger and the rest is that.

- And did he go right down or take off or?

- He ran about 30 yards with his back legs dragging, so.

- And could you see, I mean, you'd watched him for so long and you could tell he was pretty big or did you have to like not look at the antlers?

- I watched him for a long time, just staring at the rack, but I was very shaky 'cause- - Were you shaky before and after the shot?

- Yeah, yeah.

The second he stepped out, I was shaking.

- Travis, this is your birthday buck, I hear.

- It is.

October 8th turned out to be my lucky day this year.

I have never had an opportunity at a buck or anything that I, you know, thought about taking a shot at on my birthday or even been lucky that early in the season.

Usually I'm late gun season trying to put it all together and get my boys their deer killed and tagged and everything.

So this guy showed up on camera this year.

Early that morning, I knew he was in the lot.

We caught him coming out of the corn.

And the boys told me when I got out of work, they said, "You gotta go after him.

He might still be in there."

You know, and you think, gosh, that was 12, 14 hours ago.

The chances of that, who knows?

But the north wind put me in a stand a little bit further off the trail than I wanted to be.

So I had to grab the crossbow that night, just a shot like this, not gonna pass up the opportunity if it were to ever come together.

And it didn't.

He was still in there an hour before dark even.

He came in and gave me a 50-yard shot that I was fortunate enough to capitalize on.

- Oh my goodness, all right, so you let a arrow or bolt fly, what happens next?

- I started shaking like I have never shook before.

I called my oldest son.

I was able to keep the scope on him and catch, you know, the first maybe 10, 15 yards of his run.

And I could see the blood trail just flying.

Not to sound too confident, but I knew it was over.

I called him and said that I had got him, and I could hear the mad dash in the background.

Get your lights, get your boots, everybody, let's go.

So they met me at my parents and we were able to go out and take the track together, all the kids and I and my wife.

And it was a night in the woods for all of us.

- All right, this is Bill Hoffman.

This was shot in Hillsdale County, 164 and 5/8.

It's a 14-point shot with a .450.

And Bill, let's hear the story of this nice buck.

- Well, I believe you gotta be in the right place at the right time with a lady locked on your side.

And obviously she showed up for me.

Opening day, my grandson's has his birthday, and first thing opening morning, he got his first deer, a buck.

So I think, ah, this is a great season no matter what, you know, it's very happy for him.

And then the next morning, guess what?

Here we go.

Saw four-point first thing in the morning.

Some does and fawns after that.

At about 8:30, saw a little movement in the woods behind me.

And a few minutes later on the edge of the wood, a doe comes walking by.

And I knew something was following her.

So I started looking behind her.

And in the brushing grass there, I saw four points.

I said, well, in our camp, we have a four-point rule on the side.

And I says, well, I think he fits that.

So I just started looking for the shoulder at that point.

And as soon as I got a clear shot at the shoulder, I took it.

I'd had no idea he was this big.

- Oh, really?

So you never got a good look at him?

- Never got a good look at him.

It's probably, I'd have been shaking like that gentleman just said if I had.

So I got this, got his shoulder on the scope, pulled the trigger, and he kind of dropped and went to his right a little bit.

So I knew I hit him good.

And I waited about an hour and I walked down to where he was and I'm colorblind.

So guess what?

It's hard to see blood.

So I'm sitting there looking for blood.

I can find it, but it takes me a lot longer.

And my buddy's grandson pulled up on a four wheeler and he says, "Did you hit him?"

I said, "Yeah, I'm just trying to find blood."

He jumps off, walks right over and said, "Here's blood."

Which, thank God he did.

And we went a few steps, found some more blood.

About 30, 35 yards, there he was.

- Wow, and what was it like walking up on him?

- We just started jumping up and down, hugging and high fiving and everything like that.

And just, I said, "I can't believe this, pinch me."

This just can't be, so it was pretty exciting.

- [Host] Let's start with Ryan first.

So tell us what happened out there in archery season.

- Well, waited for the right wind.

First cooler day of the season.

October 7th, slipped out after work, had watched a few smaller bucks in the bean field.

About 20 minutes before dark, worked his way out, worked his way in front of me, about 20 yards.

Shot him, 100 yards, collapsed in the field, so went right down.

- [Host] Is this your biggest buck?

- One of them, yep.

- [Host] All right.

Now how long have you guys been hunting together?

- Probably about- - Yeah, eight years, eight, nine years.

- All right, so and did he teach you everything you know about hunting?

- I wouldn't say that.

I started with my dad and my family.

- Okay, so November 22nd, we're in firearm season.

You're hunting the same piece of property?

- Yep, just across the street.

- Okay, so tell us how it all panned out.

Morning or evening hunt?

- It was an evening hunt.

I had went out in the morning.

It was a Saturday.

It was a good hunt and I had decided, I went for a sneak and I had come across an area we hadn't really hunted that much for the season.

And he had a bunch of big buck rubs on some trees.

So I had just kind of located an area where I knew I wanted to sit that night.

And as I was walking in, I seen him with a doe across the field and they were just frozen, just standing there.

So I was able to get my scope up on him and, like, that's him.

Oh my gosh, that's him.

So I went out a couple hours later and I built a ground stick blind and- - Oh, so you snuck in, saw him, and then slithered back out?

And then went in and built a ground blind.

This is amazing, okay, go ahead.

- It was amazing.

Best day of my life.

Yeah so, and oh my gosh, sure enough, right before dark, he followed her in the two track, about 30 yards in front of me and I was able to take the shot.

Yep, and he walked about five steps and crashed and laid right in front of me.

- Oh my goodness.

Now is this the biggest buck you've ever shot?

- Oh yeah.

And like my dad says, probably I will ever shoot.

- All right, this is Joe Judy.

This buck scored 166 5/8.

It's an 11-point shot with a compound bow, Calhoun County.

Joe, let's hear the story, this monster buck.

- Yeah, it was November 13th.

Me and my dad decided to go in at 11:00 AM and hunt till dark.

We're gonna set like 50 yards from apart on each side of this pipeline thicket.

We didn't see nothing until like 130.

I heard my dad whistle, so I turn around and this thing's running through the bean field or cut bean field towards us.

And then it gets to the edge of the woods, starts making a scrape, and we hit it with a grunt.

And like, 25 minutes go by, he disappeared.

I finally look up and he's coming straight towards us.

- Are you sitting with your dad?

- Like 50 yards apart on each side of this pipeline thicket.

He was coming and then there's like a V in this trail.

And if he would've turned right, he would've been gone.

But he decided to turn left, come by 10 yards, shot it with a G5 Megameat, put a big ole hole on it.

He ran 30.

He ran 35 yards and died.

- Wow.

So I mean, could your dad see that all happen?

- Yeah, my dad witnessed it, it was crazy.

We were both freaking out.

- Were you sitting on the ground or in a tree stand?

- I was in a hang on.

- A hang on.

Well, you're like hardcore.

So walk me through after.

Did you guys both, he saw it get shot or?

- Yeah, I look over at my dad after I shoot it and we're freaking out throwing our hands up in the air and I look over and I watched it fall over.

And I call him, I'm like, "I watched it go down."

And he's like, "No way."

And then we both get down and walk up to it, freaking out.

- That's awesome.

Did you go drive him around to some buddy's houses afterwards?

- Yeah.

My buddy Nick came over and then we scored it.

My neighbor Tom, he came over and scored it too.

It was pretty cool.

- Biggest buck so far?

- [Joe] Oh yeah, by a mile.

- So the next morning, east wind, I was like, dang it, I'm gonna hunt this blind.

I haven't hunt in two years.

My brother and I ignored it to clean it out 'cause the tree had fell on it.

I ended up climbing up that tree.

I was harnessed in, took the harness off, harnessed back in.

At dark, I was cutting tree lines down.

First light, I look, here comes the doe.

I look behind it, I go, oh shoot, here's big brow.

So I'm like, all right, what I'm gonna do?

Starts coming, followed me exactly the way I was coming in.

It went kiddie corner, kind of was going behind me.

It was about 20 yards, I had a shot.

I decided not to shoot it.

My gut told me it wasn't a shot I wanna take.

If he'd have kept following that doe, I never got a shot.

He did a 180.

I got the crossbow back down, put it on it, couldn't see it.

Foggy morning, condensation.

I rode my hand real quick on the site.

I get it back down.

Well I didn't do the other side of it, so it was still slightly foggy.

And I grunted, got him to stop, he was 20 yards, let it go, and I heard just crashing.

Couldn't see it, couldn't see it.

And the weirdest thing, I was totally calm.

I see a doe, I shake.

For some reason I was totally calm, I waited an hour, text everybody I knew, did a video.

I get down, looked at it, no blood.

And I was like, shoot, couldn't find an arrow.

And all of a sudden I seen gushing both sides.

I go out on about 100 yards.

I'm like, this thing has to be dead right here.

And I lost blood.

Couldn't see any blood, looking around.

I was like, where'd it go?

I just had this logged.

I looked back like over my shoulder.

He had like, did like a 90.

He went behind this log, pile of logs, and I'm like, oh boy, there he is.

And he was bigger than I thought he was.

- So how'd that feel to put your hands on him after all that?

- Something else, it was just like, to me it's like property management, it's everything.

So developing a property for like 10 years and getting this, man, so much.

- All right.

This is Jesse Keyes.

And this was shot with a crossbow in Oakland County public land.

172 7/8, yes.

Give him a round of applause for that.

13 points.

(audience applauds) And Jesse, tell me the story, and I know you said your boy is up here because he helped you drag it and so he deserves extra kudos for that.

But yeah, tell us about the hunt and do you hunt public land a lot?

- It's pretty much all I do, hunt.

Got some private that we can, but mainly state, so.

- So tell me, this was bow season, what happened?

- October 12th, spoke with Jax the night before.

"Oh dad, I'm going hunting with you in the morning, going hunting with you in the morning."

Typical Jax, called him eight times, didn't respond.

Dad's like, "Oh, I'm gonna go back in.

I'm gonna go back to bed."

So I go back in, about five, 10 minutes later, I look over at my wife.

I said, you know what, I'm up, I'm going to the woods.

So I ended up going out.

Got to my normal tree that I sit, sat there, started hearing something rustling around, look out in front of me, I got a buck out in front of me.

Sitting in the tree here, noise right below me.

And I'm like, look down.

I jump, he jumps.

- It was this one?

- It was this one, him.

He was literally right underneath me.

I sit 25, 30 feet in a tree on a climber.

Went back about 15, 20 yards behind me.

Worked his way to my right at about 12 yards.

He ended up getting back out where the first buck was.

It was 27 yards when I shot him.

I didn't know, you know what just happened.

I waited an hour.

I called him, I said, "Hey, I might have just shot a deer."

You know, I got down, I'm looking.

- Is he still sleeping?

- Oh hell yeah.

(audience laughs) Oh yeah, but I get down and I look, I'm not finding the bolt, I'm not finding blood.

I'm like, oh dude and my heart sinks.

So I'm like, okay, I missed him.

Go back to my tree range out again.

I'm like, I've shot that shot a million times in that spot.

And look out there again, I'm like, I was looking in the wrong spot.

I found the blood.

I was like, dude, I'm like, we're good.

There's blood.

He's like, "All right, what'd you shoot?"

I said, "I don't know," 'cause- - The biggest buck in the county.

- Whenever I shot him, all I saw was this right here.

I didn't even see the rack.

My first reaction, I look at the rack, I screw up.

So I saw the side of his brow or the side of his main beam.

And I'm like, dude, that's a shooting buck.

- I skipped church that morning.

Believe me, my pastor gave me grief.

I tried to get my wife to go with me.

'cause I told her, I said, "I'll wait till three."

I don't want to go, I don't want to go.

So here's me storming out.

Throwing my little school kid fit.

- Was this a morning hunt?

- This was at noon.

Well, she's on me all the time I never relax.

So I just headed out to the blind at noon.

And I sat there playing games on my phone.

Bored, you know, thinking of all the stuff that I should be doing.

And all of a sudden, it pops into my head, what my pastor said that Wednesday night.

"You know, only takes an hour, an hour and a half to read the book of Hebrews."

Eh, whatever.

So I keep playing games.

I can't get this thought out of my head.

So finally I give in, I turn the games off.

And I read the first three books, the first three chapters of Hebrews.

And I laid my phone down.

And had some quiet time and I just sat there looking around and I'm overlooking 100-acre corn stubble field.

That is the only thing that is there.

And I just happened to look over and all I seen was a deer coming up a little draw up through the cornfield.

And I ranged him at 150.

And when he hit 125, I shot him.

I had no clue that the deer even existed.

- [Host] Okay, and what happened with this one?

Were you guys chasing this buck?

Did you know it was in there?

- Nope, we had never seen this buck before.

We had never seen it on the trail cam.

There were a couple bigger ones that we were- - Bigger than this one?

- No, well, no, not bigger than this one.

There were a couple big ones that we were hoping to get.

But, so we had never seen this one.

My husband and I, who is my hunting partner, we went out for an evening hunt and we were maybe sitting there for an hour and a half.

I was in the tree stand and he was in on the opposite side of the field in a ground blind.

And a buck came out and it was, I don't know, maybe a seven, eight-point.

And my husband and I were kind of texting back and forth saying, you know, being like, are we gonna take it?

If it comes to one of us, what are we gonna do?

And then while we were kind of texting, this guy came out and there was no debating.

- And how far was he at that point?

- So when he kind of walked out and then kind of stopped, I put my range finder on him, although I could barely hold it steady 'cause I could see how big it was.

And that was about 48 yards.

Yep, so at that point, he was facing me, so I knew that wasn't gonna be a good shot.

And him and the other buck were kind of standing around, and then they were kind of, looked like they were putting their heads down a little bit, and I was getting nervous that they were gonna spook each other off.

So then at that point, he kind of took a couple steps to the right and ended up like quartering towards me.

And I knew at that point that that was probably gonna be my best shot before he maybe spooked into the woods.

So I took the shot and I hit him and he kind of jumped and ran back into the woods.

- Could you tell it was a good shot or not too?

- It wasn't the best shot, but it did the trick, right?

So at that point, my husband starts texting me like, "Good job, you did great.

Like, we're gonna get it," and stuff like that.

And I thought I was gonna pass out.

(laughs) - It was really a quick story.

I mean, I got in, midday after work.

I didn't see anything really the whole day.

I was getting out, I was actually going to dinner with my lovely girlfriend.

She's over there in the seat.

And in the field that I hunt, there's big swale, like you can't really see into it.

And I had cut a trail there to get, you know, in and out of my stand easy.

And when I was walking out, I could hear like the distinct like click of antlers.

And I was like, there's a buck in there.

- So this is before dark?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was walking out, but.

And for some reason, something just told me, I was like, you know, throw an arrow on.

You never know what's gonna happen.

If there's one thing I can tell all y'all, you never know what's gonna happen.

It's crazy.

But yeah, I threw an arrow on and I had seen a doe run on the trail, like right on the trail where I was at.

And I was like, oh man.

And I could hear him stepping and I was like, he's coming, he's coming.

So I pulled my bow back, and sure enough he stepped right on out.

All I could see was like his, just the front of his shoulder and he stopped.

He turned and looked right at me and that was it.

He was done.

- How far away were you from him?

You're on foot, right?

- Yeah, I don't know, seven yards is what I keep saying.

It had to have been seven yards.

It was like right there.

- Had you seen him before?

- The neighbor actually had sent us a picture the night before and he had just cut his cornfield.

So I knew there was a good chance that he'd be betting in them thick weeds.

So yeah, I don't know.

It was so quick.

I wish I would've seen him, you know, been able to, you know, a lot longer, but I don't know if I'd have hit him.

- You didn't have time for buck fever, right?

- No, I didn't have time at all.

It was quite the experience.

- Okay, so what happened after you let the arrow fly?

- Oh, I melted.

I fell to the floor.

I don't know, I called my dad.

That was the first thing I did, I called my dad.

I was like, "Dad, you're never gonna believe it."

You know, he's always my first call.

And yeah, I called him and he was like, "All right, all right, All right, I'm coming, I'm coming."

Yeah, I actually had to go pick him up.

And then I picked him up, went back to the field and we were looking, looking, looking.

Finally he found blood and we found him like, I don't know, he made it to the edge of the field.

It had to been like 100 yards.

- [Narrator] Thanks to everyone that was a part of Big Buck Night East.

Stay tuned next week for Big Buck Night West from Grand Rapids at the Ultimate Sports Show.

- [Narrator] "Michigan Out-of-Doors" is presented by.

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(cheerful music) ♪ When I want to fire away ♪ The dreams stays with me (gentle music)