The debate of whether he found the deer or whether the farmer found the deer is a whole other debate. I'm not going to try to argue two topics here. I'm addressing the fact that BuckMagnet is mad that Zaft is trying to make money from it. Charlie P made the comment before I could; if you have a problem with people making money from hunting then you have a problem with every "pro hunter" who has a tv show or makes videos, heck you should be mad a the bow companies for trying to make a profit off hunters. If you read the North American Whitetail magazine with Zaft's story in it, you'll see that he mentioned his Mathews bow. You don't think that he did that just because he wanted to do you? Heck no, Mathews is paying him to do it. So who is to blame there, the guy who says he shot the deer with his Brand X bow or the company who paid him to say it?

Ok here is the way I see it, if I go out and kill a world class buck it will surly be by luck or accident, much like this guy or Mike Beatty (who killed the monster non-typical). That being said, when you kill a deer of this caliber, you are immediatly bombarded by magazines, reporters, and probably many hunting product companies. So you have to decide which magazine to be in since 15 of them want the story and they are all offering you money. What do you do, not accept any money? Then you happen to shoot a Brand X bow and they call and offer you $5,000 to mention their name in every interview you do. What do you do? Then Knight & Hale finds out you used their call to call in the buck, and they want to give you $10,000 and a conrtact to be on their TV show telling your story and how you used thier call. What do you do? Look I can go on forever here. I think I know what most people including myself are going to do. I'm going to take my 15 min. of fame and be glad I got it. Times are tight and if I can legally and ethically make a large amount of money because of a huge deer that I've been blessed to kill, then I'm going to do it.

The replica mounts and all that seem like too much for me to stomach but hey I didn't kill the deer. HOWEVER if this really is all about the deer, why wouldn't you want museums and big sporting good stores to have a replica of this great animal for everyone to see?

I agree that hunting is everyone of those great things you named but it is also about money and if you don't think it is, then go to the SHOT show or the AMO show sometime, or go to BassPro or Cabellas. The guy is just cashing in on some good fortune that he has been blessed with. I bet if the truth was know Zaft hasn't solicted the money making opportunities that he has, I bet they knocked on his door. Just my opinion.