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January 13, 2000
Rompola gives up battle for largest buck
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By JEFF PEEK and CARI NOGA
Record-Eagle staff writers
TRAVERSE CITY - Mitch Rompola is still bucking the system.
This time around, he has put it into writing.
Rompola, the Traverse City bow hunter who claims to have bagged a world-record buck near his home on Nov. 13, 1998 but has never had it scored by official record keepers, has signed a contract with Arkansas County Seed Co. promising not to pursue official recognition of the buck as the world's largest.
Arkansas County Seed Co., which produces a deer-baiting product and has a promotional deal with current record-holder Milo Hanson of Canada, instigated the contract.
"We lost money because of Rompola's claims," John W. Butler, president of Arkansas County Seed Co., said on Wednesday. "We kept waiting for him to get it scored, but he refused to make it official. We couldn't sit around and wait any longer for that to happen.
"We had to do something."
According to Butler, work on the contract - which prevents Rompola from having his buck officially scored unless another hunter breaks Hanson's record - began in May, and Rompola signed it in November in the presence of Traverse City attorney David Stowe.
Stowe said he could not comment on the contract. Rompola, 51, has an unlisted number and refuses to speak to the media.
Butler said Rompola's willingness to sign the contact "speaks for itself." In exchange for Rompola's signature, Arkansas County Seed Co. agreed not to subpoena Rompola's rack and have it measured and x-rayed.
"We talked about going to court, but if you've ever been to court you don't want to go back," Butler said. "This was a better way for everyone."
Hanson, 54, said Wednesday he is still surprised that Rompola agreed to the deal.
"I never would have signed it," Hanson said from his home in Biggar, Saskatchewan. "If he signed it, then something is terribly wrong.
"The average hunter would say, 'Go to heck.' The fact that he didn't say that is very strange."
Ken Kreh, a friend of Rompola's who owns a company in Manton that manufacturers synthetic deer scent, said Rompola's reasoning is simple.
"He wasn't interested in getting involved with the rigmarole," Kreh said, referring to Rompola's past disagreements with the Boone & Crockett Club, the official record-keeper of trophy animals in North America. "The politics in the organization is something Mitch became fed up with years ago.
"This is his way of severing ties with those people," Kreh added. "He knows he's taken the largest, and that's all that matters to him. It's his way of thumbing his nose."
Shortly after Rompola shot the buck in 1998, he said it dressed out at 263 pounds and had an estimated field weight of 300 pounds. The buck scored 218 5/8 points on the Boone & Crockett scale, Rompola said, easily beating Hanson, who dropped a buck in 1993 that measured 213 1/8.
According to Rompola, a Michigan scorer for Boone & Crockett measured the buck and confirmed it was a record-setter. But Rompola never submitted the measurements to the Boone & Crockett Panel.
By doing so, Rompola is missing out on a substantial amount of promotional money.
Prior to Rompola's claims, Hanson said he earned up to $1,000 a day traveling the country and appearing at outdoor shows.
He also sold prints of his deer for $189. But sales screeched to a halt when Rampola made his announcement.
Hanson hopes the contract will put an end to the controversy, which, he suggests, may be the real reason Rompola signed it.
"I guess he's looking for closure, and this gave him the opportunity," Hanson said. "I sure don't know how else to explain it."
Kreh said Rompola stands by his story, contract or no contract.
"Mitch doesn't want to cause Milo Hanson or anyone else any problems. That's why he signed it," he said. "It has nothing to do with whether or not the buck is real."