I got to ask a question, How come trophy animals may such a stir that other hunter always seem to try and discredit the hunter??? Rompala buck, Betty buck, And. Many other hunters I know have taken large trophy animals and something or some one has to deface it. Why??

man that is a good question, i'm always happy when someone kills a "good one" but someone always has to interject that the animal was killed "blah blah blah blah blah" all i can guess is jealousy, i have not and cannot imagine killin any deer illegally, whats the point. i don't tell anything about anything unless i see it first hand, like my grandfather taught me don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see, he also said keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut and you'll go far.., and i always thought he was crazy. makes me wish i'd paid better attention to everything he said

Envy

Well there have been many attempts for someone to pull a fast one...World Class Bucks are a million dollar bill. So a lot of attempts have been made to get rich quick by illeagle means. Such as stealing, breeding, poaching etc. Remember that monster out of Michigan a few years ago, or the controversy around the Zaft buck. Heck I still don't know what the final story was on that one.

I'm glad the stories are checked out and scrutinized, when they are world class. Now if your just beating up someone who shot a 160 class buck or something along those lines, i agree jealousy plays a huge role.

How could you forget to list the Zaft buck in there

Human nature?? One wants what one don't have. Who knows???

Rompola, Because there were too many questions not answered.

Beatty, Didn't hear much controversy concerning this deer.

Zaft, Because who knows if it was his arrow or the Coyotes that killed it.

Look at all the world class deer you see on sites like these without any controversy.

I think some controversy can be good, to a certain extent anyways. The last thing I'd want is some poacher to be holding the world record. But I agree, Envy is the reason most people seem to "want it to be fake". Jealous because they didn't shoot it themselves.

Forgive my ignorance, but what ARE the controversies with some of these big bucks?

I know the Rompola story somewhat: he refused to get it x-ray'd to verify that it was an actual rack and he claims to have taken multiple record-book deer from an area that doesn't produce that many. (Plus the odds of one person taking that many are astronomical) Anything else?

The Zaft buck was originally scored as a typical, but then the right G3 was ruled non-typical so it dropped almost 30 points. Anything else there? I hadn't heard any problems/concerns about how it was taken.

I had hear that the huge non-typical buck shot in Albia (I think) Iowa by the youth during muzzleloader season was alleged by some to have been taken before legal hours.

Any others?

CJ, Zaft never found the buck,a farmer did and called him it had been hammered by Coyotes.

There were actually two very differnt stories published about the hunt, shot and recovery of this buck,but that's for another thread.

Jealousy! I think we all feel that "wish I had shot that one" when we read a story about the Big One or see a picture with someone else next to the monster buck. Most of us are reasonable enough to not try to discredit the lucky hunter though.