With the deer seasons out of the way now, it is time for the hot-stove league to go into session. Whether it was good or bad usually depends upon who managed to fill their deer license and who didn’t.

Sure to come up is always the hunter who bagged a “record buck” but didn’t get around to having it officially measured and registered. What is the biggest whitetail buck ever taken in Michigan, or another state?

Well, some years ago, an Ontario hunter stalking farmland near his home turned loose an arrow at a whopper whitetail. John Annett, who had taken several big bucks in earlier seasons, was astonished when he found what he had downed. Unfortunately, he didn’t take it to a provincial wildlife office until the next day. Even then, it was scaled at an amazing 432.2 pounds. Had it been weighed earlier, the 10pointer would have undoubtedly been heavier.

The late Ben East once interviewed a Maine hunter who claimed he shot a buck weighing 700 pounds. Main biologists disputed it, saying, “The heaviest weight for a whitetail deer that we recorded and recognize is 351 pounds dressed.”

In 1926, a Minnesota buck was supposed to have weighed 402 pounds dressed. Intact, it would have weighed more than Annett’s big buck. Wildlife officials in that state consider that record authentic.

Michigan’s heaviest buck on record was one killed near Trout Creek in Ontonagon County in 1919. That one weighed 354 pounds, dressed, or well over 400 pounds live weight. Another huge 8pointer was killed more recently in a car-deer crash near Manchester in Washtenaw County.

It scaled at 317 pounds, fielddressed with hind feet removed. A wildlife biologist estimated its age at 4.5 years.

Few of us will ever see, much less shoot, a record whitetail buck. We will have to be content with our own dream of just getting a good one. And if we do, who wouldn’t pardon us if we want to take a few photos of it later for bragging purposes? Right there is where a lot of hunters go wrong: they take terrible pictures!

G e t t i n g good photographs is just a matter of taking a little time to do it right. That means putting the trophy into some natural area similar to where it was shot. If the deer has been dressed out, turn the belly cavity away from the camera. If you are to be in the picture, too, get behind the buck and hold his head up so the rack shows.

A deer in the back of a pickup truck looks awful.

For goodness sake, don’t let the deer’s tongue hang out. It will look like you ran the animal to death and it was panting. Be respectful of this wonderful animal.