Bill Rushford's whole family turned out for this picture he snapped, including (front row, from left) his wife, Shelly, his daughter, Marrisa, and son, Brett; (back) his sister, Marcia Beaudoin, his father-in-law, Bob Villemure, and his mother, Joan Weaver. (Rushford family photographs) Bill Rushford, 38, a counselor at Newberry Correctional Facility, couldn't believe what he had in the sights of his Remington 7mm magnum just 18 yards away.

Holding the firearm steady, aiming through a closed Plexiglas window in his blind because he didn't want to alert his quarry by opening it, he squeezed the trigger, and minutes later found the deer dead about 80 yards away.

"Big buck" doesn't do it justice.

When all the measurements were taken, Mr. Rushford had bagged not only a 15 pointer, but one of the biggest whitetails taken in Michigan this year.

A preliminary gross score placed the animal's antler measurement at 197-1/2 inches. Another measurement, called a net, after deductions, brought it down to 192-5/8 on the Boone and Crockett nontypical scale. (The nontypical scale, which is less than the more perfect typical scale, accounts for asymmetries and irregularities, such as tines growing down.)

Hunter Bill Rushford with his prize. A final measurement will be taken January 26 when the antlers have dried and shrunk a little, exactly 60 days after the deer was killed November 26.

The deer weighed 212 pounds.

The buck is probably the second largest deer harvested in Luce County. Commemorative Bucks of Michigan says the largest deer killed in Michigan was shot by Troy Stephens in 1996. It measured 198 inches.

"It's a big deer, but it's not the biggest in Michigan," Mr. Rushford said of his deer, "but it's the biggest I've got. I'm thinking it's gonna be up there pretty high."

Mr. Rushford first spotted his buck on a motion activated trail camera that recorded it following a doe into a bait pile November 23 near one of his five blinds between Newberry and Curtis. He won't say which blind.

He returned to the same blind November 24, but didn't see the buck in person until November 26, through the closed window of his blind.

"It's a crapshoot," he said of his chances of seeing the buck back at the same place.

When the buck came in, Mr. Rushford made an instant decision to shoot it through the Plexiglas window of his blind, rather than risk scaring the deer by opening the window.

"My heart was pounding," he recalled. "My ears were ringing from touching off the gun inside the blind."

"He wandered off about 80 yards. I followed a trail of blood. When I found him, his head was wedged up into the trees. I was trying to figure out how to lift the antlers out of the trees without breaking them. I set my gun down. It took me a minute to calm down."

He counted points, took off his jacket and vest, and covered the deer to ward off coyotes with the garments' human scent, tagged the animal, and called his wife, Shelly, on his cell phone.

No answer.

He got through to his sister, Marcia Beaudoin, who said help was on the way.

Finally, most of the whole family came out, including Mr. Rushford's father-in-law, Bob Villemure, his mother, Joan Weaver, Shelly, Marcia, his 14-year-old son, Brett, and 13-year-old daughter, Marissa. Another daughter, Jamie, 17, was at basketball practice and missed the action.

The rest of the family hauled the buck to Mr. Villemure's truck, then took it home.

Mr. Rushford's deer easily won the grand prize in Mackinaw Outfitters "Battle of the Bridge" contest between Upper Peninsula and Lower Michigan hunters, though Mr. Rushford didn't claim it.

The award was a full mount of his deer, which Mr. Rushford thought was a bit much.

"I don't have room in my house for a full body mount," he said. Instead, he'll have a shoulder mount by Curtis taxidermist Rocky Streeter after the antlers are measured officially and finally in January.