200" KY Buck in Velvet
By Patrick Dunning
More important than Steve McMichael harvesting BTR’s fifth largest velvet buck in Kentucky with a compound bow, was the fact that he got to share the hunt with his stepson Acts, a true deer magnet.
“We nicknamed him Lucky,” Steve told Buckmasters. “Wherever he’s at, the deer are there.”
Steve says this 24-pointer frequented his 10-acre farm in Ohio County for two summers but would always disappear prior to the state’s archery opener. He gained permission to hunt an adjoining 65 acres and jumped the deer one morning while scouting in August.
“I’m walking up the creek and encountered him at 80 yards before the season started, but now I had a good idea where he was bedding. There’s a creek that runs from the neighbor’s piece all the way back to my property and I knew he was using that creek as a travel corridor.”
With Kentucky’s 2023 bow season under way, Steve hung a lock-on and ladder stand 200 yards in front of his house overlooking a thicket and yearlong creek, somewhat disregarding his target buck for the time being and intended on Acts taking a small buck or doe for his first bow kill.
After school on Sept. 6, Steve and Acts hit the woods for their first sit of the year together, and the 11-year-old’s first bow sit ever, but didn’t see any deer activity the entire afternoon.
“We didn’t see anything all night. Five minutes before dark Acts got a notification from one of our trail cameras and says, ‘Burley is on the way,’” Steve recalled. “I got ready, and sure enough he came out of the creek 15 yards from us, quartered to me and it happened so fast. I pulled back and let one fly.”
Steve’s 11x13 holds nearly 50 inches of irregular points and matching 23-inch main beams. Buckmasters master scorer Ben Gore measured this wall ornament 206 5/8 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records.
“To get this deer early season and have Acts with me was amazing, I’ve hunted with him since he was 6 years old. In some ways he knows more about hunting than me because of his love for it.”
You can read the full story of Steve’s velvet-clad stud from the Bluegrass State in a future issue of Buckmasters Magazine.