Larry Huffman was a big detractor of Mitch after he first got the deer and wrote an article discussing why the rack had to be a fake.
Two of his biggest arguements were:
1) that the deer had been taken from an area that doesn't typically produce trophy deer, so therefore, its unlikely Mitch could harvest a WR there.
and
2) the droopy ears were proof that the cape from a large deer had been sewed around the rack.
Both arguements are extremely weak. Large deer are frequently harvested from areas previously not known for taking large deer. It happened a few years ago here in Wisconsin, where the state's all-time #2 typical (which is now second only to the Jordan Buck, which was the WR for decades) was taken in Kenosha County. As for the droopy ears, take a look at the trophy photos right here on this site. Probably 30% of all photos have deer that have just as droopy of ears as the Rompola Buck. I have a photo of one of my trophies that does that.
Anyway, when someone tries to put such flimsy statements up as evidence, one has to wonder just what axe they are trying to grind.
The bottom line is that as bowhunters, we generally take to the woods alone. The solitary nature of our whitetail pursuits means that all experiences we each have afield are unique only to us. And the world must rely on our word to know the whole truth. I for one hope that my word of what happened to me while hunting is accepted, and for that, I generally take another man's word for it.
I'm not saying its not appropriate to question something when things don't add up, but to rip down a man's claims with unsubstantiated evidence is just plain wrong.
There are lessons to be learned from the Mitch Rompola story. They can be broken into two parts. First, if you are a man of character and your actions in all your pursuits reflect that, people will respect you and accept your claims much more easily. And second, I have to say that I personally gained some knowledge about hunting big bucks from reading the story about how Mitch bagged this big buck. That knowledge helped me take a few dandies myself. So the bottom line for me was not "is this buck real or not" (I tend to give the man the benefit of the doubt and say it is), but what could I take from this story to help improve me in my life.
Life is about improving ourselves and growing. I for one can say I'm better off from hearing about Mr. Rompola, and for that, I am grateful.
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