The World Record One Year Later... The Ups and Downs of Fame

By Bill Winke

Many deer hunters fantasize about shooting the world record. They think about the adrenaline rush that comes when they first see the deer, the feeling of tension that grows in their chests as the buck approaches and the relief that floods through them when the bullet or arrow finds the mark. The next feeling they sense in their imagined monster buck hunt is one of euphoria – a sense of overwhelming satisfaction at a job well done.

If they even think that far, they may next imagine how shocked their buddies and relatives will be when they bring the buck home or back to camp. The dream is a good one up to this point, and it is exactly how the emotions and actions related to the real world record occurred. But that’s where the dream and reality kind of take a split in the road. The dream continues with everyone adoring the deer and admiring the persistence of the hunter who took it. Maybe the dream even includes some kind of fuzzy life-changing moment where life hands them a bag of cash. The dreamer isn’t exactly sure about how he’s going to get it, but he is sure the bag of cash is out there waiting.

Reality, on the other hand, is not quite as accommodating. It is a lot more like a slap in the face. Reality says, “You shot the world record; you must have broken some kind of law. If you didn’t, I’m going to say that you did anyway. There is no such thing as a free lunch, buddy. You want a bag of cash; get out there and run yourself ragged all over the country for a couple of years to every imaginable deer show. Then you’ll have your money. Forget the garbage bag when you come to pick it up; bring a lunch sack. Better yet, maybe I can get you to do most of this for free. After all, you are now the ambassador of our sport. You owe it to every deer hunter who never shot a buck like this.”

As you can see, shooting the world record is awesome until you actually get it officially scored. Then your time no longer becomes your own, and you walk around with a target on your back for every jealous hunter to shoot at.

Recapping the Effort

By now many of you know the story of how teenager Tony Lovstuen tagged the “hunter-shot” world record with a Knight muzzleloader in late September 2003. It is now over a year and a half later and most of the commotion has died down. It is a good time to hear from all the parties involved to see how — or if — it changed anyone’s life.

Three cousins hunted the buck hard for three years: Doug Lovstuen (Tony’s dad), Steve Angran and Mark Murphy. Tony was the one who shot the buck, but the real effort of scouting and hunting the buck fell on the shoulders of the adult members of the party. They put their hearts and souls into hunting the buck. In fact, it consumed much of their lives and nearly all of their conversation when the cousins met for family events.

They went the extra mile and did everything legally possible to tag the buck, including planting Imperial Whitetail Clover. They also used trail cameras to methodically narrow down the buck’s home range, then his core area, and finally his daily patterns. Yet even with all of this effort and knowledge, the buck was no easy mark.

The Rumor Mill

After Tony killed the buck, the rumor mill kicked into high gear. There were literally dozens of stories about how the family took the buck illegally.

“That was by far the worst part,” Tony said. “It was hard not to take it personally because they were coming after you and questioning your stories and even trying to make you out to be a poacher.”

It was interesting how the people telling the stories even offered minute details about each offense – all of them wrong, of course. Doug Lovstuen says the funniest incident he remembers was shortly after Tony shot the buck. A fellow stopped by the Lovstuen home to see the buck along with a few of his friends. It was a daily event during the first ten days after the harvest for 20 to 30 people to show up to see the rack, so having a group of visitors in the garage was no big deal.

Well, on this day, the rack was lying right on the garage floor and the fellow had been there for at least 20 minutes, milling about. Finally, he walked up to Doug and kind of whispered, “I heard the DNR confiscated the rack. Is that true?” Doug was stunned. The antlers were lying right there, and everyone was looking at them; but he realized the guy was serious so he said, “Yea, but they are just letting us keep it here to show people.” The guy probably still thinks Doug was serious.

Such was life shortly after the kill. In fact, Doug was so busy for the first month fielding questions, talking to media and showing the rack to anyone who asked to see it — at any time of the day — that he finally had to put a stop to it.

Doing the Shows

After the media circus began to die down in March of 2004, the show season hit full stride. The buck, and usually Doug and Tony (sometimes Steve and occasionally Mark), attended roughly 20 outdoor shows and banquets during the spring, summer and fall of 2004. It got to the point where Doug finally burned out and stopped going.

“It was great for a while, and the people we met were genuinely happy for us and thrilled we were there to show them the buck,” he said. “Almost all of the experiences we had doing the shows were good ones.”

Tony remembered one weird event though. “We were showing the buck at Gamemaster (a big sporting goods store in Illinois) when a guy came up to me pretty mad,” Tony said. “He was mad that we shot the buck because it was going to drive land prices up. We didn’t even shoot the deer in Illinois. He ranted and raved at me for a while and then walked away.”

“One guy came up to me at the ATA Show as mad as a hornet,” said Doug. “He couldn’t believe that Tony wasn’t there. It was wrestling season, and the show would have required Tony to miss school and several practices, but the guy didn’t care about that.

“Normally we got paid an appearance fee for bringing the buck and Tony to these shows, but we did some shows for free,” said Doug. “Most of these were turkey or deer banquets, churches or local events. That was fine at first, but people sometimes took advantage of our generosity – even show promoters at for-profit events. A few tried to make us feel guilty if we didn’t take a weekend out of our lives and attend their show at our own expense in order to ‘honor the deer.’ We did a few of these but finally we had to put our foot down so we could get our lives back.”

Now the shows are mostly in the rearview mirror. People have seen the deer and the family just wants to get back to a normal life without having to run all over the country. They are saying “no” a lot more now. Of course, that also means no more money is coming in. The traveling is the part where those who have a world-record deer can profit if they market the animal aggressively and are willing to do the time. It is demanding work. In Tony’s words, “Any show longer than one day gets old fast.”

There is no free lunch. To make any real long-term money on a world record buck you have to be willing to turn it into a job. More than likely, you won’t like that kind of work – flying or driving all over the place and staying in hotels – for more than a few months. Once you’ve done it a few times it starts to get old. The fun fades, so you stop doing it. The fantasy meets reality, and there goes the bag full of cash.

Would You Do It Again?

The question I most wanted to know was if the men, including Tony, would again pour their heart and soul into hunting a huge buck given the opportunity.

Doug answered first.

“I wouldn’t put as much time into hunting any buck as I did in hunting and scouting that deer,” he said. “I have a business and a family, and it takes a lot of time to set and monitor the trail cameras. I don’t know how you would do it without the cameras, and that just takes a lot of time and commitment to use them to figure out a buck’s patterns. People really got down on us for using the cameras, but it is legal and just another way to scout.

“After Tony shot the buck, I also learned how truly special that buck was in many ways. He was not only huge, but he had a very small range, so we were able to pattern him. I realize now that trying to do that with a buck having a larger range would be very, very frustrating. To be realistic, I doubt I would put that much time and effort into it again because it is doubtful we would ever run into another big buck with such a small range. I would still hunt him. I would just do it the way most people do — go hunting and hope for the best.”

“Knowing what I know now, and if I had shot the world record, I honestly don’t think I would have it officially scored,” Doug added. “I might score it myself just to know how big he really was; but when you get a world record officially scored, everyone comes out of the woodwork, and you end up going through all the intrusion and have to put up with all the rumors. Maybe I would just enjoy the deer instead. When people know you have the world record in your house you feel like you need to protect it or hide it. Then what’s the use of even having it? If you never get it officially scored, then it is just a big deer and people will leave you alone.”

Steve was the opposite of Doug. He would definitely do it again.

“I run hot and cold on things,” he said. “I may put my heart and soul into deer hunting one year and then into duck hunting the next year. If I knew of another buck like the one Tony shot, I would definitely go after him just as hard. It is the effort and the roller coaster of emotions that makes the memories and the stories. If you don’t make it personal and give it your all, the hunt won’t have the same level of emotion and drama.

“I would do it different in some ways, though. I would definitely keep it to myself. I’m not sure if I would officially score the buck or not. Doug went through most of the rough parts with Tony’s buck, so I didn’t have to experience all that first hand I’m not quite as burned out as him.”

There’s no question that Mark would jump right in and invest as much time and effort as possible if he found another buck like the one the cousins hunted for three years, but Mark would be much less likely to shoot the buck. He really enjoyed the personal relationship he had with the buck before it became The Lovstuen Buck.

“I would do it all again, but I would do it with a camera and video recorder,” Mark said. “I don’t think I would hunt him. Watching the buck gave me more joy than the reward that we all shared when Tony killed him. Knowing such a deer is alive and one-of-a-kind is enough. I loved him for what he was – for how mysterious he was. I guess I would just as soon the next deer like that die in the wild. I love hunting and shooting deer, but trying to hunt the world record buck – with all the headaches and heartaches that came with it – just wouldn’t be worth it to me again. I’d keep it to a few people and I’d spend all my time photographing the buck. When he’s gone there will never be another to replace him, so I would enjoy him for as long as possible.

“Watching that deer develop and learning his personality intrigued me. The headaches came once people found out about him and blew up even worse after he was dead. That’s when Doug took an arrow for the team. Even Tony got heat about it. The rumors and stories that resulted were painful for everyone. It is unfortunate, but I really think the recognition isn’t worth the price you have to pay.”

Did It Change Your Enjoyment of Hunting?

This is one for Tony. The buck bearing his last name was the first deer he ever shot. I wondered how it affected his interest in hunting.

“Many people thought it would ruin me as a hunter,” Tony said. “But really it sparked me. I spent a lot of time hunting last season (2004) with a bow and finally shot a nice buck doing it all by myself. I took a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment from that. I love deer hunting more now than I did before I shot the world record. I can’t wait for next season so I can go again. Every day is a thrill for me.”

How Much Money Did You Make?

The cousins decided to sell the antlers from the world record to Bass Pro Shops for two reasons. With three families involved, keeping the buck would likely lead to bitterness at some point. And even more importantly, no one wanted to keep it in their house. They decided that if they were just going to put the rack in storage and hide it away, they might as well sell it so Bass Pro Shops could display it in their museum. They each have very realistic replicas of the antlers.

“Of all the questions we get asked, this is the most common one,” said Doug. “People want to know if we got rich off this buck. The first thing I ask people is if it would be proper for me to ask them how much money they made last year or how much they have in the bank. They always look at me funny and say ‘no,’ so I tell them it is no different with the buck. It is none of their business.

“In reality, it was not enough money to change anyone’s life. I used our share of the money as a down-payment on some land and saved some to insure Tony’s college education. That’s about it. Of course, if we hadn’t split it up three ways (the cousins made a pact to share information openly and share in the financial gains equally if someone killed the buck) then the money would have made a bigger impact. But even then it wouldn’t be enough for anyone to retire.

“I remember one day last summer I was working in a nearby town pouring a foundation. It was the middle of the hottest day of the summer, and a guy comes up to me and says, ‘I hear you got two million dollars for that buck.’ I said, ‘Look at me. I’m standing knee deep in mud in a hole in the ground sweating like a pig on the hottest day of the summer. Do I look I have two million dollars?’ The guy said, ‘No, I guess not’. That about sums it up.”

Life with a world record is not just a bed of roses – there are some thorns, too. Sure, shooting such a deer permits great opportunities to the hunter who shoots it, but many obligations and responsibilities come with that honor. The four men involved in hunting and shooting the Lovstuen Buck know this as well as anyone. I walked away from this interview with one lasting thought: Be careful what you wish for because it just might come true.