The Story Behind the Picture 

The story of an amazing deer hunter and his latest trophy

By Mike Wheeler

This story starts back in 1982, the first year my dad took me whitetail hunting. Dad wasn’t much on whitetail hunting, but I had showed some interest. Dad loved to squirrel and rabbit hunt, but he would panic because of his nervous excitement when he saw a deer.

My first hunting experience was in the fall of 1982 when we went to my Uncle Jackie’s in northern Missouri . I was with my dad when he shot a nice buck. I will never forget that moment as long as I live. This event also stoked the flames as my love for deer hunting increased.

As fate would have it, my dad was in a bad accident two weeks before the 1983 rifle season and passed away. I harvested a pretty good 8-pointer on the second day of season and prayed to God that my dad was in heaven watching me.

Over the next few years I struggled trying to learn how to hunt, and with a lot of luck I harvested a real-nice buck in 1986.

In 1988 I read an article or saw an advertisement about Imperial Whitetail Clover that intrigued me. So I called and talked to Steve Scott, who is the vice president of the Whitetail Institute of North America. The Whitetail Institute was just starting what has become the food plot industry.

Steve told me how much more protein the Imperial Clover had compared to other clovers. He also said that the deer loved the taste of Imperial Clover better than other clovers.

I thought at first he was just a salesman trying to make a sale, but I was looking for any advantage I could get, so I bought a 4-pound bag and planted two quarter-acre plots. By the way, all I had for equipment was a garden tiller and a rake.

The first thing that I noticed is how fast the Imperial Clover grew. After watching all the deer eat it down, I was also impressed with how fast it came back. And, that year I harvested two Pope & Young bucks in my Imperial Clover fields.

I knew I had found something that really attracted whitetails and would help the bucks grow bigger antlers. I also knew that Imperial Clover wasn’t very well known yet, so it was my little secret.

Over the next couple of years I expanded my hunting. I kept in close contact with Steve at the Whitetail Institute just in case they introduced any new products. I also had met a buddy from work who lived in Kansas and had two monster whitetails hanging on his wall. Guess what? I moved to Kansas . I kept all my hunting spots in Missouri and added several more in Kansas .

In 1993, I found a place called the “Ranch.” It is about 900 acres and man did I have places for Imperial Clover plots. In late summer I planted almost a half-acre with my garden tiller. After I planted the clover, the rains came and it wasn’t long before I had the perfect green Imperial Clover field on top of this ridge.

The first time I sat in my tree stand I saw a monster buck with two does and grunted him within 10 yards of my stand. I just couldn’t get a shot at him. I think I had the “Fever!” I hunted that buck as hard as any buck I’ve ever hunted. I also pressured the buck into leaving his home turf.

I came back the next year on Oct. 24, and sat in my stand for the first time. I didn’t want to push the buck out before the rut. The second time I went back to the stand, which was Oct. 26, 1994, I harvested the monster buck.

The buck had 18 scoreable points and gross scored 194 inches. What was really neat about this buck is he had an arrow in his face right under his right eye. It kind of fused itself to the nose or jaw bone and was as big as your fist where bone had grown around the broadhead.

In 1996, one of the best years of my life, I purchased 280 acres of prime hunting ground in Kansas . Now I had my own land that I had total control of, and with the help of Steve Scott and the Whitetail Institute, the next world record whitetail buck could actually come from my property. So after a long phone conversation with Steve, the plan was set. I was going to plant several acres of Imperial Clover.

Steve also suggested a mineral product they make, which is called 30-06. Like the other products from the Institute, it not only helps put more nutrition toward a buck’s antlers, it also improves the overall health of does and fawns.

That spring I decided to give Imperial Clover the biggest test of all. I was going to disk up a 10-acre field. I planted long strips of different food plot products. In the middle I planted about a two-acre Imperial Clover field, and all around it I planted field corn, soybeans and all these other products I had heard about.

So as early summer came (June) everything was coming up really good. In the evening I would sneak out to the 10-acre field with my spotting scope to see which was the food of preference for the deer. From what I saw, 90 percent of the deer would go straight to the Imperial Clover field and the other 10 percent would go to the soybeans.

In the middle of bow season, Oct. 25, the field corn and soybeans died and turned brown, but the Imperial Clover was lush and green. At that time I started hunting the field really hard. After a couple hunts, I harvested a 13-point buck that grossed 168.

I watched that field the whole month of November and here is what I learned about Imperial Clover: 75 percent of the time the deer went straight to the Imperial Clover; 10 percent of the time the deer were in the rye, oats and wheat plots; and 5 percent of the time the deer were in the soybeans/corn.

Now the other 10 percent of the time the deer would fight in the Imperial Clover plot to run other deer out.

In 1998, there were also a couple new seed companies out there that promised the moon, but guess what, no matter what I tried, the deer liked – I mean loved – the Imperial Clover over all the other over-hyped products.

In January 1999 the Whitetail Institute came out with a product called Cutting Edge. It is a nutritional supplement that has vitamins, minerals and other ingredients to help deer get more benefit out of the food they eat. I made a big bunk feeder and would put whole corn mixed with Cutting Edge in it. I later also learned that the deer love the Cutting Edge because they will eat it without adding the corn.

The World Record 8-Pointer Appears?

That year I got a trail camera picture of a small 8-pointer sporting his first rack. I want you to see how this buck evolved over the years.

The first year I owned the land and hunted it I recorded seeing 10 bucks that would make Pope & Young and one buck that would make Boone & Crockett. After five years of Imperial Clover and 30-06 minerals, my Pope & Young count was up to 18 to 20 and my Boone & Crockett count increased to two or three.

My Deer Cam caught up with that 8-pointer for the second year in a row in 2000. His rack didn’t grow all that much, but his body grew quite a bit.

In 2001, I passed up more than 25 Pope & Young bucks. I saw a buck early in the season that had to have weighed more than 300 pounds on the hoof, but it had a really goofed up set of antlers, and the buck was really aggressive toward the other bucks. I needed to cull this buck out. I finally caught up with him in late November. The buck field dressed 270 pounds and had a third main beam coming out of the center of its head about five inches.

The Deer Cam came through for the third year in a row on my 8-pointer. His body appeared to be filling out and his rack was impressive but I expected antler growth to really accelerate even more in the coming years.

In 2002 my property went over all expectations. It had been three years since I started using the Cutting Edge system, seven years for 30-06 minerals and seven years with Imperial Clover, so everything I saw should have been raised on Whitetail Institute products.

I harvested a buck on Oct. 8. The deer was a 183-inch 14-pointer, and after that I saw and videoed more than 40 Pope & Young bucks and six Boone & Crockett bucks. And yes, the Deer Cam camera captured for the fourth year in a row the 8-point whitetail buck, which I started to think would be the next world record 8-point.

All I could think of in 2003 was the 8-pointer. I was hoping with all my Imperial Clover and Alfa-Rack food plots, the 8-pointer would get all the nutrition he needed to become a special animal. Only time would tell. 

The first picture I got that year of the 8-point showed that the deer could very well be a new world record 8-point. Was I ever pumped. I was hoping now it would be just a matter of time before the buck would slip up. It was Oct. 7, when the 8-point made what I thought was his first and last mistake. 

The buck came into the Imperial Clover field, just like all the years before. When the 8-pointer got about 30 yards away and turned broadside I could not believe my eyes – the potential world record 8-pointer was now a big 10-pointer.

I watched this buck in the Imperial Clover for the next 30 minutes as close as seven yards and could not believe my eyes. Finally it got too dark to see, and I had realized what a mistake I had just made. I had a 190-inch 10-pointer just seven yards away and I didn’t pull my Mathews bow back at all. I will never ever be able to explain that one, but life goes on. 

On November 15 the buck was about 25 yards from entering the Imperial Clover field and continued until it stopped about three yards into the field. It stared at me for what seemed 10 minutes, turned broadside like he was going to leave and then my Deer Cam camera took its last picture of this beautiful creature. 

After the picture, the buck turned back towards me, walked to within 20 yards, and stared straight at me again not giving me any type of shot. Now let me say something; I have been fortunate to shoot a lot of nice deer in my life, but as that buck stood there my heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to pass out. 

I actually shut my eyes and asked the good Lord to keep me from passing out until I at least made the shot. Even though the buck couldn’t smell me because of my Scent Lok suit he knew something wasn’t right. The buck turned around and started walking away once again. All I could think about was getting my Mathews bow drawn. When the buck got about 35 to 40 yards away he stopped and turned the front half of his body towards me. I put my 40-yard pin on the bucks opposite shoulder, like I always do, and let it fly. The buck ran about 100 yards and I heard him crash.

When I got to the buck – which scored 187 B&C – I knelt down and thanked God for everything he’s given me.

Editor’s note: Mike Wheeler has shot 17 Pope & Young bucks over the past 18 years. Many of the huge bucks (some approach 200 inches) have been shot on his 280-acre property in Kansas. While certainly a skilled hunter, Wheeler gives much of the credit to Whitetail Institute products. His story provides a great example of the number of quality bucks that a small acreage can produce with quality nutrition.