by David Miller

Maineville, Oh. – “This has truly been a dream come true,” said hunter Mike Behrmann, “This is a passion. I am so proud to tell my stories to anyone who will listen.” Mike lives just outside of Loveland.

Behrmann said he has been a hunter for many years and harvested a lot of deer, however the last five year has been a rough road. He said, “With all the hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and effort I have put into hunting day after day, daylight to dawn. I lost four whitetail bucks.” In November 2012 he was out on a morning hunt, when he had a “giant” 10 point buck walk into his sites. He made a great shot on him and heard him crash to the ground. “We decided to let him lay, so we eased out of the woods for two hours to give the deer time to rest in peace.” When he returned to retrieve his deer, his tree stand was gone – stolen, along with his buck.

“I was ready to give up at that point. The more I thought about it, I realized I would not let that stop me,” Behrmann said. “For the fact that I have instilled the same passion for deer hunting in my son.”

Then, in the 2013 hunting season, while hunting with his nine year-old son, his son finally got to witness first hand what it is like to harvest a mature whitetail buck. “A buck most men would love to harvest,” said Behrmann. “That will be a moment forever in my heart. That moment, my son with his buck, made me realize that I cannot give up.”

That is a little insight to what Behrmann describes as, “The blood, sweat, tears hunter in him” and what he had been through the last five years.

Fast forward to this past December 2. Behrmann packed up his gear to head out for an evening hunt with his buddy, Anthony Miracle. “We hit our hunting spots at about 1 o’clock and got all set up. At around 2 o’clock I decided to take out my grunt call to do a little grunting and rattling with some antlers.” He decided to grunt with his favorite Primos Bleat Can, a doe in heat call devise. He sat and waited about ten minutes, and repeated the call. As he was looking around, one hillside over from where he was sitting, Behrmann spotted the buck of a lifetime. He picked up his Remington 870 shotgun and the buck was roughly 120 yards-away from him, standing there looking around. Behrmann said, “He had heard my calls, but was unsure witch direction to turn.

“It seemed like I was standing there for hours, which was only a matter of minutes. I started to shake. Nerves. So, I lowered my gun, took a couple deep breathes to calm them. I grabbed my bleat can, turned it upside down one more time. The buck heard it, turned his head at my direction, and started walking towards me. I raised my gun slowly, put my site on him and shot at 75 yards. He ran down the hill toward me, then up the creek about 150 yards and fell. He was down. I met up with my buddy Anthony, told him what happened, and together we headed to retrieve my deer. I was so excited when we walked up on the monster whitetail I started tearing up because I knew I had finally got my buck. As I was standing over-top of him I teared up more, realizing I had had just harvested the deer of a lifetime.”

Behrmann and Miracle sat there and counted the points of this giant “non typical” non-symmetrical antlered Ohio whitetail deer. They could not believe what they we’re seeing, a giant, 25-points.

Behrmann said there is no official score yet for his deer, due to a required, 60-day dry time to “set” the rack. He said, “We have an unofficial score from my taxidermist of 219 inches.” The Ohio record is 304 set in 2000 by Michael Beatty.

When arriving home it was cold, dark, and rainy. Behrmann said his wife told him, “Bring it in the house for pics.”

Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine editor, Dan Schmidt wrote, “Might have the coolest spouse ever. I couldn’t help but ask the obvious question: What’s the deal with the buck in the house by the Christmas tree? LOL!”

“I never thought a picture would go so far on social media, and magazines so fast. The outpouring of support has been a major gift, and I am very thankful. I want my story to tell fellow hunters young and old, that no matter how hard you try to achieve a goal… to never give up. To all hunters out there I would say, get your kids involved, and always wear your safety harnesses. Good luck to all.”

 Loveland Magazine