A step up are larger bucks that merit mounting and almost always elicit proudly told stories from the hunters who took them. These are bucks you brag to your friends about.
Then there are all-time legendary bucks, the kind of seemingly mythical creatures that sound more like fiction than fact; the kind of massive buck that somebody's grandpa somewhere saw and swore was the biggest he'd ever seen but never had a clear shot at.
Tori Poloski, a 14-year-old Howell High School sophomore, bagged such a trophy buck Sept. 24 during Michigan's youth hunt, taking a 22-point buck in full velvet.
She was hunting with her dad, Stan Poloski, on his 25-acre Marion Township property.
"I'm overwhelmed by it. It's crazy to me, because I never thought that I would get a chance to do anything like that," she said. "Hunters wait all their life to see a buck like that for two seconds, let alone shoot it. I remember seeing it and thinking 'Oh, my gosh, this is it, I have to do it.' "
She did, needing only one shot from about 60 yards with her trusty Rossi 12-gauge shotgun. Tori Poloski and her dad witnessed the buck from a distance on prior occasions, but didn't realize how big it actually was.
Its measurements will be the stuff of Livingston County hunting lore: a 14-inch inner spread, 17-inch outer spread and a weight of "well over 200 pounds."
"She was excited. I was excited. I've seen big bucks, but none that unique," Stan Poloski said. "I've been hunting all my life, and there's some big bucks around here."
Within a couple of hours, the Poloskis transported the deer to Mike Kors Taxidermy in the Howell area. The buck required special treatment from the taxidermist — who in this case is a family friend of the Poloskis — because its antlers were in velvet.
While Tori Poloski is a veteran hunter, having "taken it seriously" for the past three years, she has to find time in her busy schedule to head out to the woods to hunt deer or turkeys.
She sings in three choirs and is a member of the all-girl pop group Fetching Rubies, who auditioned recently to sing at a Detroit Pistons basketball game.
Right now, she's also in the middle of driver education classes.
No matter, though. She plans to bow hunt this year, too. Even bagging such a big buck hasn't made her content to sit at home when she could be holed up in a treestand "I've never gotten anything with my bow, so that's my goal this year," she said. "It's hard to make time, because I'm so busy, but in a way, it's not hard, because I have a variety of things I like to do. I love what I do."
No matter what Tori Poloski does in hunting, it's going to be difficult to top taking down a 22-point buck. At 14, she already has a story worthy of hunting lore she'll be sharing with hunters, her family and friends for the rest of her life. Unlike many stories of trophy bucks, she will have the mounted animal to back it up for all to see.
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