Taylors man scores on Greenville County 10-point trophy
Michael Malsch of Taylors has hunted deer for three decades, but he’s never had a season like last fall, a dream with a real storybook ending. Malsch capped his season in early December with a huge buck that green-scored 155 inches, but the story began weeks earlier during muzzleloader season.
“This was the first year we had wild hogs show up on our club in Edgefield, and a lot of our members were really excited about shooting a hog,” said Malsch, who was the first hunter to bag one, a 175-pounder he took with a muzzleloader.
“Then I shot a 130-pound doe, which is front-running in our big doe contest for the club. Then, on Halloween evening I killed an 11-point buck on the club. It will fall short of making the South Carolina record book. It’s probably 110 inches total, but it’s a nice buck, even for our club. And that was how my season started.”
Then, a friend told Malsch about a horse farm in upper Greenville County near Landrum where the deer were eating the pasture grass before it could grow for the horses. The owner was looking for someone to come in and hunt the deer.
“I called them up and then went up there to check out the farm. They drove me around and showed me the pasture lands. There were a couple of small wooded sections, and one of them was so thick with laurel and rhododendron I could hardly get through it,” Malsch said.
I went in there to the creek that was running through the bottom and got down in the creek, where I found the most amazing rub line I had ever seen. Some of the trees were eight to nine inches in diameter, and all those trees were rubbed at the same time. I had never seen anything like that in South Carolina. They were rubbed raw from the ground up to about 3½ feet, so I knew there had to be a pretty good buck there.”
Provided with a written permission slip, Malsch set up his tree stands. The next Saturday morning, he arrived at his stand, armed with his Remington 7mm Ultra Mag and a new Knight and Hale Pack Rack rattle call he’d bought the night before.
“I got in the stand about 7 o’clock and started rattling and grunting. After the first couple of times, I quit grunting and just rattled,” he said. “The sky was was overcast, and a little rain sprinkled, but it was not real cold that morning. It was probably 20 to 30 minutes before 9 when I heard a little movement back to my right.” Malsch turned to look and saw the buck walking straight up out of the creekbottom towards him.
“I checked him out with the scope, and when he passed in front of a tree branch, I got a little nervous,” he said. “But I calmed myself down and told myself that I would shoot as soon as he came into the open again.”
Suddenly, the buck stepped into view about 70 yards from Malsch’s stand. He calmly aimed and squeezed the trigger.
“He ran about 15 yards and went down to his knees. Then he got back up and ran back to the spot where I had shot him, where he went down for good.”
At 210 pounds, it was the biggest buck that Malsch, a Pittsburgh, Pa., native who moved to the Upstate 25 years ago, had ever killed. It also carried the biggest rack of any deer he’s ever taken. The inside spread of the 10-point rack was 19-5/8 inches; the main beams stretched just short of 25 inches, and the brow tines on both sides were almost eight inches. The G2 and G3 tines were all eight to 9½ inches. The final score will include a deduction because the left side G4 was broken off, but green-scored at 155 inches Boone & Crockett, it is a very impressive rack.
“I’ve been hunting for over 30 years. I grew up in Pennsylvania and hunted there before moving to South Carolina. It has been a long time coming for a good quality buck like this. I have truly been blessed this year,” Malsch said.
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