A Monster Minnesota Buck Named Caribou Junior

After hunting this impressive buck for three consecutive seasons, Mike Grinager finally capitalized on Minnesota’s 2024 archery opener. Photo courtesy of Mike Grinager.

Minnesota hunter Mike Grinager got an opportunity that was three seasons in the making when a tremendous non-typical buck stepped in front of his crossbow on opening day of archery season.

“We’ve had this buck, which my family and I call C.J., on camera for four years now,” Grinager said. “C.J. is short for Caribou Junior. The story behind that name is that we had been chasing a different buck that we named Caribou, which we assumed was the father of C.J. A neighbor ended up shooting Caribou, so C.J. became our target buck.”

Grinager said that the buck has been impressive for at least three seasons. “Two years ago, his rack was taller than it is this year,” he said. “Last year, his rack was less impressive all around, perhaps due to the drought. This year, he blew back up and his rack is kind of a big mess.”

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Although the buck has been a regular on the Grinager trail cameras for four seasons, seeing the buck in the field has been another matter. “Two years ago, I was hunting with my granddaughter during the youth season. He walked out about 140 yards away,” Grinager said. “We were both trying to determine what exactly he had on his head. It was one of those over-exciting moments, and she didn’t get a shot at him.”

Grinager’s wife found C.J.’s right shed antler this past spring. And going into the summer, the buck was very regular on the trail cameras. The prospects of seeing him during the archery season seemed more promising than ever.

Grinager and his sons saw the buck consistently during the summer in their hunting area. Photo courtesy of Mike Grinager.

“He was showing up a lot in the daylight,” he explained. “I decided to go out on opening day even though the temperatures were warm. It was about 79 degrees when I went out. Fortunately, there was a nice breeze and the deer really started moving. I was hunting from one of my favorite stands, and quite a few deer walked by.”

Right around sunset, a ruckus about 100 yards away in a standing cornfield caught Grinager’s attention. Suddenly, four different bucks popped out of the corn.

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“The first was an 8-pointer in velvet,” he said. “C.J. was the next to come out, followed by a 130-class 8-pointer and a 9-pointer with a messed-up rack. The three larger bucks were pushing the velvet buck toward a soybean field. Just as if they had read the script, the lead buck passed by, and then C.J. walked into my shooting lane. I made a bleat with my mouth, and all four bucks stopped and looked toward me. I took the shot and felt really good about it.”

Despite his confidence in the shot, Grinager hung tight in his stand until darkness fell.

Terri Grinager, Mike’s wife, found the buck’s right shed antler (shown here) this past spring. Photo courtesy of Mike Grinager.

“First, I found the arrow,” he said. “It had great blood on it. I decided to wait an hour, which was tough to do. My youngest son, Brett, had been hunting not too far away. He had heard me shoot, but he also believed he had heard the buck fall. We started following the blood trail. After about 40 yards, my wife said, ‘What’s that over there?’ Sure enough, there he was about 10 feet off the blood trail.”

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It was an exciting moment, and not just because the opportunity that had evaded him for three seasons finally came to fruition. Joining Grinager for the recovery were his grandchildren, two of his sons, and his wife, which made the event one that the hunter will never forget.

While Minnesota allows hunters to harvest a buck during archery season and another during the gun season, Grinager said, “I’ll be wearing the ‘guide hat’ for the rest of the deer season. My grandkids and my three sons all hunt. We don’t get too fussy about what the kids shoot, but my sons and I hold out for mature bucks. Now that I got mine, I’ll be helping everyone else.”