In 2000, a hunting trip in his home state of Ohio changed Mike Beatty’s life forever. He had been hunting hard for a long period of time but things were just not falling into place.
“I had hunted 28 days straight and had not really been on any good deer,” Beatty told me when we talked Sunday at the Louisville Boat, RV and Sport Show. “I decided I was going to take the evening off because I was getting a little burned out. My wife told me she would take care of the kids and for me to just go hunting and I did.”
While sitting on stand he went through two rattling sequences when a 160 class 8 pointer appeared, hung around for several minutes and then moved off without presenting a shot. Another rattling sequence minutes later brought in the life changing deer that presented a shot at 10 yards. The arrow found pay dirt and the deer fled.
Knowing the deer was mortally wounded; Beatty waited nearly an hour before he picked up a blood trail and began the arduous job of tracking him.
“I got on the blood trail and followed it for a while before running out of blood and then I heard a deer blow at me,” Beatty said. “I backed out and called it a night and went back the next morning and found him 29 yards from where I stopped looking the night before.”
The deer, which is one of only three deer over 300-inches to be taken by hunters and the largest ever taken with a bow, set Beatty’s life on a different course. It had 39 scoreable points and a net score of 304 6/8. The recognition from sponsors and opportunities led him to his role in the hunting industry and his company Tag’D Out.
“Tag’D Out was founded by myself last year and here we are a year later,” he said. “We had been treading water and motoring forward and now we have our first Tag’d Out DVD.”
The DVD has 12 whitetail hunts, four bear hunts and two elk hunts, along with Beatty telling the story of the famous Beatty Buck. The company has assembled nearly 20 sponsors and nine pro staffers. Their latest project Tag’D Out 2 is now in production and they have compiled 12 whitetail hunts, a mule deer and a bear hunt.
“We are still a small company with room to grow, but each of us works 40 hour a week jobs in addition to the company,” said Beatty, who works full time for AT&T. “A lot of our sponsors are interested in doing a TV show, but right now at this time it is just a little overwhelming to go in that arena.”
If you missed the Tag’D Out crew in Louisville, they will be make another stop in Kentucky at the Lewis County Sportsmen Expo March 6-7 in Vanceburg. For more information about that show go to: http://lewiscountysportsmensexpo.com/
To find out more about Beatty and his company Tag'D Out at their web site www.tagdout.com.
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