I killed this buck last evening (January 19) on private land in southeast Ohio, near where I live. He has 14 scoreable points, and is the biggest buck - by far - that I have ever killed. A friend of mine and I put a tape on him this morning, and I was surprised to find that he scored a good bit better than I had estimated from his pictures. I had estimated that he would gross score in the low to mid 160's. When all the measuring was done and all the numbers added this morning, his green, unofficial gross score turned out to be 175 6/8"! Just for reference, here are a few of his measurements - 24" and 25" main beams, 18.5" inside spread, 5 1/4" and 5 1/2" g1's, 11" g2's. I shot him with a Diamond Machete bow (pre-Bowtech Diamond) at 70 lbs., GoldTip arrow and 100 gr. Wasp Boss, 3-blade broadhead. It's hard for me to express how exciting the last 24 hours have been for me.
The events of last night were the culmination of what has otherwise been an extremely frustrating season for me. Since our bow season started in the last part of September, I have at spent at least 60 days in a treestand or a ground blind. Until last night, those outings hadn't produced even one sighting of a single "shooter" buck (130" + for me). That is compared to
the last 2 years, when I had gotten a good buck each year before gun season started. This year so many things were different/weird, and it threw off my season in a big way. I didn't see rutting activity this year anywhere near what I saw the last 2 years. Their feeding patterns were very different this year in the places I hunted than they have been in the last 2 years. All of my best "buck" spots of the last few years were producing only doe sightings this year. Everything was upside down. I did manage to get some meat for the freezer, taking 3 does. Still, I was "hungry" for a little more than that after sitting for so many hunts this year. When I didn't get a buck - or even SEE a shooter - before the start of gun season this year, I was pretty despondent about the chances of the area 3 and 4 year old bucks making it through 2 shotgun seasons and 1 muzzleloader season with their hides intact. I knew if any did, though, that the late archery season in January can potentially be a very successful time to hunt. There frequently is a lot of snow and very cold temperatures, and the deer are very hungry. Find where their late season food source is, and sit between that and their bedding area, and you might just have a chance at a decent or even a good buck. The big bucks have to eat too. I had never yet killed a buck in the late season, but had observed some good ones while trying to kill a few does for the freezer the last few years in the late archery season. Every fall I plant some food plots to give deer something to help carry them through the winter.
For me to get this particular buck has extra special meaning, because I have "history" with him. He spent a lot of time eating on my place during the winter of 2007/2008. He was considerably smaller then. Then Spring came around and I got a few pictures of him at one of my mineral licks, early in his antler growth for the year. Then in June I started watching him regularly out feeding of an evening in a big weed field that has lots of honeysuckle, clover and apparently some other goodies. I saw him multiple times over the next few months, and I drooled constantly over the size of his ever-increasing
rack. I got a few pictures of him through my spotting scope during this time. In late July, I got a few pictures of him on one of my trail cameras. I named him "big 13". I didn't know until this morning that he actually had 14 points, not 13. Then, he disappeared. Completely. I didn't see hide nor hair of him again until the evening before Thanksgiving Day. I got a few trail camera pictures of him that night and the next, then he disappeared again for about a month, showing up next on Christmas Eve (I ought to call him the HOliday Buck!)
Since Christmas, I have gotten multiple photos of him and had come to the conclusion that he was definitely in his Winter feeding "pattern". Believe it or not, sometimes these big guys can be almost as "patternable" in the late season as they are in September. The late season isn't usually a very hospitable time to be in the woods, though. It's been pretty bitter cold
here for the last few weeks, and only the fact that I knew he was around and alive still, kept me going out there in temps in the teens and 20's. My pictures of him indicated that he was coming through my property to feed, sometimes very close to legal shooting light, but he would never quite get to my food plots with enough legal light left to shoot. So, I figured that if I was going to have any good chance at getting this buck, I was going to have to back off the fields and get a ways back into the woods. I set up 2 different trail cameras trying to pinpoint which trail or trails he was using, so I could
narrow things down a bit. I got 2 pictures of him in the course of about 5 days on the same trail, which allowed me to come up with a game plan. I found a good tree overlooking the main trail which was 17 yards away. There was also a secondary trail that was only about 10 feet from my tree. I hunted the spot once about a week ago and only saw 2 does.
Fast forward to last evening, when I decided to give the spot another go. I got up in my climber and was settled by 4 p.m. I saw nothing until sometime a little after 5:15, the last time I looked at my watch. At that time, I watched as a yearling 9-point and a yearling 6-point wandered towards me, on the secondary trail, coming almost straight for my tree. Shortly, a third deer appeared, and it was "big 13", I could tell instantly from about 70 yards away. His rack is very distinctive. He got to within 12 yards of me on that trail, but he was facing me. All of a sudden, one of the yearling bucks spooked slightly at something, and "big 13" turned to run. I immediately drew my bow, in hopes that he'd run about 10 yards and then stop for a second to look around, giving me a shot. Unfortunately, he ran about 40 yards before stopping to look around. I let my draw down. He didn't really know what had spooked him, he was just reacting to the yearling bucks. He stood about 50
yards away, facing me, for 10 minutes. He never moved a single step in any direction. He did swivel his head all around the whole time, though, surveying the situation. He never appeared to be extremely spooked, so I was hopeful that he might still come by me. Before I knew it a few more young bucks came into the picture behind him. They didn't know what was going on,
and they were acting normal. He took that as a good sign, and he followed them right back in my direction again. This time he veered off the trail a little and was literally coming straight for my tree. When he got to about 15 yards he started angling to one side of my tree, giving me a window of shot opportunity. When he got to 7 yards I drew my bow and held the pin high on his shoulder because of the shot angle, hoping for it to angle down through his lungs. I let the arrow go and and he immediately went on a hard run, taking all the other bucks with him. About 10 seconds later I heard quite a ruckus in the snow, but I couldn't see what exactly was going on. I was hopeful that he was down. I sat down for 10 minutes and just tried to compose myself after shooting the biggest buck I've ever had within range of me. After that, I climbed down and went to look for the arrow, which was not to be found. There was almost 3 inches of snow on the ground, though, so it was no problem for me to just follow his tracks. I soon found just a few little dots of blood, and knew I was heading the right way. I followed the tracks for about 60 yards, finding just a few little spots of blood here and there, and then all of a sudden I saw a dark mass laying in the snow. I walked over to it, and it was him, stone cold dead, lung blood bubbling up
out of the wound. My arrow was laying on the ground about 10 feet away from him, with the top (fletching end) five or so inches broken. It was covered in blood from one end to the other. There was no exit hole, so somehow the arrow worked it's way out of the deer. He had only made it about 65-70 yards.
And THAT is the story of the most exhilarating evening of my whitetail deer hunting career! Scroll down to see some pictures of my buck, including some before he was "my buck"!
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