I guess I’ll start the story of my once in a lifetime buck from well, the beginning. Aug. 2010 – Gene Shands; my great friend and former boss when I worked at BowTech accepts an invitation to come to Ohio for a Whitetail hunt. I asked Gene to fly in a couple days early so he could come to our families annual Hog Roast. He gratefully accepted and come to find out; he’d only ever been to a Luau, not a good ol’ country style, redneck Hog Roast. Oct . 30th – Before we can go on our hunt I have to take Gene to get his hunting license and deer tag. In doing so, we had to have some fun while we were in the store. The workers at the Corner Store in Green Springs, OH (Pop. 1,247) really didn’t know what to think of us I’m sure. You see, at the ripe young age of 67, Gene is without a doubt the oldest kid I know… I’m confident that’s why we get along so well. lol While the girl behind the counter is getting things in order for his tags, I had fun trying on several of these rabbit fur lined hats. I tried on hot pink, pink camo, blue, but I settled for the really awesome camo one, yes, I actually bought it. I figure it should keep my ears and head nice and toasty when I’m plowing snow this winter. Let it be known, the Budweiser girl (poster) was not included with the purchase. After we leave the store we drove to my uncle’s house where the hog roast is held. I introduce Gene to my family and friends that are there albeit very few since the day was just beginning. After introduction’s I had to show Gene the “Guest of Honor” that is slowly spinning in a homemade charcoal/wood roaster. Of course, I had to have some fun with some leftover hog parts that didn’t get roasted. We didn’t get any pictures of the actual party but like every year, there was a lot of family and friends in attendance and lots of fun was had by all. On to the hunt… Once Gene confirmed he was coming in, I contacted a buddy of mine (Steve Forgey) of Ohio River Bottom Outfitters in Southern Ohio to see if he had room for us. Of course he said yes but he had some other clients hunting a piece of property where he had found a set of 188”+ sheds last spring. I didn’t care that they were hunting it because as I’ve said it before and I will say again and again…I’m a meat hunter…However, I’ll shoot a buck over a doe if given the opportunity. Nov. 1st Morning – Gene sat is a blind and didn’t see anything. He said he heard a doe blow but that was it. I saw one doe as I was trying to find the ladder stand I was told to hunt. I was to be the first one to hunt this particular stand this year however low and behold, the stand had been stolen. Nov. 1st Afternoon - Gene see’s a few does and a button buck but nothing he wants to shoot. I saw 2 does, 2 button bucks (one licked the tree I was in and I thought about spitting on him to watch him freak out) and a decent little 8 pt. but he didn’t give me a shot. Nov. 2nd Morning – Gene and I both see a few deer but nothing close enough to get a shot at. Nov. 2nd Afternoon – Gene hunts from different blind that looks over what they refer to as “The Honey Hole”. He did see a few deer and there was a pretty nice 8 pt. that came in but he couldn’t get shot at him. I hunted a piece of land that hadn’t been hunted in several years and the stand I hunted was set up only two hours before I hunted it. I was a little reserved about the stand location because it looked away from the grassy area on top of the hill which also had a feeder on it. I was overlooking a wooded area with a wire fence not 10 ft. from the base of my tree. As I sat there I couldn’t help but wonder why the stand faced the way it did however prior to me getting in the stand, Steve had told me that he thought the deer were coming up the valley which was not too far in front of me. If they did what he said they would come in from my right and cross to my left. After a couple hours in the stand I looked over my left shoulder and saw what I believed was a deer so I raised my binoculars to have a look. I saw 4 does feeding at the edge of the grassy area (which is where “I” figured they would be) however they were about 110 yards away from me. As I sat there looking around, waiting for something to hopefully come close to me, I couldn’t help but keep watching them does. After watching them for an hour or so I was starting to convince myself that I should get down and try to stalk them. I was “confident” I could use the terrain to keep myself from being seen and the wind would be in my favor. The only negative was that the leaves were very crunchy from it being so dry. So while I’m putting together this “game plan” in my head, I heard something off to my right. I figured it to be a turkey or squirrel since there seemed to be no shortage of them there. As I listened it sounded as it was getting closer to me when suddenly a nice adult doe appears (right where Steve told me they should of course). I stand up and prepare myself to hopefully get a shot at her if the opportunity presents itself, but it didn’t. As she gets directly in front of me she turns uphill, away from me and out of nowhere she leapt a couple times out of range and behind a tree. I soon found out why she leapt. Following her was what looked to be a nice buck, I couldn’t tell how nice nor did I really care but like I said before, I’ll shoot a buck over a doe if given the chance. He was tailing her like there was no tomorrow staying maybe 15-20 yards back. Figuring he would take her same route I came to full draw in hopes he would give me a shot. He followed her tracks up the hill directly in front of me and as he got to 23 yards (I ranged the tree he stood by earlier) he stopped. Broadside quartering away from me, you might say it was picture perfect. I did my best to stay calm and I settled my pin behind his shoulder not giving thought to the angle he was standing at. I touched off the arrow and with a loud thwack, the 2 blade Rage hit! The deer jumped a couple times from what I could see the shot placement looked good, really good actually however, as he was jumping I saw my arrow come back out its entrance hole so I wasn’t quite sure what to think then. After he jumped a few times he calmly walked about 20 yards and stopped. He stood there for a few minutes and then began to walk, more like stroll I guess, like nothing was going on. As he walked he’d made a turn and was now straight out in front of me but he was about 50-60 yards out. He stopped and laid down. Yes! I thought to myself, now lay your head down and don’t pick it up I thought. He laid there for 3 or 4 minutes then stood up and walked a few more steps then laid down again. Again I thought to myself “put your head down and don’t raise it up”. By this time it was too dark for me to see him through my binoculars so I called Steve and told him what had happened. He said I should get down from my stand and he would meet me at the bottom of the hill. So I quietly got down and made my way down to meet up with him. We talked for a little while and I explained what had happened in the best detail I could. Although my shot placement looked great, we both thought perhaps he’d been gut shot since he kept getting up and walking. We were undecided of we should look for him or wait until morning. At that time I asked him how the yotes were in the area and he said there were quite a few. I said I think we should look for him and if we happen to bump him, then we pull out and wait til morning. So that’s what we did.
We went back to the top of the hill, went through the gate and walked down to where I “thought” I shot him. The reason I say that is because things looked very different on the ground than they did from the stand. I thought I’d shot him by this one tree and I swore I knew right where the arrow came out. However, I was about 20 ft. or so off and it was actually by a different tree. Once we found first blood we easily found the arrow which had good bubbly blood on it but I’d only got about 12” or so of penetration. It was then that I thought “I must have hit him too far forward and hit the opposing shoulder”. The blood trail wasn’t hard to follow as he was bleeding profusely and as we followed we found where he laid down both times however; he wasn’t lying where I last saw him lay down. We decided to continue and if we should bump him, we pull out for the night. Still the trail was easy to trail however we had gone 150 yards or so from where he last laid. We got into some pretty thick stuff and Steve mentioned this was their bedding area and we would probably find him soon, he was right again. We found him about 30 yards inside the bedding area and when I walked up my jaw hit the ground…As a matter of fact, I think I tasted dirt because my jaw was open so long and so wide. I’d seen his rack when I was in the tree before and after I shot him but I didn’t really get a good look, I guess because it really wasn’t “that” important to me as it was watching what he was doing. After I gutted him I closely looked and my hunch was right. I’d hit the left lung really well but went forward of the right lung, into the opposite shoulder. We got him back to camp and hung him up for the night. Nov 3rd Morning – We took the deer to the check station and when we got back to camp there was a fellow there with a tape. He green scored him at 162 2/8”. This buck is by far my biggest to date and it will probably be my biggest ever, after all, I’m not an antler hunter, I’m a meat hunter. Fast forward to Nov. 4th Afternoon – This was our last sit of the week because we had to get back to my house for a special dinner and so Gene could fly back home. Gene goes to the same stand I shot my buck out of and I head to a stand that had been put up a couple hours earlier to replace that ladder that was stolen. I get a call from Gene at 5:30 and he said he’d shot a small buck. I asked if he wanted me to come help find it but he said “nope, I saw where he died”. So I figured I’d finish up my hunt. About 10 mins. later and yearling doe comes directly beneath my stand and I let er’ rip. I thought it was pretty cool that the two of us show two deer within only a few minutes of each other. So we finished up the 4 day hunt with 3 deer. Gene said I should keep his but he wanted me to send him some jerky which I will of course. For those of you that might remember, out house was robbed back in March and the idiots took everything from our freezer. So I went from empty to runneth over in a matter of a few days. ;-)
Congratulations again brother... just an incredible deer and I'm glad you got him; you deserved a deer like that after all you've done and continue to do for archery!
Man, that was a great story. thank you for sharing. Congratulations to both of you on a very successful hunt. Sal
