I was talking with a buddy of mine who is an official scorer for BuckMasters and he told me about this deer. I got intouch with Chris and he said he’d written a story for it and would be glad to share it with the Bayou Bucks crew. I thought it was so good, we might as well post it in his words. This buck was killed in Ross County, Ohio on November 10th, 2010 on public land.

Usually I would be at my favorite spot in Nebraska on this date, but my pastor, Shane Warren, has been asking me to go with him to hunt with a friend of his, Ken Roark, in Chillicothe for the last four years.  After six days of hunting with friends in Nebraska, I begrudgingly got on a plane in Lincoln and flew to Columbus, not knowing many details of the hunt.

Arriving, I found out we would be hunting public land and I immediately felt regret.  I knew how tough public land bow hunting was back home in Louisiana.  Don’t get me wrong, some of the largest deer in Louisiana are on public ground, but they are extremely hard to hunt and there is a lot of competition.

The first spot we hunted wasn’t working out at all and after the second hunt I texted my buddy, Donny, back home and said “Man, I’m in a gar hole.”  He texted me back and said to hang in there.  We all agreed we needed to change location, so we pulled our stands and regrouped to another section.  Ken told us where we should set up and off we went.

I found a nice spot where I could see a long way and observe the deer movement.  That first evening I saw twelve different bucks and
many does, along with a few small bucks fighting and chasing does not far from my initial set up. At dark I picked a tree closer to the action and left for the evening.

The next morning was slow until about 8:00 a.m. when a nice 140 inch ten point walked by.  I stopped the buck and took a 35 yard shot, not seeing all the little stick ups between me and the deer.  The arrow deflected and grazed the buck’s chest, leaving me with only a nice pile of chest hair.

As I waited for my friends to finish their hunt, I felt nature calling, so I walked to the ridge behind me and relieved myself, thinking that the wind would be the same direction all day so it would not affect my evening hunt.

That evening, the pastor was scheduled to preach and couldn’t go with us.  Around 3:00 p.m. we got back on our stands.  At 4:00 someone opened the gate and the “ruttin rodeo” had begun.  I sat there being utterly entertained by bucks chasing does all around me.  As the evening went on the excitement would build.  To my left about 80 yards a doe starts to blow and run off; ten minutes later another.  I texted my buddy,Ray Melancon, hunting close by and said “Man these deer can’t see or smell me.  I think somebody is trying to sabotage my hunt.  If it happens again I’m going to check it out.”

But the bucks just kept showing up.  To my left a 130 inch ten point, to my right another.  I grab my bow and slowly stand up. The two bucks began to face off and circle one another 20 yards from me, but I had no shot at either deer.  Then a lone doe begins to walk straight up to my tree and starts smelling my scent.

I’m shaking already when I hear a deep grunt like I’ve never heard before.  Then I see this monster buck step out of the brush about 80 yards to my left and I realize that he is what the does were blowing at.  He walks straight out and to the ridge behind me and begins to walk down the ridge.

I’m about to have an open 40 yard shot on him but I can’t turn around.  This doe is trying her best to bust me.  All of a sudden the buck gets to my “call of nature” spot from that morning.  He stops, turns, and looks at the doe under my stand and heads toward her.  She sees him and gets outta there.  I’m thinking to myself, “This is really gonna happen.”

He’s at five yards and puts his head down.  At this point, instinct takes over my shaking body and pounding chest.  I draw my Matthews Switch Back  and let the arrow fly.  Immediately I knew it was a good hit.  The buck takes off and gives me a good look at those horns.  As I melted into my seat I could not believe what had just taken place.

I texted my wife, Shawn, and Ray, and said “I just shot a giant.”

Ray texted back, “How big?”

I said, “At least 160 pts.”

Shawn texted back, “Is he down?”

I said, “Yes, I hear him thrashing on the ground.”

She said, “I will pray that you find him.”

I sat until after dark and Ray showed up.  I got down and we began tracking the buck.  After about 40 yards we find the arrow and it is covered from tip to tip with the most beautiful blood I had ever seen.  The next 30 yards was scary as the drops got smaller and harder to find.  Then, all of a sudden, we see pile after pile of pinkish blood, tracking at a steady pace.  And then, there he was!  Ray and I almost fell backward, not believing just how big this monarch was.

About this time Earl Frost showed up to join us in the celebration. We sat there for twenty minutes in absolute awe of this beautiful creature that God had made for me.  We began making phone calls and sending pictures to loved ones and friends that had prayed and hunted with us in the past, just hoping that some day one of us would take a trophy like this one.

My face book page the following day was simply a picture of the buck and me with the simple message:  Thank you God.

The buck green scored 200 2/8 and was declared to be a perfect ten point typical with less than 1% deduction.  A new BuckMasters World Record in its class taken with a compound bow.