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Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine Serving Eastern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania & Northern West Virginia
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For The Record
John Moore Knox County Ohio Shotgun 2004 BBBC Score 134 3/8 Typical
As a scorer for Buckeye Big Buck Club, I have the opportunity to
see and measure some monster bucks from across the state of Ohio. Some are beautiful typical racks and some are not so
beautiful non-typical racks that make me wonder what happened in the gene
pool to make them so bizarre.
Last year I scored the Dewey Gray II buck that had a third antler
growing out of the left main beam. (See
July-August 2004 issue). a
third antler is rare but does happen occasionally.
At this year’s Ohio deer and turkey expo in Columbus, Ohio I had
the privilege to score an even more rare and unique rack taken by John
Moore of Knox County. John’s
buck has a beautiful 8-point mainframe rack but sports another antler
growing out of the middle of its forehead.
It reminds me very much of the mythical unicorn horn.
What makes this so rare is that the third antler is separate and is
not attached to the main beam in any manner.
What is a shame about John’s buck is that it doesn’t make the
minimum score for BBBC only because of the third antler.
According to our rules the antler is an abnormal point and must be
deducted from the typical score. If
scored as a non-typical, the rack, other than the third antler, is so
uniform it still doesn’t make it. Regardless
John’s buck is a trophy of a lifetime. Mark Ohman Carroll County, Ohio Shotgun 2000 BBBC Score 170 7/8 Typical
It was the first day of Ohio’s shotgun season and Mark was
perched in his tree stand on about 200 acres of private property in
Carroll County. Previously
Mark had hunted public land but had obtained permission to hunt on this
farm along with 5 or 6 other whitetail nuts.
In the last 10 years of whitetail hunting Mark had taken an 8 and
10 point from this area but nothing of the caliber of buck he was about to
harvest this day.
Actually, the morning started slowly without any movement, but as
late afternoon approached, does started moving past the stand. These were probably the same deer Mark had seen on his
archery hunts in October and November.
Sometime between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m., he heard a buck grunting and
coming his way. Catching
movement, Mark could see the buck coming through the trees.
It stopped broadside at about 35 to 40 yards away. Brush was blocking his view of the buck’s antlers, but
there was a clear view of the buck’s shoulder and vitals. It was now or
never, so Mark raised his Remington 870 with open sights and fired. The buck bolted back into the brush from which it had come
from. Mark could hear lots of
thrashing and then silence.
Not wanting to jump and push the buck, Mark sat in his stand for
what seemed like an incredible amount of time.
When Mark descended from the tree (which was really only a few
minutes after the shot) he went to the place of the loud thrashing he had
heard earlier. The buck’s
antlers had tangled in some saplings and as Mark approached he got his
first good look at the biggest rack taken on this farm to this date.
After celebrating with
family and friends, Mark’s only comment was, “It’s going to be hard
to top this one!”.
Congratulations Mark! Kim Metheny Licking County, Ohio Archery 2000 BBBC Score 183 4/8
non-typical
Before I give you Kim’s story let me tell you a little about her.
Kim started hunting with her Dad and five brothers at the age of
12. She shot her first deer
with a compound bow at age 14 and has been deer hunting ever since.
She now hunts with a crossbow and has been on Tenpoint’s archery
pro staff since 1997. Here is
her story in her own words.
The hunt of a lifetime unfolded one nasty soggy evening. I had been lying down to sleep because I work midnight shift,
when my son Connor came in the door and woke me. He was so excited and was yelling “come on that bucks going
to be in the field any minute”. Connor
had already filled his tag but was still scouting for me. Not believing him about this monster he claimed he had been
seeing for three days in a row, I finally got out of bed and I thought
there is no way a deer would be out in this weather!
I managed to throw my camouflage on and get my Tenpoint crossbow.
Doubtfully, Connor and I
drove to my parent’s nearby farm. As
we were walking toward the field Connor spotted a few does. Connor sat on the edge of the field while I crawled out for a
shot. As I came up to the
middle of the field I heard a crashing of antlers.
While Connor was watching the bucks spar, I set up for a shot.
I knelt down to turn my red dot scope on and bam!
An enormous buck shot over the hill.
As I bore down for the shot I took a deep breath then fired.
I launched the muzzy and heard a reassuring thump when the broad
head struck him behind the leg. We searched all night and found a blood
soaked arrow. The rain had
washed all other signs way so we decided to wait till morning to further
our searching. We must have covered a mile
of country looking but came up empty.
With our hearts heavy we headed back to the field.
We were mid-way back when Connor saw something and went to
investigate. Just 60 yards
from where he was standing there the buck lay in a pile of dead grass that
camouflaged his antlers. I
told Connor I had seen that pile the night before but thought nothing of
it. This was definitely the
happiest hunting day of my life! I owe a lot to my son Connor for scouting and finding my
deer. It is the Women’s World Typical Record Crossbow kill per the World Classics Scoring system at 196 7/8. This will be the most memorable deer hunt of my life but certainly not the last.
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