Thanks so much to the kind words that so many sent my way yesterday! I got this buck on a plot of land I call the Rice Paddy, hence the name of the buck. Here’s how it went down:

Signs of Production: This was my 3rd year hunting this property, but my first year dedicated to Ohio hunting…making this property my main hunting site. Every year, I see a lot of buck rubs and scrapes on this land. As you can see in Figure 1 (Oriented with North at the top), this small patch of woods is surrounded by farmland. The green X’s are apple trees; the circles with numbers are my stands. I used to have another stand on the west side of this patch of woods, but most deer movement is on the east side. The long rectangular lines are the property lines.

4th hunt on this land: I hunted this land 3 times prior this year. On opening day (in Stand 1), I saw a doe and jumped a few other deer walking in. I hunted Stand 2 the next 2 times, both in the evening. One time I saw nothing, and last Tuesday I saw about 4 doe, 2 of which walked right by me! Overall this was my 7th or 8th set-up of the year.

October 12, 2007: I decided to hunt Stand 1, facing South. I got to my stand around 4:00 and waited until 5:15 to start calling. I rattled very lightly (to simulate a sparring match), followed by a 3 short grunts. At about 5:30, I heard a lot of crashing to my left (East). Turns out it was a buck making a rub (see Rub on Figure). I waited until 5:45, and I called again: 2 doe bleats, followed by 4 young buck grunts. About 5 minutes later, I looked left again and spotted a buck making a scrape. The buck waved his branched antlers, and I decided he was a shooter. I didn’t look at his antlers again (I focused solely on his vitals).

When he was finished making the scrape, he took a few steps South (You can follow his steps in the Figure above - the white line is him approaching, and the red line is the blood trail). Just as I was about to grunt again, he turned and walked directly toward me! As he passed behind a group of trees (about 50 yards away), I prepared myself for a possible shot. He continued walking directly toward me until he stopped about 24 yards away, turning broadside with a slight quarter towards me. The buck was in a decision-making mode: would he walk into the field (where I have no shooting lane), or would he continue walking toward my tree?

I decided not to wait to find out. I shot and saw the arrow hit right where I aimed. The buck took off, and I grunted as he ran. Within 10 seconds I heard him crash (where the red X is on the Figure).

I immediately called my wife from my tree and left a message on dad’s phone! I exited the woods with my tree stand, and returned to follow the blood trail, finding my arrow covered with bright red blood and sticking 6 inches in the ground. I followed the heavy blood trail, and it didn’t take long to cover the 60 yards the buck ran!!! While removing the entrails, I confirmed that my shot was a double-lung pass through!

Below are pics of my first Ohio Buck, my first as a married man, and my first with my TenPoint ProFusion Crossbow. He’s an 8-point, and though you can’t quite see it in these pictures, the buck’s left main beam has some slight palmation. Some may have passed on this one knowing there are bigger buck’s in the area, but as you can see, I’m all smiles!!!

On my drive home, I was able to talk with dad. He was at our PA hunting club with my uncle and cousins. They placed me on speaker phone so I could share my story!

buck, Harvest, Ohio, Rice Paddy

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