Veteran bowhunter Mark Dunn and his spouse Carrie began scouting a family-owned property in Champaign County, Ohio, this fall. Whereas strolling the 80-acre parcel in September in the course of the lead-up to bow season, they pinpointed a draw that appeared like journey hall.
“We put out three path cameras to be taught what was happening there, and we received pictures instantly of a large buck,” Dunn tells Out of doors Life. “I knew I wanted to slide again on the market quickly and put up a pair tree stands.”
Dunn waited till heavy rains from hurricane Helene have been passing by way of the realm to supply some cowl.
“I figured the rain could be time to set stands in order to not disturb that buck,” says Dunn, who lives in Mechanicsburg. “I put stands in several spots so the place may very well be hunted throughout various wind instructions.”
Dunn left for a Wyoming elk hunt quickly after. He tagged a cow, however his thoughts was nonetheless on the massive nontypical at house.
Photograph courtesy Mark Dunn
“The entire time I used to be excited about that buck again in Ohio. I received again on a Saturday, noticed him from a stand on Monday, and killed him six days later.”
Dunn says he noticed the deer in individual eight instances. It was all the time in the course of the night, and each time the buck would stroll simply out vary. Lastly, he determined to attempt a morning hunt as an alternative. By the point the sixth day rolled round, on Oct. 20, the moon was brilliant and largely full. He apprehensive he would possibly spook the deer as he crossed a discipline on the best way to his stand within the moonlight.
“I walked to my stand at 5:30 a.m., virtually two hours earlier than capturing gentle,” Dunn remembers. “I wished to be in there lengthy earlier than dawn.”
Round 8 a.m., Dunn noticed the enormous buck at 140 yards strolling out of a discipline. The deer strolled alongside the draw in direction of Mark. He thinks the buck was headed to a stand of oak bushes that have been loaded with acorns. The deer stayed on target and eventually stopped broadside to Dunn’s stand at 27 yards. He raised his Raven R10 crossbow and despatched a two-blade, 100-grain broadhead behind its shoulder.
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“He ran laborious throughout the sphere, received to its edge, stopped, wobbled, and fell,” Dunn says. “I couldn’t see him on the bottom as a result of the grass was excessive there. So, I phoned Carrie and advised her I shot the buck. Then I waited there for 90 minutes as a result of I didn’t wish to threat leaping the deer if it was nonetheless alive.”
Dunn finally headed again to his truck and referred to as a pal, who helped him discipline costume and cargo up the massive whitetail. They took the dressed deer again to Dunn’s house, the place it weighed 235 kilos on a farm scale. He later took the buck to Ohio Buckmasters scorer Toby Hughes, who gave it a BTR rating of 233 7/8s.
Photograph courtesy Mark Dunn
“It had 21 scoreable factors with 7-inch bases,” Dunn explains. “Its foremost beams are every over 26 inches lengthy, and we predict it was a minimum of 6.5 years outdated.
He says it’s his greatest buck thus far, topping the 190-inch whitetail that’s already on his wall together with about 30 different Ohio bucks. And after seeing the rack up-close, he realized they’d seen the identical buck on a close-by property final 12 months.
“We had path digital camera pictures of [this same buck], and he was a large in 2023, scoring about 160 inches. My son might have taken him final 12 months, however he didn’t,” Dunn says. “And I’m glad he didn’t. As a result of that deer’s rack simply exploded in a 12 months’s time.”
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