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 through the lead-up to bow season, they pinpointed a draw that seemed like a great journey hall.
“We put out three path cameras to be taught what was occurring there, and we bought pictures straight away of an enormous 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 had been passing by the realm to supply some cowl.
“I figured the rain could be a great 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 might 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 large nontypical at residence.
Photograph courtesy Mark Dunn
“The entire time I used to be eager about that buck again in Ohio. I bought 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 at all times through the night, and each time the buck would stroll simply out vary. Lastly, he determined to attempt a morning hunt as a substitute. By the point the sixth day rolled round, on Oct. 20, the moon was brilliant and largely full. He frightened he may spook the deer as he crossed a subject on the way in which 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 needed to be in there lengthy earlier than dawn.”
Round 8 a.m., Dunn noticed the enormous buck at 140 yards strolling out of a subject. The deer strolled alongside the draw in direction of Mark. He thinks the buck was headed to a stand of oak timber that had been loaded with acorns. The deer stayed on the right track and at last 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 onerous throughout the sector, bought 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 good friend, who helped him subject costume and cargo up the large whitetail. They took the dressed deer again to Dunn’s residence, 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 most important beams are every over 26 inches lengthy, and we expect it was a minimum of 6.5 years previous.
He says it’s his largest buck to this point, 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 yr.
“We had path digicam pictures of [this same buck], and he was an enormous in 2023, scoring about 160 inches. My son may have taken him final yr, 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 yr’s time.”
