Monster Buck Killed-Nice Story

(C) Ohio Outdoor News
:Editor Mike Moore

Oak Hill, Ohio - For the past three years, Randy Delawder had been watching the buck with the odd-looking drop tine, seeing the deer here and there and then missing him for months on end.

He calls him "the ghost."

During the down times, the plain spoken Oak Hill hunter often wondered if the buck had been jacklighted by some unscrupulous type working his thievery during the night. He also worried that last summer's outbreak of a mosquito-borne illness that killed deer throughout the region might have claimed him.

"I did a lot of talking to myself the past three years, let's put it that way," said Delawder, 51. "... It seemed like every time it would come (deer) season, he was gone ... He was always in the right place at the right time and I was at the wrong place."

Until this year.

On Oct. 6, Delawder carried his climber out to a patch of woods on his 90-acre property and commenced to getting settled. He fastened a nylon rope around his 1990-vintage, bought used crossbow, and scaled a tree. Delawder was still fiddling with his seat when he appeared and stopped about 15 yards away. There was no doubt about his identity.

"When he turned his head, I could see that drop tine,"_Delawder said. "No one believes this, but the crossbow was still on the ground."

Delawder, an experienced woodsman in these parts, thought he had blown his chance - he had been made by the crossbow hanging from the rope.

"I thought, 'well, goodbye, see ya. Leave on out now,'" Delawder remembered. "He stood there and I_know he looked right at that crossbow and that white rope."

Delawder froze, not moving a muscle, thinking that the buck would move on out and he could climb down and go home.

"That happens, you know, so I was just waitin' for him to clear on out, get on down the road," he said.

But, the deer never traveled more than 15 or 20 yards away. It was a windy day, Delawder said, and he suspects that the rattling of the tree stand might have piqued the Ghost's curiosity.

"He went out and made a little circle, going through some of them spice bushes," Delawder said. " ... When he did, I_just reached and grabbed that rope and started a pullin'."

It didn't take long for the buck to come out the other side of the bush where it stopped about 20-25 yards from Delawder's stand.

Crossbow now retrieved, Delawder took aim and let the bolt fly, striking the deer with a lung and heart shot. The hunt last all of about 10 minutes.

"I got lucky, I_certainly did," he said. " ... I know he was looking right at that crossbow. He knew something wasn't right. But, I wasn't moving and I was hardly breathing, truthfully."

As it turned out, the 24-point buck traveled just about 120 yards after the shot. But, Delawder didn't pursue him right away, and even returned to his house for dinner before he started the track.

"Usually, when I shoot them they always go right down into the steepest, thickest place," he said. "That's part of deer hunting, I guess."

This one crashed thick, too, but Delawder found him, and the bolt to boot - the same night.

While not a big-bodied deer, field dressing out at 147 pounds, it green-scored at 237 non-typical, sure to make the Ohio record book.

But, other than its rack score, there is one other element that makes this buck special.

"The drop tine is what makes him a character," Delawder said. "Last year, he had another drop tine in front of the one you see."

Plus, Delawder, a chemical plant worker in Lawrence County, can now rest easy that the big drop tine buck was not poached or wiped out by disease. He can stop talking to himself now.

That sure is a monster I hope to see one half that big this yr