185"

I am constantly looking for new places to hunt, no matter how many places I have permission at or if I have enough gear (stands, camera, etc.) to effectively hunt them all. Through the years I have come to find hunting permission changes with the weather in Ohio, frequent and often unexpectedly. There was a piece of land I had always somewhat had my eye on, but never really put too much effort into getting permission. I have been hunting urban-ish areas for about 3 years now. I say urban-ish because when you are sitting in the stand, or even walking back before sunrise, it doesn't feel urban. You can’t see houses unless it's the dead of winter, you may hear the occasional car or dog, but all the properties I currently have permission on are within city limits and certainly surrounded by urban sprawl. I digress, this property in particular I had drove past so many times and always wondered.

My most productive property was on the shakes, word from the property owner was that the city was in the process of taking it by eminent domain. Now was no better time than ever. I researched the property owner of this potential spot (I don't use OnX or services like that as I have no need to), gave him a visit and we talked. PERMISSION, lets go! I wasn't particularly excited about this property, I was more excited that I knew I had a place to hunt if my priority spot fell though. But, it was a new property and therefore all the excitement that comes along with getting permission. I honestly had very low expectations. It wasn't my first urban spot and I have seen all the Seek One videos, props to them by the way, and I just thought that's not something that I would really have an opportunity to mimic. The property is about 100 acres, about 60 woods and 40 agg. Right on the outside of town it is surrounded on 3 sides by suburban developments and the 4th side just has a line of average ¼ acre houses along the street as you make your way out of the city. Just beyond the developments as you move away from the city, there is more typical Ohio county side agg, but a good ⅔ of the surroundings is legit city and the other ⅓ is a robust man made barrier that would make getting out and away from that property somewhat difficult for deer.

I get all of my trail camera gear together (check out my previous article about trail cameras here) and head out. For a little more insight, the property is rectangular with the short side being against the access road. Imagine driving out of the city and on your left there is dense housing, then extending north is about a 55 acre rectangle of woods adjacent to a 40 acre rectangle of agg then another 5 acre rectangle of woods, followed by a suburban development and then typical countryside. I pull in and park at the edge where the agg meets the main body of woods and start making my way back. I have obviously e-scouted this place about 1,000,000 times so I already had a scouting plan in place. Work my way down the edge of the agg field toward the back of the property. Keep an eye for sign, if I see anything significant I can start working my way in from there. This is a little more than 2 months or so prior to the start of Ohio archery season which is the last weekend of September. Bucks are still in velvet, but hopefully maybe some historical sign and then the obvious tracks, droppings, etc.

I find a hard hit trail going into the woods right about half way back towards the property. I take that in, start scouting in the woods, and am starting to get excited. I am seeing the mentioned sign I was hoping to see so I'm starting to really feel confident about this spot. I knew there was one other hunter for sure and an occasional second hunter from my talks with the property owner, but I am not even seeing signs of people back here. The anticipation and excitement of what this piece could be is really starting to build.

I make my way to the very back of the property, the longest walk from the road but the closest to surrounding houses. I cannot see them, but I know they are there as I check my location on my phone, roughly 80 yards or so before I am trespassing in someone's yard. Towards the back of the property running along the north side is a small area of what looks like nice thermal covering. Sporadic but decent density of “teenage” aged trees with canopy bottoms about 4-6 feet from the ground and waist high weeds filling the spacious gaps that allow sunlight through. Edged against that and down the woods where the agg meets the main body of woods is a section of older trees, not anything you can hang a stand in but you can certainly stand up in and walk through. A dense enough canopy so there is no undergrowth at all and trees spread out far enough to where you can carry a stand set up through, along with the extras like pole saws and other gear. As I am just taking in what is seemingly picturesque whitetail habitat layed down from the lord above by hand, I make a sudden and slightly embarrassing realization. I am standing in the middle of Rub City, USA. As stated this was sometime in early/middle July, so none of these were fresh. The historical evidence suggested that this place, at the very least, has early season bucks. In and around where these 4 habitats (old growth woods, area with the rubs, thermal bedding, and agg edge) somewhat blend together I hang a couple cameras and get out.

I give it a little less than a month, the spot isn't far at all from my house so the itch starts to get to me and I decide to go check these cameras. This time in I have a more direct plan. I walk down the center of the agg field, minimizing pressure as this is just a card exchange, no scouting or anything of the sort. I work my way into my cameras and check the first one. Just as a note, I use a few different brands of cameras. On this property at this time, I was using my Exodus trail cameras. This is important as they have little LED screens on them to preview pictures. I am at my first camera running through the most recent 100 pictures or so just to get an idea of what may have come through and to ensure the camera was in fact working correctly. Some smaller basket rack bucks, does, and even a coyote flips across the screen. Cool I am thinking, definitely deer here, none that would be of the caliber I am looking to shoot but there's deer so that's something. I make my way to my second camera, start flipping through, pretty much seeing the same stuff, and then there he is. These screens are maybe an inch and a half squares. All I see is antler. I can't tell how many points as it's too pixelated. But I have looked at sooooo many pictures of deer over the years that I know this is something significant. My jaw is on the ground, I am standing there staring at my trail camera, completely lost in thought.

After what may have been a few minutes or a few hours, I'm not really sure, I pull my phone out and snap a picture to one of my best friends and hunting buddies. He just calls me, no text back on this one. I am trying to explain to him what I am seeing and let him know he will get the full quality pictures as soon as I get home. I literally start running, no lie, no joke. I run all the way to my car in my knee high rubber boots, jeans, and outdoor backpack in the early august sun. I'm obviously sweating, hot, excited, just simply beyond myself trying to figure out if I really just saw what I saw on that camera. The drive home I am all over the place mentally. From this being potentially the biggest buck I may ever lay eyes on to I'm missing something, I’m getting excited for no reason. Fortunately I am not far from home. When I say I literally ran inside and my wife thought something was wrong, that is no exaggeration.

I put the SD card in the computer and started flipping through. There he is.12, 13, 14 countable points on camera. I am sending the pictures to my friend while simultaneously trying to explain to my wife what I am looking at as she entertains me with a half smile chuckle and shake of the head. I simply cannot believe what I am looking at. Thinking back over my hunting past, the years of never seeing deer, the countless no’s and doors slammed in my face, learning how to hunt and get permission, and missing deer, and shooting the biggest buck to date the previous hunting season. It all accumulates into one giant sigh of relief and gratitude. For the moment, I am absolutely dumbfounded at what I am staring at. I soak it all in, take a breath, and I know it's time to go to work.

I begin planning every aspect of every hunt this year in my head. This is all with the wildly ambitious and hopeful assumption that this buck does in fact stay in these woods year round. But, based on the location of the woods, surrounding, and the fact that the buck was alive, I was assuming he wasn't walking out in view much, or at least during daylight. He almost certainly wasn't finding his way onto other properties as I do know for a fact the farms and properties that are just beyond the development do have hunters on them. ReE-scouting to look for potential missed paths this buck could possibly escape these woods, looking at potential adjacent properties for access, stand placement and strategy, you name it I was looking it over for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time. A month goes by and I am dying to go check my cameras. I want to get in there, but I don't. I'm torn because I don't want to pressure this deer. But, this deer has lived on top of this urban environment so it has had to experience trespassers and the other hunters the land owner said go back there.

Just weeks before the season is set to open, I need to run to the store which happens to be just past the road this property is on. I am still torn about checking cameras quite yet. I know the buck is in there and my game plan to this point is to go in either a week before and hang a set so that it's in there opening day since the woods aren't that big and I don't want to potentially spook him off in the dark. Or, go for the classic hang and bang opening day morning. With no expectation whatsoever to check my cameras that day, my wife insists I do. Just check them, it’ll probably help you decide what your plan is to get in on this deer she tells me. I'm not going to argue with that! I grab an SD card, go to the store first and on the way back I go check my camera. As before, I check the first one and move on to the second where I had pics of this beast in the past. Nothing……nothing……nothing…….coyotes, more coyotes, more coyotes. I'm obviously confused but not concerned. I wondered if maybe they were chasing a deer or something and kinda spooked the woods clean for a bit. I decide that I can take this time to go scout up in an area of the woods I had seen the bucking coming from on camera for beds and additional sign. Velvet was just starting to be rubbed off, so I'm thinking with the woods blown out by these coyotes, now's the perfect time to get some additional intel.

I make my way back, probably 20 yards or so past my camera location. Looking intensely for sign of something, I see nothing but instead smell something. It's a dead animal, no doubt. I turn and about 10 yards from me I see from about the shoulder back of a freshly torn apart deer carcass tangled up in some deadfall and kind of laying up against a tree. Still, no worries run through my mind. I walk over just to see if it is a buck or a doe, there he lays. The leftovers of what was just weeks ago the biggest and baddest deer in these woods and in my hunting life. An absolute giant, head down, front legs stretched out, and everything behind the shoulder eaten by coyotes. Just as wildly amazed as I the day I saw the picture of him I am now devastated. I immediately call the game warden and get to taking pictures. We do an over the phone rough investigation. I send him pictures, there's no bullet holes in the head or shoulder blades, he determines it to be natural and writes me a salvage tag so I can keep the head. We determined that one way or another he got caught up in some deadfall with a bunch of vines and that was ultimately his calling. There had been a heart storm in the past week and it's plausible they knocked the dead fall over on him while he was bedded down. Regardless, there he lay. I ultimately did get to take him home, but obviously not how I was hoping.

I will be forever grateful that I at least found him. I may never shoot or even see a deer of that caliber again in my life, so to see this deer and have this short lived adventure with him will certainly be something I hold onto. Holding his antlers in my hands, looking at him every time I walk in my garage, it's bittersweet beyond explanation. At the end of the day hunting is a lifestyle and a passion, but it's not life or death, well for me as the hunter. So I take the experience with immense gratitude and am beyond thankful for the excitement, the pictures, and the ultimate heartbreak. I continue the pursuit for whatever adventure this obsession takes me on next. Just for the sport of it, I decide to measure him out. I am no professional scorer by any means. With that said, I always try to measure on the conservative side. The last thing I want to do is go around and tell people I have a 150" deer or whatever it may be, and I'm 10 inches off to the high side.

15 points - 185 inches