Washington County, Ohio 9-Point

by Joe Eddy
(Wheeling, West Virginia)

I saw this nice 9-point buck the first day of Ohio season, but he was running straight down hill from me and I didn't get a shot. I was using a 12-gauge that day as it was pouring rain. I missed a nice 8-point later in the day and was kicking myself for not having a little more patience to take the shot.

I decided to travel back to our Ohio farm again on Saturday morning to try again. I was walking out the same ridge where I saw the 8 and 9 points and decided to diverge from my plan and stop at a different point along the trail. Before I could even get to a point of cover, I heard movement about 50 yards over the bank, so I thought that they had either scented or heard me.

I decided to exercise a little more patience this time and wait for 5 minutes before moving to cover. 2 minutes later this fine buck and a doe came right up to the flat where I was still standing in the open, about 40 yards directly in front of them. My muzzleloader was down to my side until he looked back at the doe for a split second, when I decided to aim at the largest part of his body. I still did not have the hammer back and he looked right at me, I thought. So I gently pulled the hammer back and fired, when the smoke cleared, he was running right at me and past me so close that I could see the shot wound in his side. He ran about 50 yards and I could hear him drop as I was trying to reload. This was my first deer with a muzzleloader, so I was very slow at reloading.

When I walked up to him, I realized why he didn't see me, as his left eye was swollen closed from a recent fight, as well as a cut on his brest and a puncture wound in his neck. Must have been a big deer he was fighting, but he still had the doe. The rack scored 150 3/8 gross, as it was very heavy.

As you can see from the photo, I re-learned the importance of patience, not only in hunting, but in life. This was a great day.