Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

Character

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
My, what a ride! The buck I harvested on Monday, October 21st 2013 named Character by my brother Ron, is a deer that I have had the most history with in my entire hunting past that spans about 35 years. Even though I'm still riding high and feel blessed and lucky to have harvested this deer a sadness that is hard to describe has suddenly from out of nowhere entered my soul for this fallen warrior. I've read where other hunters have experienced this emotion when faced with similar circumstances but never dreamed it would happen to me. Sounds kinda corny I know, but damn it, maybe its because I respect these mature deer so much and when you add some extensive history with one in your lifetime maybe its normal to feel this way. I'm tickled to be the lucky hunter to have been given the honor of having him grace my wall in the future but knowing he won't be sharing the woods with me like he has the past 3 years since I first discovered him is the biggest reason for me feeling this way. Who knows! Enough of that, here is where it all began...
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
Character was first caught on one of my cameras when he was still in velvet in September in 2011. He was running with another buck in velvet that year, a buck I named Splits and later harvested on November 14th that same year. He had a great looking rack with a near perfect symmetrical rack with matching split g2's on both sides. Here is a pic of him in velvet in 2011:


Here he is a few months later in hard horn:


I managed to see him from the stand one time that year and hoped he made it through the season as I wanted to hunt for his sheds and possibly hunt him next year. Didn't find his sheds and figured he was dead so I just assumed the worse.

Well, the following summer of 2012 I started running cams again and it wasn't till the hard horn stage and the bucks started hitting scrapes I came across a nice half rack that had a split g2 on his right side that really seemed to kinda rule the roost on this farm I hunted on. I got countless of videos of him hitting a couple scrapes and he was a pretty nice size body wise as well. He had a nub for his left side but it didn't stop him from fighting cuz he snapped off his brow tine as the rut went on its way. Here is a still shot from the video.


He had apparently been wounded the season before and it effected his rack causing it to be deformed or stunted somewhat but he was still a brute of a buck. My season for hunting for a buck came to an end last Halloween when I harvested another buck that I had no history with at all. Work around the house kept me out of the woods pretty much during the rut but I couldn't take it any longer so one day around the 3rd week of November I smoked up and headed to a tree along a scrape line with nothing but my video camera. At about 4:30 pm I heard thrashing in the bottom along the creek and caught this half rack waging war on a honeysuckle bush then making a scrape. This was my one and only encounter with him in the flesh. I couldn't wait till the sheds were starting to fall cuz I wanted to find this one rack for my collection. It didn't happen for me this past winter or spring but I did find one of his split g2 sides from the year before! How wacked out is that! Here is a pic of that shed:
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
Outstanding start Ric. I think your melancholy is normal. Not that I have experience with monsters like Character, but anytime you experience such a rush or high. . . gotta come down sometime.

I want to congratulate you and let you know there couldn't be a better hunter to take Character. YOU had experience with him. YOU hunted him. YOU harvested him. YOU won the war. He might have won some of the battles, but YOU won the battle brother. He couldn't have found a better place to come to rest. I know he will be cherished, reminisced, reflected upon, and given respect by you and fellow hunters (with a beer in your hands) many times in the future years. What better retirement could this deer ask for? Well done my friend.
 

moundhill

Senior Member
Supporting Member
5,327
103
Hebbardsville..
Ric, your respect and passion for this sport and for deer is amazing. It's truley something you don't find often, and I thinks it's awsome. There's no one more deserving of a deer like this, especially after your past and history with him. Although I have never felt your sadness for this buck being a done deal, I can completely understand how you would feel that way. It's almost like you completed a task you've been trying to accomplish for so long, and harvested a deer that has been on your mind for so long. So there's Probly a sort of emptiness. But at the same time man, I know you're riding a high and feeling PUMPED. I was happy as shit when I heard you shot this stud and when I got the pics I couldn't have been happier. You and Ron are definitly one of a kind, and I look up to and respect you both. I hope one day I can reach the kaliber hunters and people that you both are. Congrats again on this stud man! You deserve it!
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
Well, once again after not finding his one shed again the following year which was this past shed season I figured he fell victim again due to all the hunting pressure around this small farm. Once again I started running my cameras again as the 2013 turkey season was about to open in a few weeks this past early April and I was trying to get some early antler development pics of the local bucks and see who made it and if there are any potential shooters using the farm over the spring and summer months. To say it was a disappointing TC year for me would be an understatement! I had a couple bucks that were showing promise but they disappeared and I was left wondering what they turned into. It wasn't until the hard horned stage that I got just one pic of a buck that made me jump for joy! When I saw the right side of this freaky looking buck and how the g3 leaned forward I knew ole half rack is back and back with a vengeance! He evidently healed up totally and his left side exploded into a nontypical looking mass of bone. The tine which appears to be the g2 looked like a turkey foot and his left main beam kinda looks like a 3rd main beam but his tine length and mass were both very impressive. He is now my number one target buck and I'm certain he is now at least 4.5 years old or maybe even 5.5 years old. When I sent my brother Ron the pic of him he didn't text me back...he called me back! Lmao. After we talked awhile about him and the history I had with him I decided I need to change his name. During the 2011 season I referred to him as Double G2 and in 2012 he was just Halfrack. Now he's clearly neither one so he needed a new name. Ron called me back shortly after our talk and said, CHARACTER! There was no denying him of that and I strongly agreed that this fit him to a T! Here is the one and only TC pic I got of Character this 2013 season.


With season fast approaching I had already put my stands up several months earlier back during the heat of the July and August afternoons so I was pretty much just running my cams and shooting my bow and waiting for opening day to get here.
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
Sorry but I have to do it in chunks because I'll lose it if I take too long. Lmao....I can get kinda windy:smiley_coolpeace:
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
THE FINAL CHAPTER

I did have one stand left to hang which was a LW and I I knew just where to put it. After shed hunting this farm the past 3 years I've been checking on this small 5 acre chunk of the farm that is across the creek from the main part. I have hunted it some but with high water after heavy rains and being so hard to sneak into without bumping deer I mainly just hunted there on evening hunts. It's a half mile walk then across a nice size creek then up a steep bank. This block of timber is flat on top and borders a huge standing cornfield and is also nestled in between to hollows that run east and west. Both hollows start in this creek bottom which is entirely on the property I have permission to hunt and they run to the east. They both are bedding areas but the one that was his sanctuary ran along the north edge of the cornfield and had two houses around it and no hunting was allowed. The hollow to the south just petered out near the middle of this big cornfield and looked more like a finger but was still used for bedding as well but had a huge hunters presence. While shed hunting and scouting this 5 acre block that sat between these two bedding areas I noticed that every year there were bucks using this one faint trail that meandered through the thickest part of the timber near the rim of the steep drop off overlooking the creek below to the west. I would find new rubs over old rubs in all different sizes so it was clear to me that I needed to hang a stand overlooking this trail that was in this pinch-point. You see, the cornfield and drop off are just 60-70 yards apart and this trail was being used to get from one hollow to the other. There were other trails near the edge of the field that ran parallel but they didn't have buck rubs along them. Anyway I set up a stand to where I was 30 yards from this trail and for a W or SW wind.

All my past encounters and videos told me that Character lived mostly in the hollow between the homes with no hunting. So the plan was to hunt this stand with the perfect wind in hopes I get a shot at him. I hunted this stand one morning and once in the evening earlier in the season and got skunked on both hunts but I still had strong confidence that later during the rut this set was gonna be great!
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
THE HUNT

With the temps dropping and the October days getting shorter I found myself getting inpatient having to wait for the next weekend to get some hunting in. With work and family things going on I was just able to hunt some on the weekends. I had about 16 hours of hunting in up till this fateful Monday morning and even though its very hard for me to do I had this "gut" feeling I needed to hunt after I got off work Sunday night into Monday morning. After clocking out at work I went to Wallyworld and got groceries and picked up some energy supplements and drank it in the parking lot at 4 am. This is fuggin nuts! Then I drove around on a 40 minute deer patrol around my home just trying to kill time and stay up! Then I came on home and visited TOO on our PC till the alarms started waking up my family so I can jump in the shower. I kissed my wife and girls and beat it out the door to the garage and put on my freshly smoked up clothes and got into my smoked up truck and grabbed my bow and headed out to the farm. Left the truck at 6:43 and made my way to the stand which is a half mile walk from where I parked. I used a small flashlight pointing it straight down and cupped all the way to my tree. I was pumped and relieved I hadn't jumped anything along my way.

I got settled in at 7:10, strapped my safety harness in,knocked an arrow and sat down. I did chime in on TOO then sat down watching the dark sky to the east turn lighter as each minute went by. At around 7:45 I thought I heard something stirring behind me over my left shoulder so a glanced back there and didn't see anything. Another minute or so I heard it again and remember thinking that's not a squirrel or a nut falling! I turned and looked back again and saw a buck walking along this path and when I saw long tines and heavy mass....I said shooter! In one fluid motion I stood up turned to my left then lifted my bow off the hook and attached my release to the loop. I saw his right side that was facing me was a typical 4 point side. I knew the yardage was 30 so when he stopped to smell my entry smoke trail I buried the 30 pin right behind his shoulder and touched my trigger ever so slowly! Sounded like a shot through a hollowed our pumpkin! He mule kicked ran out about 75 yards headed right for that small hollow with a house I can see 150 yards across the hollow and he couldn't make it. He stopped and just piled up! It all happened so fast and I was so pumped I didn't know what to do. This was the earliest in the season and in the morning that I had ever killed a deer. I tried calling Ron and my wife but wouldn't you figure neither would answer there phone! I texted a few TOOZERS, " BBD BABY!!! A few seconds later my phone started to blow up! Lmao Before I climbed on down I sat there trying to visualize what the rack looked like and if I knew this buck. When I saw the long and heavy 4 point right side I knew there was a strong possibility it could be Character I had just shot.

These are a few pics I've edited in. This is the very first pic taken around 7:30 looking into the east and of the dawning of my incredible day that lay ahead.


This is a pic a few minutes after I loosed my arrow into Character. The chunk of a salt block in the center of the pic was placed there a month or so ago after I pulled the cam that snapped my one and only pic if him about a 120 yards down over and slightly to the left in this shot. I didn't want to leave it where it was once I noticed someone else moved in on me the weekend before season started so I placed in under that log out of view so another hunter would have to practically step on it to find it. It also was a nice 25 yard marker...lmao Character was standing just about 8 steps beyond it and came walking from the left to the right. The rim of the drop off can be seen in the backdrop.


This is around 8am after I climbed down and went to where he was standing with his head to the ground sniffing. It's not as dark as it appears though. You might be able to see my stand hanging in the pignut hickory on the left hand side.


I climbed down after calming myself down and started following the blood trail left by the ST magnum 100. It got heavier as I went and it was leading me right to where I saw him go down. The anticipation knowing your just about to see a stud buck over the next little rise is a feeling I could relive over and over and never tire of it!
 
Last edited:

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio





Exit wound(the arrow didn't pass all the way through)









Thank you for reading my story! Sorry it was so long TOO:smiley_bril:

Good luck to everyone and be safe!
 

Curran

Senior Member
Supporting Member
7,971
172
Central Ohio
:smiley_clap: I've been looking forward to this all week!!

What a great read Ric!! There is not a more deserving hunter walking the woods that Character could have fallen to. The history, the trail cam pics, the sheds, the strategy you went over in your head to hang that stand where you did. Everything is perfectly fitting Brother. The sadness is completely understandable, and honestly I think it's damn admirable to have. It just goes to show that you truly have the ultimate respect for Character. That's why he will always be honored by you, and others who get toast one to him when he's on your wall. Cheers Buddy!!! :smiley_cheers: