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My Loudonville experience

Dustinb80

#FACKCANCER
Supporting Member
18,172
187
S.W. Ohio
So a few months ago I received an email to sign up for a veterans hunt up in Loudonville Ohio. Well I got picked and did all the paper work, blah blah blah. Well the only thing I had to pay for was my gas to get there and back. They covered absolutely everything else. Tags, hotel, food, everything. If I didn't have my license, they would have bought that too. Well I get up there Wednesday around 1030, check into my hotel and meet up with the coordinator for this whole thing with the rest of the guys around noon in the hotel lobby. We convoy from the lobby about 5 miles to Buckhaven Learning center. It was a sight to see. A true Deer Camp. So Wednesday we spent the day meeting all of the guides, looking at photos, filling out paperwork etc. Well they fed us lunch, deli sandwiches and hot soup. Which would be the same lunch the whole trip. They gather us all up in the pavilion, and present each one of us, 12 total, with a brand new hunting suit. Over alls and a jacket with our name on it. Nice Mossy Oak shit. After that, the guy from Ten Point Cross bows shows up and gives each of us a cross bow that we will be using for the weekend. We zero them in. That night, they had a company come in and deep fry 200 lbs of the best chicken wings Ive ever had. Go back to the hotel to sleep. Up on Thursday morning at the pavilion by 515. Hot breakfast, meet up with our guides and talk about where we are going. I end up at the girl scout camp. Its a 900 acre plot of land that is redneck heaven. Trails for ATVs, Bunk Houses, beautiful land. BTW its for sale for 1.2 Million. So I get to my blind, Barronett blind. Check them out when you get a chance, they are huge. About 745, I see my first 2 does. I shot at the bigger one, arrow goes into the ground at her feet. This happens 2 more times that morning. We get back to camp for lunch, and the guy that is donating the bows for the weekend takes a look at my bow. Long story short, they figured out that the Bolt is supposed to have a flat back nock, but it doesn't, plus there was a huge grain difference in the field point and broad heads. They squared everything away. That evening I go to the property across the street from the girl scout camp, up on a hill. I see three more does, one is huge, I wait for her to come in to our bait pile, never got a shot, another doe was out to our left, she blows and sends the three does off into a panic. That night they feed us T Bones and all the sides. Next morning I woke up at 730, alarm didn't go off. Get to camp around 815, into a blind by 830. Didn't see shit. Well the night before was a full moon, they fed all night and were sleeping that morning. Go back out that afternoon to an apple orchard. I shot a doe at 22 yards. The guide and I both thought it was a perfect double lung shot. They tracked her for 3 hours, never found her. Back to camp for some deer spaghetti. Then back to the hotel. Up the next morning and I go back to the girl scout camp, different blind. Once again, full moon the night before, didn't see shit. Back to camp for lunch. By this time, its Saturday afternoon and they are sending me to Edmondson farm, one of the properties donated for the hunt. Get into the blind, about 30 minutes into it, a small button buck shows up. Pass on him. 1 hr later a nice sized doe shows up. I put an arrow right behind her right shoulder, and into her left shoulder. She jumped, landed reared back and took off not putting any weight on her left front leg. Thought for sure this was my first dead deer. We never found the arrow. Someone takes me back to camp for the final dinner and banquet while 3 other guides are out tracking her. Dinner this night was 240 lbs of chicken grilled on a massive platform, spit, plus smoked venison and smoked deer heart. Outfuckingstanding. We get to meet all of the sponsors and financial backers for this whole event.
Awesome people. This whole time Im waiting on word about my deer. Right at the end of the banquet, everyone is starting to leave and the truck pulls up with the guides in it. No deer. The arrow never came out, it stuck into her shoulder, so the didn't get a great blood trail. I didn't get a deer, but damn, Ill never get to hunt property that thick with deer ever again. We had 12 vets there hunting, 2 of them tagged out with 3 deer each. 6 point buck was the big deer of the hunt. Awesome trip. 12 Vets, 22 total deer taken over the 3 day hunt. Thanks to Wounded Warrior Program and Buckhaven learning center for the hunt of a lifetime.