Joe Bradley was hunting a farm near his home in Clark County, Ohio. “I had hunted
from this same stand for three days without seeing any deer at all. I was truly convinced
that it was a good stand location. I also knew there were loads of deer in the area, yet I
had seen nothing,” recalls Joe Bradley as he recounted the hunt to me. “I knew there was
or had been a big buck in the area. The previous bow season I had discovered a very
large rub on a six inch diameter oak tree. The tree was in a fence row not far from this
woodlot. It just seemed that I should at least have seen some does, after all it was
November 5th, and the rut was coming on strong, or so I thought, but nothing.” And it
was indeed. The rut peaks here right about Veterans Day, November 11th. That was just
6 days away, so it was hard to believe there were no sightings.

There was a trail in front of the stand running north to south that led from a bedding
area directly to a feeding area, and then a second heavy trail coming from the east that
merged right in front of the stand. These trails were all very heavily used as seen by the
wear and tear along the paths. “I decided that I would hunt it one more day to see what
happens,.” Joe spoke clearly now as he described the preparations for this final day. “I
had gotten some Doe-in-heat scent and put it on pads which I then tied under the soles of
my boots and then walked down the cornfield alongside the woodlot to the east end. I
then walked into the woods and followed the east - west trail all the way to the tree stand.
Then I got on the north-south trail and walked up into the bedding area, all the while
hopefully leaving a good scent trail as I went.”

  “I hung a scent rag in a tree near the bedding area and then went back to the tree stand
and settled in,” Joe proclaimed. “I must have been there about three or four hours,
nothing!”

“It was just about sunset, and I had to go bad, and I thought if I crawled out of this tree
I’ll never get back up here again in time to do any good,” Joe continued. “So I just said,
well which way is the wind blowing? Well, it just happened to be blowing right across
the trail, well that’s the way it goes. I did what had to be done, and then sat back down.”

  “It was getting late so after a few minutes, I couldn’t wait any longer, I got down from
the tree and walked in the direction he had gone. When I got to the bedding area, he was
laying there. He was huge, I couldn’t even move him, he just was too big,” Joe spoke
quietly now. “It was a good thing that he didn't travel very far, because there was not
even one drop of blood to follow.”

It was now dark and Joe could not move the buck from its resting place. “I have
dragged a few big deer before, but I couldn’t even move it from where it lay. I field
dressed the deer and then covered it for safe keeping, and headed for home. I couldn’t
leave it there overnight because there are too many coyotes in the area and I didn't want
to risk loosing the meat or the trophy. When I got home I called the fellow that was
farming this land and got him to come out with a front loader. We went right into the
woods and loaded it in the front loader and hauled it out and to my truck.” I have
harvested deer which, field dressed, have weighed 180 pounds and 205 pounds
respectively. This deer was much heavier. It was estimated to have weighed over 300
pounds live weight.

Reminiscing back, Joe said, “When I saw him come down the trail I saw the rack and
I knew he was something special, something I had never seen before, so I concentrated on
making a good shot. From the time I first saw him, till he was out of sight was no more
than two minutes. He had his nose to the ground following the scent trail I had laid out
and he was just moving at a steady pace. He wasn’t paying attention to anything but the
trail. I really didn't have time to get nervous or flustered, I just concentrated on getting a
clean shot.” Joe continued, “When I saw him lying on the ground, I couldn’t believe the
rack, it was outstanding.”

  Curious as to why the bolt had not passed through when the shot was only 15 yards
and mostly vertical at that. Joe processed the deer himself and found that the bolt had
passed through a 1/2 inch thick rib and the mechanical broadhead tip just touched the skin on the underside of the chest cavity.

The rack contains 24 scoreable points, twelve on a side, with five each being typical. The irregular points added up to 42 7/8 inches. The beams are both more than 26 inches. The tines are for the most part quite short compared to the mass on the rack and several show damage and excessive wear. He was undoubtedly the king of all he surveyed, and he had the scars to prove it.

I chided Joe about the tine lengths and broken points and he replied, “If I had gotten him the year before he might actually have scored 200 or better. He looks to be going down hill, but still has great mass.”

 
In fact the left beam’s base circumference is a full 8 0/8 inches and the total of the eight circumferences equals 46 3/8 inches, impressive by any standards.

The buck scores 193 7/8 inches in the irregular category for Crossbow harvested deer
and will rank very high in the BTR book. The composite score with inside spread will be
213 4/8”, also very impressive.