I’ve been hunting in Southern Ohio since 2015. During that time I’ve been fortunate to kill some really nice bucks, including a 185-inch giant in 2018. While each deer has their own story, this one was particularly interesting. In 2020, a buck showed up in mid-November that sported an impressive rack, but looked super young. I had already tagged a buck, so letting him go was a much easier decision. In March 2021, I found both his shed antlers and was really impressed. The deer would have scored 160, and I assumed he was only 3 years old. I nicknamed the deer T.F.D. (Tines For Days). It looked like he had moved in and started calling the farm home, so I was excited for summer 2021 to see what he would look like.  

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to find him during July, August and September, he had vanished. I had another nice buck on camera and I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go after him early in the season. I arrowed that 160-inch buck the first week of the season and was really excited, but in the back of my mind I wondered if TFD would show back up. 

I’d read stories and heard about deer that will predictably follow a pattern and be in the same spot around the same time every year, though I’d never observed any truly predictable pattern before. On the exact same day of November, on the same trail camera, I got pictures of TFD. He had returned! It was unmistakably him, despite the fact that he had lost a point and was a 9-point. His rack’s frame had gotten noticeably larger. I was even more excited that I believed he still had some growing to do if he was able to make it to 2022. 

This past summer I again hoped he would stay and make the farm part of his core area. However, he did not. I decided that unless another really giant buck showed up, I would hold out and wait until November to see if he would show back up. When the season opened on Sept. 24, I realized how difficult it was going to be to wait, but I was committed. On Nov. 8, (a few days earlier than past years), I was checking a cellular trail camera and there he was. Five years old and absolutely giant. I hunted the following morning and actually saw the buck. I had him at 45 yards but the wind swirled and he turned and walked off. 

I hunted the week-long gun season and spotted a glimpse of him deep in some timber and couldn’t get a shot. One afternoon, I switched tree stands and at 4:30 he was on camera at the stand I’d left at lunch. Ohio has a two-day weekend second gun season that was Dec. 17 and 18 this year. I’d really been able to identify where the deer was bedding based on observations and trail camera photos. So, in preparation for the two-day season, I brushed a ground blind in along a fence row near a partial acre of beans I had gotten the farmer to leave unharvested. 

I had my dad make the trip with me for the two-day gun season and we hunted Saturday evening in the blind. I saw what seemed like every buck that had been on camera come into the field, except for him. We waited ’till dark and got out of the blind and snuck down the hedgerow without alerting any deer, which turned out to be critical as we did not educate any of the deer that were feeding in the field. The following day was sunny and cold with high pressure. All the deer that had been in the field the day before began filtering out with much more daylight. With about 20 minutes of light left my dad spotted a big buck out the corner of the window of the blind where I couldn’t see. As the deer walked into my field of view I whispered, “It’s him.” I allowed the deer to walk into the field and waited for him to stop. He paused and stood with his head up surveilling the field of deer, and I made the 120-yard shot count. He ran into the woods and expired within 60 yards.  

The buck has almost 27-inch main beams and has a 20-5/8-inch inside spread. He gross scores 172-3/8. Interestingly, the buck didn’t carry his mass as well as a 5-year-old, but his frame and points were all significantly larger.