This story, “The ‘Legend’ of Buck Hole,” appeared within the January 1973 concern of Out of doors Life. Veach’s buck remains to be one of many largest deer ever killed in Ohio, and is listed at No. 5 for the state (and No. 51 of all time) by Boone and Crockett.
There’s a spot within the hill nation of southern Ohio, not removed from the city of Beaver, that the native farmers have known as Buck Hole for so long as anyone can keep in mind. For my cash, it’s effectively named.
The hole is about three miles lengthy and fewer than half as broad. A stream winds down the center of it, working into the Scioto River, and in addition working by is a highway, macadam so far as the George Wollum place, gravel the remainder of the best way.
A dozen or extra smaller aspect hollows fork off just like the branches of a tree. They run up towards the steep ridges that flank the principle hole on each side. The entire place is timbered, however there are scattered farms down on the bottomlands.
A few years in the past some farmer had a corn patch about midway up one of many aspect coves. That little discipline is rising up with brush now, however it’s nonetheless extra open than the low ridges on both aspect. An outdated wagon highway, additionally unused and brush-grown, angles down from the top of the cove and threads throughout the deserted cornfield.
I’ll do not forget that spot so long as I dwell. It was there, on a chilly grey morning in late November 1971, the second day of the Ohio deer season, that I killed one of the best nontypical whitetail ever taken in that state — a buck that stands in fourth place on the Boone and Crockett Membership’s all-time report listing.
I’m something however an skilled deer hunter. In truth, that was my first deer hunt, and I nonetheless have hassle believing, my newbie’s luck.
I grew up close to Vanceburg on the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky. I used to be born in 1916, and deer had been so scarce in that space once I was a child that the sight of 1 was one thing we talked about for weeks. There was no open season on them. However there was small sport to hunt — squirrels, quail, and rabbits — and I started searching as quickly as I used to be large enough to lug a gun.
In 1935 I moved to Ohio, and in 1940 I opened a fuel station in Columbus the place my spouse Garnet and I nonetheless dwell. As far as I can keep in mind, there was no deer season in Ohio then, and when one lastly opened I used to be too tied down by the gas-station enterprise to make the most of it.
I did take a time without work after which to hunt gamebirds — pheasants had been my old flame, and Southern Ohio had some good pheasant searching — however making an attempt for deer meant three or 4 days at a time, and that was greater than I might spare. Fairly just a few of my mates and the members of my household went to Penn:-.ylvania or Michigan for deer each fall. however that known as for much more day without work.
In June of 1971 I offered the station: I wished no extra of the seven-day-a-week schedule. Garnet had held a real-estate dealer’s license for a number of years, and I went to work along with her. When fall got here I’d be capable to take as a lot time as I wished for searching, deer included. Our two kids, a son 24 and a daughter 20, had been away from house. My spouse and I agreed that we’d decelerate and do the issues we wished.
I started to make my deer-hunting plans in early fall. There’d be 4 in our social gathering: my brother Clarence and Charlie Miles, each of Columbus; Ralph Swickard from the suburb of Westerville; and me.
I used to be the one rookie within the group. The three others had hunted deer each fall for 15 or 20 years, in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Canada, and Ohio.
The place we picked for our hunt was Buck Hole. Mendacity on the japanese fringe of Pike County, throughout the boundaries of the Wayne Nationwide Forest, it’s about pretty much as good deer nation as any in Ohio. A paper firm at Chillicothe owns a giant tract of timber in that space and has carried on logging operations for years. The cutover land has grown as much as brush, and sufficient small farms are scattered by the hollows to produce corn and soybeans. Loads of corn goes unpicked all by the autumn. Deer develop large and fats in such vary as that.
We had a few different causes for selecting the hole. We knew that an distinctive whitetail buck lived there. Fairly just a few individuals had seen him, together with my spouse’s nephew, Max Bapst. Max is a logger who does a whole lot of searching and trapping, and it was he who had advised me concerning the large deer. His rack was one of the best Max had ever seen, and different individuals who had caught glimpses of the buck — together with one or two hunters who had shot at him with out doing any injury — agreed. That buck, my companions and I made a decision, was a deer price making an attempt for.
The ultimate purpose for our selection of Buck Hole was that I’d be in acquainted territory. George Wollum is my brother- in-law, and his farm, on the finish of the blacktop highway, is the place my spouse grew up. I had spent loads of time in that neighborhood.
The deer season would open on Monday, November 29. The 4 of us drove all the way down to Wollum’s place on Sunday afternoon and spent the night time there. At daylight a drizzle was falling, and it stored coming down all day lengthy.
We went out anyway, searching the decrease finish of the hole beneath the farm. In all my 12 months within the woods I had by no means seen deer signal extra plentiful. There have been runways, contemporary tracks within the moist floor, beds, and rubbed and damaged brush on which bucks had polished their antlers. However no person within the social gathering scored that morning.
At midday we got here in to eat lunch and dry out. We went again to the woods in midafternoon. Our luck was no higher. And once we give up, shortly earlier than darkish, no person had seen a lot as a white flag. However one factor ·as clear: ‘”‘e had picked a spot with a wholesome deer inhabitants. And we had heard various , hooting. Apparently different hunters had been having higher luck than we had been. Our hopes for the second day had been excessive.
After we rolled out on Tuesday morning the rain had stopped though the sky was nonetheless overcast, and the climate had turned chilly. The day can be nearly best for searching, with the woods and floor moist sufficient to muffle sound. We determined to hunt the a part of the hole above the farm.
We left the home proper after breakfast. and half a mile up the highway we separated with a view to hunt two of the small department hollows. Ralph Swickard and I took one: Clarence and Charlie Miles took the second. which ran parallel to ours, over a low ridge to our left. Each of those slender coves ended towards the principle ridge. We agreed to satisfy there about midday.
Deer signal was as plentiful because it had been the day earlier than. Beds, tracks, pawed-up floor the place deer had looked for acorns, and rubbed brush stored me labored up. Ralph was following an outdated logging highway, lengthy unused, that wound up the center of the hole. I used to be maintaining to the ridge 300 yards to his proper. That manner, if both of us jumped a deer, there was likelihood it will cross in entrance of the opposite.
I moved very slowly and quietly, strolling just a few steps, stopping to hear and look, then repeating the sequence. A few instances I heard pictures within the distance, on the principle ridge and to my proper. None of our social gathering was searching in that course. Different hunters most likely had been having luck.
I discovered a spot the place deer had been feeding on acorns. Patches of moist leaves had been overturned. and the signal seemed very contemporary. My blood strain began to go up. I took a few cautious steps, a finger on the protection of my gun, and out of a thick tangle of vines nearly beside me a ruffed grouse roared up ·with a thunder of wings.
I should have jumped 10 ft to the aspect. A flushing grouse is probably going to try this to me, and making the flush extra nerve-shattering was the truth that I used to be anticipating a deer to go crashing out. I had still-hunted for about two hours when the ridge I used to be following received too tough and brushy for me. I dropped all the way down to the underside of the hole and got here out simply above an deserted farm. I had stopped on the fringe of a gap for a cautious look forward when three fast pictures rapped out over on my left. the place Clarence and Charlie Miles should be. I began to maneuver that manner, to search out out what had occurred.
It turned out that Miles had jumped two deer in very thick stuff. A doe broke out forward, and he had have a look at her. Then a buck flashed into sight, following her, and Charlie mentioned afterward that in all his years of deer searching he had by no means seen something like that rack.
The deer was past good shotgun vary earlier than it got here in sight, however Charlie despatched three lengthy pictures in its course within the hope of pushing it in entrance of certainly one of his companions. These had been the pictures I’d heard.
“Man, I hope any individual kills that buck,” Charlie advised Clarence. “Nobody will ever imagine my story about his antlers until they see him.”
Nothing occurred for 5 or 10 minutes after that. I labored very slowly up the cove, stopping each few yards to hear. I carne to the outdated brush-grown corn patch that I described to start with, and once I was midway throughout it a shotgun thudded out two flat reviews in fast succession, on the head of the cove a quarter-mile above me.
I ended and waited. I knew sufficient about deer searching to comprehend that if sufficient hunters are within the woods to maintain deer shifting, the wiliest whitetail within the county, fleeing from hazard behind him, would possibly blunder right into a hunter head-on.
There was a pause that lasted possibly three or 4 minutes however appeared for much longer; the moist woods stayed silent apart from the low sound of wind within the timber. Then I heard a deer coming.
The footfalls had been about 200 yards off, and the deer was headed straight for me. From the noise it was making I began to thump, and I suppose my eyes received as large as saucers. Nothing like that had ever occurred to me earlier than.
What got here subsequent remains to be laborious to imagine. I noticed a giant rack of antlers dodging downhill in my course by briers and thick brush. I couldn’t see disguise or hair of the deer underneath that rack, even when he cleared low obstacles. The antlers gave the impression to be working by themselves in lengthy, reaching bounds.
I’ve learn tales of moose hunters who noticed moose racks that floated above thick willows because the animal walked or trotted. These deer antlers didn’t float. Fairly they rose and dropped and twisted and turned. The deer was maintaining principally to the outdated wagon highway as a result of the quilt on both aspect was very dense. However even within the highway there was an excessive amount of brush for me to get a glimpse of something however his rack.
These antlers ran at me for not less than 100 yards — in plain sight however seemingly hooked up to nothing. It was the spookiest and most fun factor that had ever occurred to me.
Ohio laws restrict deer hunters to the usage of shotguns with slug hundreds. I used to be carrying a Winchester Mannequin 1200 pump gun in 20 gauge.
I introduced it up no and held the sight on that disembodied rack, ready for the deer to cross an open place and present himself. The scenario would have shaken essentially the most skilled deer hunter. For me it was nearly greater than I might endure.
I can’t keep in mind how shut the buck was when he lastly broke away from brush .. I do know that if he had not modified course he’d have raced previous on my left, not more than 15 yards away.
I used to be standing beside a thicket however not hidden, and he noticed me on the identical immediate I noticed him. He slewed round broadside and stored working, flag up, rack held excessive, going for thick cowl.
I held on his shoulder and drove my shot at him. He didn’t flinch or stagger. and his flag didn’t drop. I nonetheless don’t know whether or not I’d hit him.
He had time to make about two extra jumps earlier than I received off one other shot. That point he plunged out of sight, and I used to be certain I had knocked him down. Because it turned out, he ran down into the virtually dry mattress of a small strean-1 that had banks simply excessive sufficient to cover him.
After I noticed him once more he was racing up the far financial institution, and I had a reasonably clear shot the third time. That one belted him off his ft, and he stayed down. (We stepped off the space later; the buck had dropped 82 paces from the place I fired the final shot.)
I ran over, however the buck was lifeless once I received there. I had hit him twice. One slug had damaged a shoulder; the opposite had gone in between two ribs, plowed by the lungs, and lodged towards a rib on the far aspect. I nonetheless have no idea which two of my three pictures they had been, however both one would have killed him shortly.
I stood there staring down at my first deer. The rack was a improbable factor, too large to imagine, and my first thought was This will’t be mine — not a deer like this!
I didn’t fairly know what to do subsequent. I had by no means field-dressed a deer and wasn’t certain learn how to start. I used to be placing my tag on him once I heard one other hunter coming, after which I noticed a crimson cap over the comb. I assumed it was S:vickard, and I shouted to him, nevertheless it turned out to be a stranger.
He was from Cincinnati, he advised me, and he had been searching on the principle ridge with a celebration that Max Bapst had taken out. He launched himself, however in my pleasure I forgot his identify as quickly as he advised it.
“I received separated from my companions,” he mentioned, “and I used to be up on the head of this hole watching a runway once I heard one thing crashing by the comb behind me. I circled and received a reasonably good have a look at the most important set of buck horns I ever laid eyes on. He rattled me a lot I couldn’t get my security off. When he was all however out of sight within the brush I shot twice, and I suppose I turned him downhill to you.”
The person stayed and chatted whereas I waited for Ralph Swickard, however Ralph didn’t come. Lastly I made a decision to depart the deer and hike all the way down to the Wollum place for assist. Only a few hunters had been within the space, and I had killed the buck in a spot so remoted that I wouldn’t fear about anyone discovering him and making an attempt to make off with him. I wouldn’t be gone that lengthy.
The Cincinnati man determined to go together with me and wait on the highway for his social gathering to come back out of the woods. We had been about midway again to the farm once we met Ralph, and I advised him what had occurred.
He advised me to go on and get George Wollum and his pickup truck. He’d return to the deer and costume it out. I described the place the place I had killed it, and he headed that manner.
George and I had been capable of drive his gentle truck to an outdated abandoned farm a few quarter-mile from. the buck. There have been three of us to do the dragging, nevertheless it was a tricky chore. We by no means weighed my deer, however he was a giant, thickset animal, fats and in prime situation. We guessed him at not lower than 250 kilos field-dressed, and by the point Ralph and George and I received him all the way down to the pickup we had been able to double that estimate.
I nonetheless didn’t understand what a unprecedented trophy I had taken. We received again to the farm with the deer round midday. My brother Clarence and Charlie Miles confirmed up shortly after we arrived, and when Charlie noticed us grouped across the truck he set free a whoop.
“I guess they killed that large buck I jumped,” he advised Clarence. ”Man, I hope so. In the event that they did, they’ve received the most important rack of deer horns in Ohio!”
He was to be confirmed proper.
Any searching after my kill was form of an anticlimax. Even so, my three companions went out once more after lunch, and I went alongside, leaving my gun on the home. In the event that they killed a deer, I might assist get it out of the woods. However nobody within the social gathering received a shot.
Two or three hours after darkish that night time we tied my buck on the again of our automotive and headed for house. By that point phrase of my kill had unfold in wonderful style. Earlier than we’d eaten supper 20 to 30 hunters had gathered within the yard to look at and marvel on the rack. and from then till we left for Columbus round 9 p.m. a gentle stream of strangers arrived on the Wollum farm. I had by no means realized that an uncommon deer might deliver a person such immediate fame. That night, after we left the state checking station at Beaver, we had been stopped on the highway by different hunters who had heard concerning the large buck and wished to get a have a look at him.
Max Bapst had hunted in Buck Hole the earlier fall with Norman Meyer, a Cincinnati taxidermist, they usually had talked concerning the large deer. Meyer had been impressed sufficient to make a proposal.
”Inform you what I’ll do,” he had advised Max. “I’ll mount freed from cost the most important deer anyone kills on this neighborhood subsequent season. Simply let me know who takes it, and I’ll get in contact with him. He simply may need the deer you’ve been telling me about.”
Max handed the phrase of my kill alongside to Meyer, who got here to see me. The result was that I turned the top over to him for mounting.
It was Meyer who alerted me to the truth that I had nearly definitely taken a record-book buck. When the required 60- day drying interval had elapsed, Merrill Gilfillan. a retired employe of the Ohio Division of Wildlife and an official Boone and Crockett Membership measurer, taped the rack. It scored 261 5/8, excessive sufficient to charge fourth place within the membership’s report listing. It was additionally one of the best nontypical whitetail head ever entered from Ohio.
Learn Subsequent: The Greatest Nontypical Whitetails of All Time
The highest three nontypical bucks within the Boone and Crockett data, in response to the 1971 version of “North American Massive Recreation,” are a deer killed in Texas in 1892, rating 286; a 1962 kill from Nebraska that scored 277 3/8 (the story of that one was advised in “A 5-Yr Stalk,” Out of doors Life, August 1963); a rack picked up in 1925, additionally in Texas, rating 272.
For a hunter on his first deer hunt, I might hardly have requested for extra. Don’t inform me there’s no such factor as newbie’s luck.