Southern Ohio’s Pike County is prime whitetail ground, with rolling hills and hardwoods, brushy draws and plenty of farmland. That’s where Dale Cooper, of Chillicothe, found himself on Dec. 2, the opening day of gun season. Sitting 15 feet off the ground in a ladder stand, he waited patiently for a buck that he’d only just learned about.
“I knew there was a big 8-pointer around, but I got a trail camera photo a couple days before the season opener that made my heart skip,” Cooper tells Outdoor Life. “That photo changed everything.”
Cooper sat through the morning without seeing much. Around lunchtime, he came down to meet with some buddies who were hunting the same private 30-acre piece.
“I’d showed my pal Kevin Billard the picture of the big buck before the season, so he knew the size deer I was after,” says Cooper. “I had lunch with him and a few other pals, and when we got up to leave for our afternoon hunt, I told them I was gonna shoot a 21-pointer.
“They all laughed — except Kevin.”
Cooper was back in his tree stand by around 1:30 p.m. Again, he watched and waited for the buck, only this time it came in. He first spotted the buck at 4 p.m. when it was 80 yards away. The deer had stopped behind a tree, but he was able to lean around the tree to get a shot.
“I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and fired, but nothing happened. He just stood there – didn’t move. I worked the lever action fast to load another round. Then I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder again and fired a second 180-grain bullet.”
After his second shot, Cooper saw the buck kick through his scope. Then it turned and ran. Cooper marked the spot where he lost sight of the buck, and 20 minutes later he went down to look for the deer.
“When I was walking to where I thought I’d last seen him I found a heavy blood trail and started following it,” he says. “About 30 yards down the trail the buck was lying dead as a doornail.”
Cooper sent a message to his friend Billard and told him he needed help loading the estimated 260-pound buck. Billard showed up, and after field dressing the deer, the two hunters dragged it 100 yards to where they could load it onto an ATV and get it out of the woods.
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The buck was very lean, Cooper says, and was likely worn down by the rut. But it’s rack was still in great shape, and he brought it to Toby Hughes, an Ohio Buckmasters scorer, the following day. Using the BTR system, Hughes scored it at 225 3/8.
“That big ol’ buck had a huge gouge in the side of his head, which I guess was from fighting another deer,” Cooper says. “I’d sure like to see how big the buck was that was trying to kick my buck’s tail.”
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