For The Record Book

Mahoning County

By Ray Ward

Ohio Valley Outdoors is featuring the top typical and non-typical deer for the counties in Northeastern Ohio. All records are according to Buckeye Big Buck Club record book.

Non-Typical

At 246 BBBC points, Ron Osborne’s buck held the state bow kill record for over 10 years. Ron’s story starts in October 1986, as he was bow hunting for a 10 point he had missed the year before. However, by mid-October, Ron was not able to locate the 10-point and he decided to expand his search for the buck.

With only about one hour of daylight left, Ron climbed into an old oak in a tree line running between one wood lot and another one that had recently been logged out. Ron watched the surrounding area until dark hoping to spot the 10 pointer.

Sitting on a big limb, with the sun falling below the trees, Ron figured yet another evening had been wasted, when along a distant tree line bordering a hayfield he spotted a huge set of antlers. Ron said the antlers were huge and he certainly knew they were not those of the 10-point he had been searching for.

The oak seemed to be in a good spot because of the tracks and rubs found near it. However, after several unproductive afternoon hunts there, Ron noticed an apple tree at the corner of the logged out woodlot with a decent sized pine about 15 yards away. To make a long story short, Ron placed a homemade portable stand in the pine and began to hunt there. Several opportunities to take lesser bucks including a 12-point were passed as dreams of getting the monster kept Ron from releasing the arrow.

On Saturday, November 22^nd Ron tore himself away from the Ohio State-Michigan football game on television and returned to the stand in the pine tree. Being on stand only about a half hour, the big buck stepped out of the cuttings and came in his direction. When he was about 70 yards away, the sun shined on those huge antlers causing Ron to start shaking all over. Ducking back into the pine, he grabbed the bow and tried to calm himself down for the shot.

The buck was now about 40 yards away coming right to the tree. Before he realized it, the buck was directly under the stand. He turned and took about six to eight steps toward the apple tree giving a quartering-away shot at about 10 yards. When the deer lowered his head to eat an apple, Ron centered the 10-yard pin just behind his shoulder and let go.

The awesome buck suddenly jumped forward and ran past the apple tree down along the fence row about 50 yards, then turned around and just stood there, looking back. Finally, he began to stagger, then fall. He did get back up, but then stumbled and fell again.

The buck continued swinging his head back and forth, then lay still. Finally, after another 10 minutes, Ron climbed out of the stand and slowly approached him, not knowing for sure if he was dead. Sure enough, when Ron was about eight feet away, he lifted his head and started to get up and come toward Ron, but then fell backward. Ron shot him again through the chest.

Little did Ron know that when he pulled himself away from the football game on television that day, he would be bringing home that evening one of the largest deer ever taken by bow and arrow.

Typical

Mahoning County’s largest typical buck was taken by Robert Haney. However, when contacted by OVO for an interview Bob declined, and he felt that he had good reason.

In 1987 when Bob arrowed his buck, the media published details on how and where his buck was harvested. The following years, his hunting area was saturated with other hunters. Most had no permission to hunt this property. This gave Bob a bitter taste for media and told OVO that the less publicity he receives the better.

The Haney Buck tapes in at 1801/8. This, coming from a mainframe 8-point is phenomenal. With many abnormal points this buck grosses in the high 190s and the 180 1/8 net score doesn’t give justice to the mass of Mahoning County’s largest typical buck.