For The Record - May 2006

For The Record

By Ralph Scherder

Matt Gayheart

150 2/8" B&C
Muzzleloader
Licking County, OH

"Some people call hunting a passion, an obsession, a living. But I just think it's fun," says Matt Gayheart. "In the winter, I spend every possible minute in the woods. Right now, I'm having the time of my life."
Matt has every reason to be happy, especially after harvesting a 150-class buck in 2005 with his muzzleloader.
Matt comes from a family strong in the hunting tradition. "When I first started hunting, I was pretty much the brush dog until I knew what I was doing. I got my first gun when I was thirteen, and got my first buck a few years after that."
Many years ago, Matt's grandfather and two friends formed a hunting party. The three men worked, traveled, and hunted together. "Over the years," Matt says, "I've sort of inherited the hunting party. It's transitioned from my father, to some relatives of the original members, and to me. We're all still close.

Most of them live in northern Ohio now, but they come down every deer season to hunt. We still hunt on the same farms, same land, and we're probably still chasing some of the same deer.
"It's always been a good area to hunt. We always fill our doe tags, and usually get a few bucks, but this was the first big buck we ever got."
The weekend before the 2005 muzzleloader season, the area was hit by a tremendous ice storm. "The power was off all weekend. Monday, the day after Christmas, was the first day of muzzleloader but I couldn't make it out until late-morning because I had to go to my dad's to fill up their generator."
When Matt finally made it to the woods, he was greeted by ice. Branches and limbs were falling everywhere beneath the weight of the ice. Regardless, Matt walked up on three deer that were bedded down. "One of them was a 10-point with only one antler, another was the biggest doe I'd ever seen, and the other was this buck. I got closer than I ever thought I'd get to them, but never had a true shot. Eventually they winded me and took off."
People often ask how Matt ended up taking this incredible buck. He doesn't use lures or scents or rattling horns. He prefers to hunt quiet and slow. "And basically, I credit this buck to knowing the land. When those deer took off, I knew exactly where they were going. And with the ice storm and the snow, I knew the creek was up and they wouldn't cross it. I tracked them a little bit just to make sure where they were heading, and then I left and let them rest for the afternoon."

Matt then went home, picked up his father, and returned that evening. His father started in on one side of the farm and Matt sat at the other. "He worked his way toward me. Sure enough, the deer came out of the area where we thought they were, and the buck broke out across the field. My father actually saw them getting up but never had a shot. I was able to free stand and get a shot. I honestly thought I'd missed. It was right around the 200-yard range. The buck just stood there looking around. And then I saw his tail start fluttering and he fell over."
What makes it even more remarkable is that Matt was using a percussion muzzleloader, a Hawkins .50 caliber. "Just a regular percussion cap and ball," he says. "It did exactly what it was supposed to. It did its job and I did mine, and away to the Buckeye Big Buck banquet we went.

"It would have been great to have my buddies that come down from the north there with me, but having my father there did make it that much more special. My grandfather was looking over me, too."
One thing that makes this buck different is that it's a typical from Licking County, which is known for non-typical bucks. Although it has a fairly narrow spread, the points are tall and the antlers have incredible mass, and the buck was aged at six and a half years old.
Interestingly, the buck was photographed while still in velvet by a local photographer "The last time he saw the buck was right before bow season,"

Matt says. "Nobody saw him for two months after that, until I got him."
But there are other big bucks in the area. After the season, Matt and his fiancée spotted three nice bucks in a creek bottom. "We saw none of those deer during the season, and we hunted hard. Those deer must be doing some serious hiding."
Matt owns Proexterior, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, and sells and installs fencing. When hunting season comes around, he says his fiancée is very supportive of his hunting endeavors. In fact, "she's in charge of the alarm," Matt says. "Sometimes I don't make it out turkey hunting, but her record's perfect for deer season."

Stephen Elliott

184 gross score B&C
2005 gun season
Logan County, OH

"When I was a kid, you hardly ever saw a deer," says Stephen Elliott. "I remember the first deer I ever saw. Back then it was a big deal to even see a track."
For Stephen, deer hunting has come a long way since his youth, and over the years has provided opportunities to harvest quality bucks, including two 8-points that score in the 140's. But even they couldn't compare to the 184" B&C whitetail with a 23"_ inside spread he harvested in 2005.
Stephen knew the buck was in the area. "I saw him from a distance the last day of hunting season in 2004," he says. "In 2005, my son Cole saw this buck three different times in archery season. We hunt the same area, but I never saw him."

Until that first day of gun season, and, in Stephen's own words, here's how it happened:

- I had a box blind set up along the edge of a thicket and a field. I had the window open on the side facing the thicket. My son Cole took the climbing tree stand and set up down in the woods, which is probably the better spot.
saw the deer at 7:30 in the morning. Looked out the window to the field and there he was. I hadn't even opened the window on that side and I was thinking, boy, thatâ's a nice one! I was trying to open that window and finally got it down just enough to get the muzzleloader out the window.

-By that time the deer was nearly in the brush, so I made a low grunt. The wind was blowing hard, though, and the deer didn't here me. So I grunted louder, and then again even louder. Finally the deer stopped.

-I don't even know if I had the gun on my shoulder, I was in such a hurry to take the shot. The deer just stopped and looked at me. When I squeezed the trigger, the scope recoiled back and hit me right between the eyes. Blood was running down my face. I was a little excited! I've been hunting all my life and never saw one like that, so I was a little shook up.

-The deer spun around and angled up toward where they'd come from. I found the blood trail but went back to my blind to wait a while. Finally, I went up to the property line and angled down to where I thought he'd be.

-I could see a doe bedded down. I thought she heard me, but I ended up watching her for five or ten minutes. When she got up, I figured that buck would be right behind her. Well, she ended up just feeding around for a while and I kept watching her for at least another ten or fifteen minutes before she went on across the property line.

-I started taking one step at a time, looking and looking. Finally I spotted the buck's rack sticking up sideways above the weeds. I kept taking easy steps toward him and then realized he was dead. I tagged him and sat down and said a big thanks.

-I was nervous just leaving him there because it was right where three property boundaries came together. So I went down to get Cole, who was just coming out of the woods, and I told him, "Here, I want you to shake the hand of the newest member of the Boone & Crockett Club." He didn't know what to think until he saw it. He said, "It's bigger than what you think it is!" So he was pretty excited too. We took some pictures and got him back home.

"It made it nice that Cole was involved in it. Throughout archery season we kept in close touch about what we'd seen. You read about and hear about big bucks, and when it finally happens, it's just a thrill. Later that night I went out to get some ice to keep the deer cool, and when I came out of the store there was a guy in the back of my truck getting his picture taken with my deer.
"That evening, fifteen or sixteen hunters stopped by my house to see it, some of them complete strangers. They came to see the deer and all the other mounts of bear, caribou, elk, and other animals I have. My wife doesn't have to worry about interior decorating. I take care of that."
And the latest decoration addition to the Elliott house? A 184" B&C whitetail, of course "mounted life-size!

Rick Dornon

151 7/8 gross, 21-inch spread
Shotgun 2004
Perry County, OH

Rick Dornon has been involved in the outdoors all his life. Ever since he was a kid, he and his father hunted, fished, and trapped together. "Some of my best memories are those of spending time outdoors with Dad," Rick says.
In 2004, Rick harvested an 11-point buck that gross-scored 151 7/8", a feat he attributes to his father, who passed away the summer before. "It was a pretty tough deal when I lost him," Rick says. "He had a massive heart attack one day while on his way to get a new trap gun.

"When I was a kid, we trapped a lot. That was how we bought Christmas presents. We used to trap all the local creeks. He'd walk the creeks and I'd walk the banks carrying whatever we caught.
"One of my best memories is of a night we went raccoon hunting with two of Dad's friends. The dogs treed a coon and the guys let me shoot it. My dad said that since I shot it, I'd have to carry it. I had my hunting coat on and it had a large game pouch. After a while, we were walking along and I felt this scratching against my back. All of a sudden, it growled and the coon came back to life. The guys started howling and I wrestled my jacket off. It was something else. They thought that was hysterical, especially when the dogs started attacking my coat."

Later on, Rick enjoyed going with his dad to their hunting camp for deer season. "You always think of your dad as being different than the rest of the guys," Rick says. "Once we got in camp, though, I found out he was just one of the guys, after all. And that was wonderful."
All his life, Rick hardly ever hunted without his dad, and the 2004 season was going to be different without him. But, as Rick says, "With the series of coincidences leading up to me taking this buck, it was like he was making it happen for me."

Those coincidences began early in the fall of 2004. Rick's son had a close encounter with the buck during archery season. The deer was only 10 yards away, but came in from behind the tree stand and never presented a clear shot.
Right around that same time, one of Rick's friends spotted the buck bedded down. He went home to get his bow and tried stalking the deer, only to step on a stick and spook the buck away.

During the youth hunt the week before gun season, Rick's friend's son also had a chance at the buck. The boy pulled up to shoot and squeezed the trigger. It just clicked. He'd forgotten to load the gun.
"I didn't find out until after I got the buck that several other friends also had encounters with the deer," Rick says. "But one thing or another happened so that they didn't get him. Even I had a chance at him in bow season. Instead of hitting the deer, though, I shot and killed a 1-inch sapling dead center."

Second chances at a record-book whitetail are rare, but fortunately for Rick, he got one. "It just seemed like it was meant to be, me getting this buck."
First day of gun season started out with Rick arriving on stand shortly before daylight. "At about 7:30, a doe and a fawn bedded down in front of me for a half-hour or so. And then, at 9 o'clock, I saw this buck crossing the field at a fast trot about 75 yards away. My stand was in a funnel point, just inside the woods, and the field was directly in front of me. I had one opening. I waited until he got to that opening and shot. He ran and fell about 20 yards from my stand."

Rick has taken a couple of bucks that score in the 130s, but this was his first really big one, qualifying him for entry into the Buckeye Big Buck Club.
"My son was hunting another area with his father-in-law on first day," Rick says, "œso he missed out on the kill. But I was sure to take some pictures over to show them that night and rub it in!"