When Ohio bowhunter Jeremy Conrad began trailing the giant, opening-day whitetail he’d arrowed 45 minutes earlier, he soon realized he wasn’t alone.
Jeremy heard them before he saw the four coyotes fighting – more like arguing – over his dead deer. So busy trying to establish who was at the top of the food chain, they paid the human no mind.
“I yelled to scare them away, but they were not intimidated at all,” he told Ed Waite, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “That’s when I noticed four more standing on a small rise.
“Meanwhile, my bow was back at my tree. I had nothing but my hunting knife, which I quickly drew,” he continued. “Screaming at the top of my lungs, I charged into the small clearing, waving my arms like a mad man.
“They were not going to have my deer!” he said.
The wild-eyed hunter was only 20 yards from them before the four closest coyotes began backing away from the carcass. They did not run.
Jeremy wisely chose to forego field-dressing his buck. Instead, he grabbed its rack and began dragging it back to his stand.
He managed to pull it only 50 yards before losing steam, however.
“Out of desperation, I urinated all the way around the animal, and then ran for my four-wheeler as if possessed by a demon. I passed by my bow en route. I had only four arrows in the quiver anyway, and there were still eight coyotes,” he said.
The varmints were still there when he returned, but they hadn’t begun tearing into the deer.
Jeremy had been watching this buck for nearly five years. He’d seen its rack gain more than 60 inches in that time. In 2018, he stepped up his game.
To pattern the buck, Jeremy rotated trail cams near food plots and mineral sites. He put out corn and other attractants; used about 150 pounds of Deer Nuggets per week; and he added Sugar Beet Crush to the mix the day before the season opened.
“My cell phone chirped all night long as the buck kept coming back for more,” he said.
The actual hunt was short. The buck showed, came to 20 yards, and Jeremy fought the shakes long enough to send an arrow through its liver and at least one lung.
He would’ve remained in his stand afterward, but he was worried he’d wobble out of it. So he got down and sat at the base of his tree until he was calm enough to start the tracking job.
The antlers tallied 208 6/8 on the Buckmasters scale.
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