Mushroom Hunt Leads To Tall-Tined Treasure
By Mark Melotik
It was back on April 15, 2022, when Ohio’s Joel Drake found a monster of a Buckeye State deadhead. And ever since, friends and family had been asking just how many inches the mighty rack might hold. Now, Drake can finally tell them. Spoiler alert: It’s much larger than he thought.
Earlier this year Drake, 23, had gotten word that a local sporting goods store was holding a rack-scoring event, and so he packed up his prize and was soon speaking with BTR scorer Edson “Ed” Waite. But the story of the impressive find dates back two years ago to a fateful mid-April day.
Tasty morel mushrooms were the reason Drake and a buddy were roaming Drake’s hunting area, an unassuming 20-acre private parcel overgrown with plenty of honeysuckle and other brush. Good mushroom country but a more-or-less classic “pass-through” parcel when it comes to deer, Drake offered.
“When I first saw it, I looked up and told my buddy, ‘Man, I think that’s a deadhead up there’,” Drake recalled. “He was like, ‘No way — that’s way too big.’ He was saying it looked like it could be a honeysuckle bush, and I said, ‘Maybe you’re right.’ When we walked up there I was pretty shocked.”
The deadhead was about 30 yards from Drake’s primary treestand, which was a bit ironic. In five years of hunting the property with his dad and brother, over several seasons with multiple weapons, the trio had seen nothing like the caliber of rack he was holding in his hands.
“I’ve always wanted to get it scored,” Drake said. “I’ve never shot a deer of that caliber — I haven’t even seen a decent-sized buck. I’m glad I got it scored; everyone always asks me about it. I’m not that familiar with scoring deer, so I didn’t know what to tell them. Is it 180? 190? I had no idea.”
After posting the find on an Ohio deer hunting Facebook page, Drake received another surprise. He was contacted by a neighbor who had been hunting the buck on a nearby parcel. As a bonus, the neighbor sent several trail cam photos of the big deer on the hoof, and since then, the two hunters have shared trail camera photos of deer they have encountered.
Interestingly, Drake learned that a very similar-sized buck was taken on the same adjoining land back in the early 2000s. That rack reportedly held 23 points and scored 222 4/8.
On March 23, 2024, Drake learned the official score of his monster pickup. On that date the tale of the tape found an official BTR score of 220 3/8 in the Pickup Irregular category. The stunning rack features a greatest spread of 22 6/8 and more than 30 inches of irregular points, with bases measuring 6 5/8 and 6 2/8 inches.