Rack Magazine

Ohio man learns not to dismiss his wife’s intuition.

Although Charles Gerken was sitting beside his wife, Fabiola, on Oct. 9, 2016, he didn’t see the buck she shot at nearly point-blank range until afterward

“I tried to wake my husband, but he was so sound asleep he wouldn’t wake up,” Fabiola said. “The buck was less than 3 feet from me, so I just shot it.”

The couple from Logan, Ohio, was hunting his family’s land. Fabiola had 17 seasons under her belt, but that was her first with a crossbow.

"I shoot a long bow, but it’s rated at only 32 pounds, which isn’t enough poundage for hunting deer,” she said. “So Charles loaned me his crossbow.”

The previous day, the Gerkens saw the sun rise from a blind they’d set up at the end of an agricultural field. It was very cold.

Charles told Fabiola to get some sleep, and he promised to wake her if he saw a deer.

The sun was up when Fabiola opened her eyes. At one point, she spotted several bucks – all out of range of Charles’ long bow and her crossbow – coming down a hill en route to the field. She also saw another buck appear from behind a garage before it began following a short fencerow to the field.

“I couldn’t believe how big that last buck was. It looked straight at me for quite a while,” she said. “It couldn’t tell what our blind was. It just recognized something that hadn’t been there the previous day.

“I looked over to the other side of the blind where Charles was sitting and spotted another nice buck at 20 yards. It broke and ran back to the woods as soon as it saw the blind,” Fabiola continued.

“The next morning, I knew exactly where we needed to hunt: in that little bushy fencerow where I’d seen the big buck,” she added.

That’s exactly where Fabiola and Charles set up their blind the following day. It overlooked the opposite side of the fencerow, downhill from the path the buck had taken.

As he had before, Charles suggested Fabiola take a nap until daylight. But she refused.

“I told him ‘I’m not going to sleep. I’m too nervous,’” she said. “I knew that buck was going to show.”

Charles, who lacked his wife’s confidence, laughed at her. He then leaned back in his chair and fell asleep.

Shortly after daybreak, Fabiola spotted two bucks to her left, approaching Charles’ side of the blind. She tried unsuccessfully to wake him.

When she turned her attention back to where she’d seen the big one, she soon saw it. It was as impressive in body as it was up top.

When I saw that huge buck, I got very calm,” Fabiola said. “I put my knee up to rest the crossbow on it, and I looked into the red dot scope.”

The buck walked down the fencerow in front of the Gerkens’ blind and stopped in front of it.

"The buck was only 3 feet away and a little above me,” Fabiola said. “I could see its body, but not its rack as it looked away from me and moved on the other side of the bushes.”

Soon, the animal stopped in a small open area.

“If it had looked in my direction, it could have easily spotted me,” she said. “However, the buck gave me plenty of time to think, to steady my crossbow, and to put the red dot in my scope right on its heart.

“I had an apple in my pocket, and I believe that apple scent covered my human odor. It might have even lured the buck in closer,” she said.

When the arrow smacked the deer, it ran between 10 and 15 yards. Charles woke up at that point, and Fabiola told him she’d hit the buck. She also re-cocked the crossbow.

She wanted to load another bolt onto the rail and take a second shot to make sure the whitetail was down for good. When Charles asked what she was doing, she replied “I’m going to shoot that buck again.”

Charles told her not to bother because the deer wasn’t going anywhere.

While still in the blind, the Gerkens saw two more antlered deer. They waited half an hour before going to hers.

“I call my buck Deafy because it was so close to our blind that it should’ve been able to hear me trying to wake Charles,” she said.

Fabiola now realizes if she’d succeeded at rousing Charles, she might never have seen her buck. He would’ve shot one of the first two bucks that passed on his side of the blind.

This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2018 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

• We Three Kings: Three of four Michigan crossbow records are toppled during the 2016 season.

• CCTV: This Kansas bowhunter is a believer in trail cameras. He also knows a year can turn a good buck into a great one.