Rack Magazine

Ohio deer hunter crosses river to collect a little venison AND the buck of his dreams.

Keith Miller is the kind of friend every hunter should have.

“He’s serious about his hunting,” says Erik Heller. “Still, he was willing to share his spot with me.”

That spot is a 200-acre farm in Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from where Erik lives.

“Keith is just a great, God-fearing guy. A lot of people would have been mad at me for killing a deer like this on their property, but he’s not that kind of person,” Erik said.

“I help Keith haul hay in August,” Erik continued. “After that, I help him hang treestands. He maintains about 10 stands on the farm.”

When Kentucky’s bow season opened in September, Erik purchased his nonresident license and crossed the river to hunt as often as possible.

“I bowhunted the farm at least 10 or 12 times,” he said. “On one occasion, I saw this buck walking through some cedars, coming toward a fence near my stand. As it came closer, I drew my bow.

“When the buck got to the fence, instead of jumping it, it got down and crawled underneath it. When it came up on the other side, I picked a spot and released the arrow.

“The deer ran off afterward,” he said.

“When I got down and recovered the arrow, I discovered the broadhead had been driven back into the shaft. Penetration was minimal,” Erik continued. “I had never seen anything like that. I don’t know if it hit a rib or what happened.

“There was a little bit of blood trail, so I spent three or four hours looking, but I couldn’t find the buck. In the end, I don’t think it was hurt very badly,” he said.

Erik also hunted the two-day, early muzzleloading season with no luck.

As Erik drove south over the bridge into Kentucky for opening day of the 2016 modern gun season, he was pumped. Keith knew a huge whitetail was hanging around the farm. He had shown Erik a photo the previous day.

At first, Erik had just brushed it off as one of those rare sightings of a buck you never see a second time, but the more he thought about it, he decided the huge deer might still there.

“On opening day, Keith gave me a choice of two or three stands to hunt,” Erik said. “Two of those were near a hayfield on a ridge. I was going to choose one of those based on the wind’s direction.

“We decided to wait until that afternoon for our first hunt in order to move into the area without spooking deer, since most of the area is open pasture.

“Keith dropped me off about 2:00 at the bottom of a two-track that led up to the hayfield on the ridge. I had to walk about a quarter- to half-mile to the stand I had picked.

“When I got to the top, I walked off to the right side of the field and found the stand about 12 feet up a cedar tree. I was carrying my Remington .243 topped with a 3x9 scope.

“About 10 minutes after I got situated in the stand, a deer came out about 30 yards, and I shot it. As it ran away, I saw it was a button buck, which meant I could use my antlerless tag on it and continue to hunt for another deer.

“While I was giving the button buck some time, Keith texted me and told me he had just gotten word that his uncle had died, and he was going to have to leave. I texted him back and told him, ‘I could go with you.’ But he told me to keep hunting.

“After field-dressing the button buck, I decided to move to another stand since I had made so much commotion in that spot. Deer had been using the field heavily, and I didn’t want to move completely out of the area.

“I quickly hoofed it across the field to a stand in a big red oak on the other side. By the time I got set up again, it was 4:45,” he said.

“About 10 minutes later, a doe walked out about 180 yards distant. I was really just meat hunting and might have shot her and used my final tag, but she moved out of my line of sight,” Erik admitted. “The scene that happened next is one I’ll remember clearly for the rest of my life.

“The sun had set. Although there was ample shooting light, a full moon had risen behind where the doe had gone out of sight,” he said. “As I looked in that direction, I saw absolutely the biggest buck I had ever seen in my life coming over a hill. It was looking where the doe had gone, and the full moon was in the background.

“I tried to settle down, but I couldn’t. I twice raised the gun to try to get the buck in the scope, only to lower it. The third time, I got the crosshairs on it, shot and missed.

“While I was cussing, I was racking another cartridge into the chamber.

“The deer ran directly at me and stopped 10 yards away. I put the next bullet right in the shoulder, and the deer dropped. There had been six other deer with it that I had paid little attention to, and they scattered in every direction,” he added.

Knowing Keith probably would’ve had a shot at the buck if he hadn’t left his stand, Erik had mixed feelings.

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

• The Way to a Man’s Wallet: Double drops are a powerful incentive.

• Change of Plan: A funny thing happened on the way to a noontime rendezvous.