Rack Magazine

Absolutely nothing is average about this public land giant.

A full belly, a hunting buddy and visions of big bucks can make a seven- or eight-hour drive seem more like a jog around the block.

Matthew Ostrander had made the long drive from Richmondville, New York, to Coshocton County, Ohio, twice before Thanksgiving 2016, but by himself. His buddy, Keith Foster, occupied the passenger seat the third time rubber hit the road.

Keith had discovered the public hunting land two years earlier, and his praises convinced Matthew to give it a shot.

“He said the bucks there were unbelievable,” Matthew said. “A 120-inch 8-pointer is a nice buck where I hunt, which is mostly state land in New York. Keith said you could see those all day long in Ohio.

“Our November hunt was all spur of the moment. Keith called and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got Friday off. You want to go to Ohio?’” he continued. “I said yes, and we left about 4:30 Thursday, after Thanksgiving dinner.”

The guys arrived at their destination about 1:30 in the morning, and slept in the car. They wanted to set out at daybreak, only because they weren’t familiar enough with the area to march into it in the dark.

Friday was a bust, but Keith arrowed a nice buck on Saturday evening. They decided to look for it first thing the next morning.

“I really wanted to hunt, since that was the last day. But I couldn’t not help Keith look for his deer,” Matthew said.

When they began searching for the buck early Sunday morning, they found the painted arrow and a decent blood trail. They even found a spot where the deer had obviously bedded for a while, but then the red droplets grew thinner and farther apart.

That’s when the guys switched to woods-scanning mode and separated to scour the countryside.

An hour and 30 minutes later, Matthew had looped probably half a mile from Keith. When he received a status report from Keith via text, it said he hadn’t found his deer, but he’d jumped a big buck and a doe.

Just in case the animals were headed his way, Matthew leaned against a tree for the next 25 minutes, until he saw three does and a buck barreling toward him. All the does jumped a dead tree only a few yards from Matthew, and they zeroed in on him as soon as their feet hit the leaves.

The buck, however, never looked at the open-mouthed hunter, even when Matthew mustered the courage to lean out a bit to raise his crossbow.

“They all were just 15 yards from me. When I first tried to shoot the buck, a doe was between us. I remember thinking I’d have to try a funky shot around her,” he said.

“I wound up using my 30- instead of my 20-yard pin, which is why I shot the deer high in the shoulder,” he continued. “The buck hopped off to the left, and the does ran straight ahead.”

He says he was so intent upon making the shot, he never noticed the rack’s impressive drop tines.

“It was 11:00 by then, and we had two wounded bucks,” Matthew said. “We decided to continue looking for Keith’s deer first. We stayed on it for about two and a half hours. The blood had petered out so that we were finding one or two drops every 25 to 30 yards, and finally nothing. It just stopped bleeding.

“I couldn’t really focus anyway,” he continued. “I was worried about finding my deer.”

The guys began trailing Matthew’s buck at 1:30. Three hours later, they jumped it.

“We hadn’t gone as far as it sounds,” he said. “We were proceeding very slowly, concentrating on individual leaves.”

Fully aware they were running out of time and that both had to be on the job Monday morning, Matthew and Keith kept going until they reached the last strip of cover, a hedgerow thicket, where they suspected the buck was bedded. To continue, the buck would’ve had to cross open ground.

They decided Matthew should slip around to the end of the strip, while Keith approached from the opposite end. They knew the northeasterly wind might betray Matthew’s presence, but that was their only option.

Matthew found a good vantage point beside a tree, brushed away the leaves at its base, and then knelt.

“The whole time, I was saying ‘Please God … please God … please God,” he said. “I also realized I’d lost my quiver, so I had only one arrow. It couldn’t get any worse!”

So much time passed, Matthew thought their effort was for naught, that the buck wasn’t in the thicket. But then he saw it – at least its head, neck and the top of its back – running in a nearby depression.

“It wasn’t running full-out. It was more like a stumbling trot,” Matthew said. “You could tell something was really wrong with it.”

The 30-year-old heavy equipment mechanic took the only shot he had with the only arrow at his command, and he hit the deer in the neck. The smack drained all the flight out of the deer.

Matthew’s first shot had indeed hit high, clipping the buck’s spine, which accounted for its peculiar gait.

It took the guys two and a half hours to drag the deer out of the woods. When they emerged, they encountered a local hunter, who helped them load it.

A New York biologist told him the buck was 6 1/2 years old.

“It’s hard to believe this happened,” he said. “I have the cheapest crossbow money can buy. I’m just an average guy.”

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

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