For the last decade, Roma Loudermilk has taken off work the first week of October to coincide with the Sooner State’s bow opener. While most wearers of camo prefer to go after adrenaline-fueled, rut-crazed bucks later in the year, the self-taught hunter likes to hunt deer before they become skittish.
He’s found they’re generally easier to predict during the early season, not to mention far more calm.
“Deer just disappear when gun season opens,” explained the 55-year-old manager of Oklahoma City’s Midas franchise.
When Roma saw this buck in 2020, three years before he wound up harvesting it, the deer was small for its age and carried an “ugly” but very distinguishable rack. Its frequent companion was even uglier, with either a malformed skull or twisted facial muscles.
“I called the other one half-face,” he added. “Both were easy to recognize.”
He believes the whole-faced buck might’ve been 2 1/2 years old when he first encountered it.
“It was a very slow grower,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for first-year bucks out here to have 8 and sometimes 10 points. Not this guy.”
In 2022, the ugly rack — maybe the deer’s fourth — began making up for lost time. It grew extra beams on both sides, and Roma was collecting trail camera images of it regularly and from many of his eight cameras spread throughout the Carter County tract.
In November, the quadruple-beamed buck broke off its left antler, which happens with a lot of the bucks where he hunts. After that, the whitetail — possibly the result of having its tail whipped — left the area.
Roma found the right shed, but he never saw the buck again until Sept. 23, 2023. The new right antler still had the extra beam, but the left did not. Instead, it had grown enormously thick, the points partially palmated.
It was 1:00 when Roma climbed into his beloved 18-foot ladder stand on Oct. 5. He saw between 25 and 30 deer that afternoon, videoing many. At one point, an 8-pointer bedded almost underneath him, and several does also filtered into the area for naps.
The 4x4 was tempting, but he held off.
“I’ve been more picky the last couple of years. I finally quit shooting every deer I saw, thinking only of filling the freezer. I guess I’ve gotten past the fill-your-tag stage of life,” he said.
When they all suddenly leapt from their beds and bolted, he didn’t know what to think. Had they heard something? A coyote? Hogs? Had the deer smelled him?
When he heard an animal approaching, he really expected to see a hog. When he realized it was the ugly-duckling buck, his heart raced.
“I got the shakes with this deer,” he said. “It came in like it owned the place, and it eventually gave me a quartering-to shot, my favorite with a crossbow. It was ideal.
“After I shot, it mule-kicked and bolted. I immediately called a buddy and told him I’d just shot the biggest deer I’d ever seen in my life. I also asked him to bring orange juice because I was so weak in the knees.”
After posting photos of the buck on Facebook that night, neighboring landowners began contacting him. A man with a farm 2 miles away had been watching the deer for nine months. He believes the deer left his place when his feeders became empty, as he was about to go on vacation.
Roma began hunting deer in 2016, after an employee convinced him to try shooting a bow.
His wife’s brother helped him erect the ladder stand on the hilltop a decade ago. He chose the spot because that’s the last place he often saw deer as they were fleeing his 40-acre strip. Ever since, it’s been super productive.
“I later realized it’s the perfect pinch point,” he said. “When you get on that hill, deer come from every direction. So the wind’s not a big factor.”
He admits he didn’t know what a pinch point was at the time he picked the spot for the ladder.
“I gained most of my knowledge through reading. I didn’t have a mentor,” he said.
Despite Roma’s own 400-pound bulk, the two men couldn’t load the deer, which, even field-dressed, was later weighed at 248 pounds. They had to winch it.
The taxidermist even had to order a non-traditional form for it, and the man’s supplier cautioned him that it was way too big for an Oklahoma deer.
“No, it isn’t,” came the reply.
Ron Salafia scored the 22-pointer at 203 7/8 inches for Buckmasters. It falls into the Irregular category.
