For three years now, an Ohio bowhunter has employed a tactic that rarely sees the light of day. He knows rattling works, and he’s a huge advocate of grunting and bleating. Until recently, however, his habit of freeing willy and urinating in deer scrapes has made him more self-conscious than confident.
That was then.
As of Oct. 23, 2025, his pack might never see another pee bottle.
Casey Oates had hunted three times prior to the day he bagged the one that’ll be hard to top. The 34-year-old probation officer from Chillicothe, Ohio, has long quit going afield simply because he can on a given day.
Rather than roll the dice, wind direction dictates when and how often he hunts.
“If you can outsmart their nose, you’ve won. So why wouldn’t you try to do that?” he asks.
The rut peaked a little early in Ross County this year.
He arrived at his spot an hour before daybreak that Thursday, his fourth time afield since the 2025-26 season opened. His plan was to hunt until 9:30, and then he’d have to leave for work.
En route to his setup, deer blew at him twice, both times from upwind. He thought that was odd since there’s no way either could’ve smelled him. Still, he couldn’t help worrying that his hunt was over before it started.
Fifteen minutes after sunrise, Casey used a small pair of shed antlers to do some rattling. A small 5-pointer responded.
Forty-five minutes after the juvenile whitetail left, Casey dug out his grunt call and began alternately grunting and bleating, hoping to sound like a buck pursuing a doe. The ruse worked, too, as a shooter arrived post haste.
“I definitely would’ve shot that buck, but I just couldn’t get turned around in time,” he said. “It didn’t hang around for long.”
As planned, Casey began slowly walking back to his vehicle at 9:30. Soon, he came across two scrapes, maybe 5 feet apart. As is his habit, he set down his bow, unzipped, and began peeing in one of them.
“I’ve been doing this for three years,” he said. “When I first heard about it, I thought the idea was silly. But it works. They say that after a few minutes, all urine smells the same.
“I don’t know about that …,” he added.
Midstream, he turned and saw a giant buck approaching. Unable to move, Casey could only whisper, “You gotta be kidding me!” while eyeing the deer, which had put on the brakes and was staring back at him.
“I have no idea how it got to within 30 yards without my knowing it. I guess I was just too busy staring at … the ground. Fortunately, the buck was coming in from upwind and couldn’t smell me,” he said. “It finally cut into the nearby ravine, undoubtedly to try to get around and downwind of me and the scrapes.”
The move allowed Casey to pick up his bow and already nocked arrow — very unusual for him, to have one still clipped to the string. He began scanning the ridgetop, trying to pick a spot where the buck might emerge from the hollow, and settled on a downed oak at 40 yards.
Knowing time was short, Casey drew his bow and waited. Forty seconds later, the whitetail appeared exactly where he’d imagined it would.
The hit sounded solid. Casey could also hear the animal wheezing and coughing as it left.
Rather than sit tight or pursue the deer, Casey went to his father’s house. As he was changing clothes, he noticed he’d never bothered to zip up his pants.
When he began following the sign, red spray on both sides of the trail confirmed the double-lung shot Casey had suspected. The deer covered only 65 yards before expiring.
When news spread on social media of the buck’s demise, five people came forward with trail camera photos of it. One neighbor, who maintains the whitetail was 7 years old, had been accumulating them for three years.
Casey believes the buck was bedded in a low spot among the many ridges coursing through the property he hunts. It likely heard the morning’s rattling, grunting and bleating, as well as Casey walking toward the scrapes, which finally rousted it.
“It’s all hillsides there,” he said. “I had climbed the same tree before; have taken deer from it. It’s got everything: a good pinch point, a travel area, and it’s only a short walk from the road. The only thing is, you must have a good wind. It has to be blowing toward the road, rather than into the heart of the property.
“It’s an amazing story,” he added. “If you can’t laugh when you’re telling it, why bother telling it?”
Ed Waite measured Casey’s career-best whitetail at 199 7/8 inches as a 22-pointer. The hunter’s previous best was a 135- to 140-inch 10-pointer.
“I’ve shot lots of those,” he added.
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