For as long as he’s been hunting, Lester Miller says he’s dreamed of two things: To shoot a 200-inch deer and a deer with a drop tine. In 2025, Lester made both dreams come true with one arrow.
The 35-year-old roofing specialist from Ada, OH, was sweating lightly in the summery temperature on Sept. 19 as he walked the half mile to his stand. Having seen a heavy-racked buck on his trail cams, and having obtained permission to hunt 15 private acres in Hardin County, OH, Lester was determined to find out where the buck was feeding in the evenings.
“The first time seeing him, back in June, I knew he had great potential. He had two drop tines, although one later broke off. Another week passed, and when he came back, his rack appeared to have grown even bigger. The third time I saw him on camera, on Aug. 17, my cell beeped at 2:30 a.m. and I woke up. When I opened the app, I thought, what kind of monster is that?”
He began driving around every evening, trying to spot the buck in its dining room.
Lester says. “I also looked for bedding spots and scrapes. I knew I had to pattern him before anyone else did.”
The weekend before season opener, Lester spotted the buck, in the flesh, in the corner of a bean field. But first things first: Lester needed to get permission to hunt that field.
He had his ducks in a row when he knocked on the landowner’s door.
“He agreed to let me hunt his property,” Lester says. “But I wanted it in writing, so I came ready with a written permission slip for him to sign. It said, I (name of landowner) give Lester Miller permission to hunt my 15 acres for the 2025-26 season.”
After the hunt, to show his gratitude, Lester brought him some deer sticks. “Those are links, like summer sausage, from an Amish processor in our area.”
Weather conditions were not ideal for finding big bucks during the daytime, he says. With evening temperatures in the high 60s, and daytime numbers in the 70s, Lester says people couldn’t believe he killed this caliber of buck, which usually move at night.
Around 5 p.m., Lester set his Lone Wolf hang-on stand 18 feet up a walnut tree, one of many that formed a tree line within shooting distance of the beans. On the other side of the line was a cornfield, making the nearby area a favorite feeding spot with a pinch point.
“I was concealed in the stand because, fortunately, the buck came into view from the east. If he had come in from the south, he might have seen me. I had no cover on that side.”
At 7:30 p.m., Lester saw corn stalks moving and shaking, and he knew something was walking down a row. “The corn was to my 9 o’clock. I grabbed my range finder as soon as his head poked through. I saw that was the drop tine buck. My right hand was shaking so bad, I couldn’t get a range. So I tried with my left hand: 40 yards.”
The buck headed out of the corn and into the bean field as Lester was setting his 40-yard pin. It was positioned for an ideal broadside shot.
“As soon as I pulled back, the shakes subsided. My arrow carved out a double lung shot and continued through five rows of corn.”
The buck ran past Lester into the fencerow and disappeared.
“I started to doubt myself since I didn’t see the dead deer. Was I nervous? I tied my bow onto the drop rope, but I couldn’t tighten the knot and my bow fell to the ground.”
When Lester called some friends, eight people showed up to help him find the 22-point trophy buck.
“I was so worried we’d lose the buck that I called a guy with a recovery drone with a thermal sensor. He took 90 minutes to arrive, and meanwhile my friends were excited to get going. But I said to wait. I wanted every chance to locate my buck.”
The drone arrived at 9 p.m., and it went up, flew toward the fencerow and found the deer’s body in about 10 seconds. Looking back, Lester says things might have been a bit blurry after he actually saw this spectacular whitetail.