by Jason S. Erb

Editor's note: Last Sunday, Jason S. Erb harvested a once-in-a-lifetime Ohio trophy buck. The buck's gross green score is 193 3/8" and this is his story.

I live in Alliance Ohio, however I harvested my buck in the adjoining Columbiana County. I have spent more time in the woods this year than I have the past five years combined due to a busy schedule with my children. This was my 17th night in my ladder stand. I have tried calling and using attracted scents over the years and have not been real successful, therefore I do not use them. I do everything I can to eliminate human odor and let nature take its course. I do use Dead Down Wind odor eliminator.

Pictured Above: Jason Erb displays his Ohio giant with a swell of pride. Photo courtesy Jason Erb.

Last Sunday night, November 3 I got in my tree stand around 3:30 p.m. This was the first day of time change, making legal time 5:47. It was a very still evening, not even a leaf was moving. It was about 5:35 and a doe and two yearlings came out in the small field I was hunting. They grazed around the field a while and the doe started to get leery, she tucked her tail and walked away. I have been in the woods enough to know what that means. My Bear Attack compound bow was sitting across my lap. I turned my bow vertical and positioned my T- handle TRU-Ball release. Within a minute I saw another deer walking toward a scrape that was about 35 yards from me. At that time I could not tell it was even a buck. The deer walked over to the scrape that was there and started licking the branch. At that point I could see it was a buck, however I did not know even if it was a shooter. The buck started walking toward the yearlings and me.

As it started walking toward me I drew my bow, while still sitting. The buck got within 18 yards and I knew that he was a shooter, however I did not know he was as large as he was. I was focused on the shot and not looking at the size of his massive rack. I knew that I was within minutes of legal time, and trust me it was getting pretty dark. I let my "Indian bullet" (Gold Tip arrow fitted with a 2-Blade Rage) go and I hit my mark, or so I thought. I felt confident in my shot. He ran in the same direction he came from, the doe and the yearlings scattered from the field. After a few minutes I got down and went to where I shot. I found two thirds of my arrow with blood on it. I walked a few feet and found blood. At that point I walked back to my truck and sat for 45 minutes. I called everyone that I could think of, not that I wanted to talk to them but to kill time. If you are a hunter you know how long that 45 minutes feels like, HOURS!

After 45 minutes I walked down to the impact site and started following the blood trail. He backtracked on the same trail that he came in on. I followed the blood about 80 yards and found a white belly staring at me. As I walked up to the deer, I knew that he was a shooter however I was in shock. I called a friend to tell him I shot a nice deer, he asked me how big the deer was. I was quick to answer with 140- to 150-inch deer.

I told him I had to go, I had a lot of work to do. As I knelt over him and fondled his rack I almost cried. I knew this deer was a lot larger than what I recently thought. After I got the deer a friend of mine helped me drag the massive buck from where he expired. Luckily I only had to drag him about 30 yards before we hoisted him into the back of a mule. I would assume this deer was close to 250 pounds. After a full evening of show and tell I took him home and hung him in the garage, I wanted to sleep beside him with a gun to ensure no one messed with him! The next morning I took him to the taxidermist (Jeff Pusateri of Buckeye Taxidermy), he was even impressed. Jeff gross-scored my deer at 193 3/8 inches. He has 16 scoreboard points and his inside spread was 25 5/8 inch.

God Blessed me with a once in a lifetime buck!