Bowhunter gets a second (and third) chance at a huge Ohio Buck

Apparently lightning can strike more than once. And for bowhunter Daniel Cremeans, three hits was the charm for a huge buck he hunted with his half-brother Ryan Slopko in southern Ohio. Cremeans says he shot at the box and missed a few seasons ago.

“Based on camera photos, I knew that the buck had been in the area for three years,” says Cremeans Outdoor living. “My half-brother and I even had a few chances to catch him, but we missed.”

However, they kept getting trailcam photos of the buck. And on Oct. 2, Cremeans was 30 feet up in a tree stand set up next to a feeder when the deer came into view.

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“He stopped at 30 yards and I shot, but the arrow hit a limb I didn’t see and my arrow flew over his back,” said Cremeans, a construction worker in Ross County. “He was a bit shocked, but he didn’t go crazy. I didn’t want to shoot him again that afternoon, so I let him run away.”

After his Oct. 2 opportunity, Cremeans said the buck appeared on camera less often. He stayed away from the stands and waited for the weather to change. On October 12, he finally tried the spot again, but saw no deer.

A trail camera photo of a big Ohio buck.
A trail camera photo of the buck taken the night before Cremeans shot it with his bow.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Cremeans

“Then the temperature dropped by 30 degrees from Sunday to Monday,” Cremeans remembers. “On October 14, Columbus Day, it was cool and clear with a good wind direction. So I reconsidered my position for him.

He got into his booth around 4 p.m. on October 14 and saw his first small dollar an hour after taking the seat. Soon there were 10 different bucks sparring around the feeder. Around 6:20 p.m., he saw the big buck emerge from thick cover at 75 yards and headed straight for the smaller buck.

“It was like a father disciplining young people. He pushed them all away,” says Cremeans. “There were still two small bucks closer to me, and he turned toward them and came to my stand.”

The big buck eventually stepped behind a tree, allowing Cremeans to draw his bow. He let go when the deer was 32 yards away and a little further away.

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“It was a perfect hit. He ran to a forest edge about 70 yards away, stumbled a bit and disappeared over a small hill to the bottom of a creek. I heard him fall.”

The other money was still swirling around his stand, so Cremeans waited 30 minutes before quietly sliding to the ground and heading to his truck. He called his half-brother and after another hour of waiting, the two drove to the spot where the buck had been shot.

A bowhunter with a big Ohio buck.
Cremeans with the buck after making his third shot count.

Photo by Daniel Cremeans

“We found quite a blood trail, with a lung hit sign, and followed it to where I saw him staggering around,” Cremeans said. “At the edge of the forest I found my arrow and a large pool of blood. We found the buck just ten yards away.”

The two brothers loaded the buck into their truck and took him to a nearby barn to dress him. They didn’t have scales, but they think the buck weighed between 200 and 250 pounds. Cremeans contacted Buckmasters scorer Toby Hughes, as well as his taxidermist, who believes the deer was 6.5 years old.

“My money’s on 15 points that can be scored, and Toby scored it the Buckmasters way,” says Cremeans. “He measured the buck at 201 3/8 inches.”

Hughes says the deer has matching 26 3/8-inch main beams with an inside spread of 18 2/8s. The rack also has enormous mass, both on the base and on the teeth.

Bob McNally