Local legend bucks may cause fairly a stir within the communities they hang-out. Hunters attempt to declare them and do absolutely anything to maintain them on their properties. Every spring, they pray the particular buck survived the season and lived to see—and develop—one other yr. Davey Stuckey, a 44-year-old retired Army infantryman, needed the monster whitetail of Fayette County, Ohio as dangerous as the subsequent man. This buck had a 9-inch drop tine and a 2-inch antler rising out of his left eye socket. It took Stuckey 4 years, however on Oct. 31, 2022, he made native historical past.
Stuckey discovered the buck’s sheds in 2018, which rough-scored 187 inches with out a unfold measurement. But the buck at all times hung round one of many few farms within the space the place Stuckey doesn’t have permission. (The homeowners are shut household pals however they hunt the land). Stuckey didn’t see the buck once more for the subsequent two seasons, then noticed him from the highway within the spring of 2020, nonetheless on the identical off-limits property.
“I watched him like that for another two years,” Stuckey tells Outdoor Life. “It was just heartbreaking seeing a deer like that where you can’t even hunt.”
Somehow, the Fayette County buck survived every fall. Things modified this yr when the buck moved to a ditch on a farm only a half-mile down the highway the place Stuckey had permission. He stored his mouth shut in regards to the discovery even because the native rumor mill churned.
“There were like six or seven guys hunting this deer,” Stuckey says. “There were trail camera pictures all over social media.”
Stuckey instantly hung a path digicam close to the ditch. Shortly thereafter, the images began flooding in. Stuckey realized he was staring straight at one of many buck’s main bedding areas, the place he spent nearly half his time. He’d lay proper in entrance of the digicam for seven hours straight, transferring little or no throughout authorized taking pictures hours. Then a chilly entrance moved in, urging the buck to his toes. Stuckey grabbed his crossbow and moved in.
“There were these 30 mile-per-hour winds one day, and I snuck up in this grass. I shot and missed at 30 yards,” Stuckey remembers. “The grass is so tall and thick, and I think my expandable broadhead opened up in it. He didn’t know what happened, he sort of ran up on me at an angle and looked around then trotted away.”
The subsequent day, the temperature climbed and the buck settled down once more. But Stuckey knew the mornings can be rather a lot cooler.
“I went straight across the ditch and hung a treestand off this finger that stuck out, and he started daylighting over there,” Stuckey says. “The third morning I hunted him, he stepped out bumping some does, grunting and lip-curling, and I shot him at 53 yards. He went out about 20 yards into a cut-grass field and then bolted back into the ditch. I went down and he was just across the ditch in the wide open.”
Stuckey instantly referred to as the native recreation warden. He knew different guys had been chasing this buck and he needed the warden to witness his authorized kill, simply in case jealousy kicked in and people referred to as Stuckey’s story into query.
“With me not having much except trail camera pictures, I just wanted to cover all my bases,” he says. “So the game warden checked my permission slip, we walked out there, tagged him, and drug him out.”
Stuckey’s taxidermist caped out the buck, being cautious to keep away from what Stuckey calls the “eye guard.” He preserved the left eye socket with its antler hooked up to the cranium cap, bumping the rack to a Buckmasters rating of 228 1/2.
As for the opposite hunters chasing the Fayette County monster, Stuckey stated he’s acquired numerous help and kindness for essentially the most half, minus a number of unfavorable feedback.
“You’re always going to hear ‘poacher,’ you’re always going to hear ‘high fence,’ or ‘that was my deer, you have no history with it,’ meanwhile I’m standing here with sheds and trail camera pictures,” Stuckey chuckles. “I don’t remember erasing anyone’s name off of him. But for the most part, I got nothing but love.”