Mike Handley posted on March 05, 2012 06:55
By Mike Handley
Chris Miraglia looked like one of George Romero's zombies when he staggered into his suburban Ohio home on Oct. 24, 2011. Had it not been for the goofy grin underneath his bloody and creviced brow, his wife might've screamed.
She almost did anyway.
"I got him! I stuck him good!" he mumbled, which, to her, sounded more like "I want to eat your brains!"
And then it registered: Chris had used "him" and "stuck" in the same sentence, which could mean only that he'd put an arrow through Big Boy, a buck with which her husband had become infatuated. But had he field-dressed it with his teeth?
"After I shot Big Boy and saw him lay down, I was hyperventilating," Chris explained. "I was so intent on keeping my eyes on him, I missed the last three steps on the ladder, went down and hit a tree face-first.
"I split my forehead wide open and was bleeding pretty profusely," he added. "I was too excited to even care."
Because Chris had literally been hunting in his back yard outside Canton, the last thing he wanted to do was push the buck out of the small copse of woods and onto a neighbor's lawn. So he slept fitfully and didn't return until the following morning.
The deer hadn't moved.
With a BTR score of 176 6/8, this Stark County 18-pointer is No. 5 among Ohio's bow-taken Semi-irregulars. Its composite score is 201 3/8 inches.
The full story by Ed Waite will appear in the July issue of RACK magazine.
Dates to Remember
March 16-18: If you're interested in becoming a Buckmasters scorer, the next measuring class will be held during Circle M Auctions' 11th Annual Whitetail Classic Sport Show and Antler Auction in Dubuque, Iowa's Grand River Center. You'll have to pre-register for the class. This rare opportunity aside, the show attracts truckloads of antlers and serious collectors. For information about the class and to download the pre-registration forms, click HERE.
