Ellen Turner has learned that a little bit of corn will go a long way, and there's no need to fatten raccoons between sittings.
Whenever the kitchen and bathroom designer from Bethel, Ohio, goes to her 16-foot-tall ladder stand in woods flanking a soybean field, she carries one cup of corn and several apples. She puts the offerings in the field, and then climbs the rungs.
"The local does have become accustomed to my approach and come in almost as soon as the corn is on the ground," she told Ed Waite, who wrote her story for Rack magazine.
"I don't like to leave a pile of corn and have the deer come to feed after I am gone," she added.
The routine worked to perfection in October 2014, during her 21st visit to the stand that year.
Four antsy does hit the field first, constantly glancing at their backtrail. The buck appeared next and went straight for the apples.
"It stood at 18 yards for 15 minutes, munching apples and looking directly at me," Ellen said. "It was unnerving."
She couldn't draw until the regal whitetail turned.
Before that happened, however, a wind shift sent it and the does deeper into the field. Fortunately for Ellen, the does soon returned to the little corn pile.
When the buck almost absent-mindedly walked between two rocks in the field – placed there by Ellen to mark 30 and 36 yards – she stood slowly and drew her bow. The deer, staring at something toward the opposite tree line, saw nothing.
"I shot the deer straight through the heart at 32 yards!" she smiled.
The Brown County 11-pointer is No. 13 among Ohio Typicals in the BTR's compound bow category. Its composite score is 193 1/8 inches.
— Read Recent Blog!
Velvet Giant from LBL: Jack Seppala / BTR Composite Score: 205