The move from Delaware, Ohio, to Mansfield in 2013 put Dan Aquino 50 miles and two counties north of his usual hunting ground. With nowhere to go close to his new home, Dan began knocking on doors, which gained him access to two tracts.
His first order of business was to erect a two-person ladder stand, lay down a mock scrape and hang a trail camera. Soon, he collected photos of a very nice 9-pointer.
He filled his tag in early November.
Dan followed the same routine the following year, and the trail cam revealed several bucks were visiting the fragrant scrape, among them a decent 10-pointer.
“One rainy day in mid-October, the weather changed drastically. Temperatures dropped, and the wind was blowing 30-40 mph.
When my wife,Carrie, came home from work, we decided to go for a walk and do some glassing,” he told Ed Waite, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine.
“At one point, I heard my wife say, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and I turned to see her looking off to the left. When I raised my binoculars, I saw this giant buck. We were floored!” he said.
Of course, the deer walked right past the stand he’d opted not to hunt that morning.
For several days after that, the buck routinely mugged for the camera between midnight and 1 a.m. But when Dan added tarsal gland scent to the scrape, it came in an hour before daylight and thrashed everything nearby.
“That animal went ballistic,” he said. “It tore up all the trees surrounding the scrape.”
When Dan went to his stand on Nov. 11, he was sure it would be a waste of time. The wind was right for the setup, but the temperature had climbed to 50 degrees.
He saw lots of deer before he broke for lunch. He saw none between 1:30 amd 4:00, which is why he texted “This stinks!” to a buddy.
“Not five minutes later, I saw movement out at 80 yards. Three does were coming down the funnel slowly. I then saw some white and a glint of antler, and I knew immediately a shooter was also coming,” he said.
When the deer got to within 17 yards, Dan loosed his arrow. The deer ran 40 yards before collapsing.
Only as he approached the downed whitetail did Dan realize the enormous rack had a drop tine, that he’d killed the local legend.
Its BTR score is 223 1/8 inches.
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