Landin Hall doesn’t have to hunt public land. Neither does he have to cross state lines to find bucks that’ll blow his taxidermy budget.
In 2020, however, the 25-year-old from Kendallville, Indiana, did both, all because he was tired of looking at the same old seemingly deer-less property. He’d collected plenty of trail camera photographs of worthy Hoosier bucks prior to the season, but it was as if aliens had beamed them all aboard a spaceship and absconded with the whole lot.
Eager for a change of scenery, Landin spoke with a friend who has connections in Ross County, Ohio. When the guy mentioned that an enormous buck had been frequently observed at a public tract down there, the die was cast.
The next week, Landin spent hours studying maps and aerial photos of the land. He marked several promising spots for stands on his phone’s hunting app.
He and his girlfriend struck out for the area on Friday, Oct. 23. They arrived so late (about 1:30 a.m.) that he decided not to hunt that morning. He began the day scouting by road, and he really liked what he saw.
Once Landin identified the best place to enter the woods, his girlfriend dropped him off and left. Reaching the spot he’d marked on his phone required quite a hike, much of it uphill. He was impressed by the numbers of rubs and scrapes in the vicinity, and he jumped only one deer — a doe — before reaching his destination.
When he arrived, there were few climbable trees. He settled for one that offered the most concealment, although he could climb no higher than 10 feet.
About a quarter ’til 6:00, he heard a deer grunt and the snap of a big stick. Moments later, he heard another crack, and then another guttural grunt, and he instinctively grabbed his bow.
It took him a couple of seconds to see the deer walking slowly up the ridge. He didn’t know it was a buck until the animal stopped to make a scrape 80 yards in front of him.
When he finally got a glimpse at its rack, he was gobsmacked.
Neither grunting nor bleating could turn the deer, which had begun walking away from him, but a desperate snort-wheeze got its attention.
Moments later, the sting of a broadhead adjusted the surly 18-pointer’s attitude. The big Typical tallies 198 7/8 inches by Buckmasters’ yardstick.
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