Dani Thomas killed her biggest buck to date in the rain from a hay wagon in October 2022. This Licking County Giant posted over 11 inches of irregular points and scored 194 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records.
Dani now holds the world record in the female, crossbow, semi-irregular category after taking this 12-pointer, which is awesome since it was her first time hunting with a crossbow, ever.
“This was a plain, basic hunt in an old wagon with some barrels,” Dani told Buckmasters. “We didn’t have any cameras or corn out; my dad just saw this deer in his field about a month prior, and we were after some deer meat. I told my dad I would hunt so he didn’t have to, and my parents watched my son for me. We had no idea how big this deer was.”
Dani and her father, David Westbrook, noticed the buck was coming out consistently before dark on the back side of their hayfield before making its way toward a neighboring property’s cornfield. Dani hunted three straight afternoons and had two encounters, but the deer never got within range.
“The third day, I asked my husband if he would go with me, because every time I’ve ever shot a deer, he’s been there. He’s my good luck charm, so he sat at the barn with a pair of binoculars while I was hunting.”
Just before dark on day three, Dani’s target buck showed up on the edge of her parents’ field a couple hundred yards away. Then, it started making its way toward the wagon where she was hiding.
“He would always start off walking and then run,” she said. “Right when he got to me, he took off running, and I’d never shot a deer on the run before. I thought about making him stop but didn’t want to scare him.”
Dani pulled the trigger at 20 yards, heard a loud thud and watched the deer flinch as it ran off toward some pine thickets.
It took three hours to recover the Ohio giant during a steady downpour that washed away most of the sign.
“We waited before going out because of the rain, so we didn’t find a lot of blood. My husband was able to smell him and track him down,” Dani said. “I’ll never forget when my husband found him. He looked at the deer and then at me and said, ‘Danielle, he is huge. Danielle he is HUGE!’”
The full story of Dani’s crossbow buck will be featured in a 2023 edition of Rack Magazine.
— Read Recent Blog! Wall of Tines: There's nothing quite like getting access to a hunting property and finding out it has a big buck on it.