Central Ohio is a well-known big-buck haven, and Daniel Schwartz knew exactly where he would be hunting the afternoon of the Sept. 26 opener.
“I had a good history of an older, mature buck from camera pictures,” Schwartz tells Outdoor Life. “I figured the deer was six years old, and although there were other big bucks in the area, he’s the one I wanted opening day.”
Schwartz says he had the green light to bowhunt the farm for only 30 days, so he felt pressure to tag a deer during that time.
“That’s why I named him ‘Timer,’ because I was on the clock to get him,” says Schwartz, a businessman from the town of Marengo.
Schwartz had hung a lock-on stand on the edge of a bean field, and it was positioned ideally for a northwest wind.
“But as we got closer to opening day the weather forecast changed and we were going to have a southwest wind,” Schwartz says. “I went into the area and hung another stand on the bean field that would be perfect for a southwest wind, which is what we had on opening day.”
Late the afternoon of Sept. 26, Schwartz and his cameraman buddy, Dylon Gandee, used electric bikes to quietly access the farm. They parked in cover and climbed 16 feet up to the two stands they’d set in the same tree for the afternoon hunt.
“I was hunting a trail where Timer was coming out of a bedding area and into the beans to eat. Some other deer came into the beans that afternoon, and some big bucks. But about 7 p.m., Timer stepped into the field and offered me a 32-yard shot.”
The deer wasn’t fully broadside, and Schwartz says his arrow hit a touch high. But when Schwartz and Gandee climbed down, they found Schwartz’s arrow had passed through.
They also found a faint blood trail where the buck had disappeared into woods back toward his bedding area. The men decided to back out and return at 9 p.m. to trail Timer.
“My buddy Jacob Mosher came back with Dylon and me, and we followed the blood trail into the woods. Timer only went 30 yards into the timber, and we found him dead.”
Schwartz took Timer to Toby Hughes, a Buckmasters master scorer in Caledonia. Hughes scored the 16-point buck with 22-inch inside spread at 180 inches.
Schwartz will have his buck mounted by a taxidermist, and a video of his hunt for Timer is on his YouTube channel.
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During his hunt for Timer, Schwartz saw another giant buck he called Toby. Schwartz figures the deer is four years old, and plans to return to hunt him next year.