Mark Valentine, Age 36.

This is my story of how I got my second Buck, an 11 point which dressed out at 240lbs. The antlers measured 16" tip to tip, 21 ½"inside spread, 24"outside spread , and 26 ½" main beam. The brow tine was 8 ½"and the G-2 was 11 ½" gross score 182 7/8 after deductions 156 3/8. It made the record books as an Ohio Big Buck , and I will be inducted into the record book at a banquet in March, 2002.

I have been hunting since I was about twelve or thirteen years old. I don’t remember what got me into hunting. My Dad never took me, and my Brother went into the Air Force when I was nine years old.

As a kid I didn't like Beef, Chicken or Pork, but I did love Squirrel, Rabbit, Fish and Deer.

So I would go hunting or fishing as much as I could.

Hunting has always been a big part of my life except when I started getting sick a lot. At the age of 29 I found out I had Diabetes and my eyesight was getting bad. Then it seemed like one thing after another so I gave up hunting for about four years. I never felt so out of whack in all my life. A big part of my life was gone. In 1994, a couple of years before all the sickness started, God blessed me and my family with a new baby Girl.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining at all. I truly Love family life and being a Dad. God has been very good to me and I’m grateful for all He has given me. But I had made up my mind that I was going to start hunting again. But as luck would have it I got injured at work and ended up having severe back surgery.

I was in a wheel chair for almost a month and used a walker and cane for about six more weeks. I told myself that I was going deer hunting one way or another even before I recovered. So the day after Thanksgiving (2000) I got myself together and did what I used to do every year, went deer hunting.

You see, on the day after Thanksgiving I have always gone hunting by myself, just to get away from everything and enjoy spending time with my Lord in the woods. I know, I said I went by myself, but you see I don’t go anywhere without Him. On that one day I have always gone out to the woods somewhere and just cleared my head of everything that had gone on that year and to give my thanks to God for all that He had done for me (and my family).

This year was no different. I had decided to go to my aunt’s farm and try my luck with my new Horton crossbow I got just three weeks earlier. I didn’t get to scout the property because we live two hours away in Columbus Ohio, and had just arrived for the Holidays. I had been squirrel hunting in those woods a few times, and played in them as a child but did not remember seeing anything but a couple of doe.

But this was okay with me because, you see, I have almost always been a doe hunter. I have always enjoyed doe meat more than a buck. Not saying there have not been any bucks taken out of there, because my uncle took another monster buck many years before I got mine. I have been told that not many Bucks have been taken out of there, but the ones that were have been Great Trophies. Well anyway, let’s get on with the hunt.

The night before the hunt I only got about 45 min. of sleep (health problems again!). But I didn’t care. I was going hunting, even if it killed me. (I know, I shouldn’t push my luck) So at 6:00a.m I got ready and headed for the farm.

It was a great morning. It was 58 degrees with a light wind coming out of the southwest. I walked across the field and up a small hill, stopping once because a coyote started yapping at me. (I don’t like or trust those nasty critters.)

I pushed on and got to the top of the hill and crossed over the fence. Thinking there wasn’t much chance I was going to see anything, I sat my trusty old fold out chair only about 25 yards into the woods. If I did see something, it was probably going to be a doe (which is what I was looking for).

I got all set up and had my breakfast (a pecan wheel and a diet coke) YEH! I was roughing it. After the gourmet meal, I sat back and started to listen and take in my surroundings. This is truly a great way to get close to God.

About 8:00 a.m. the woods came alive. I had giant woodpeckers all around me, closer than I had ever been to this kind before, so I knew my camo was really good. I sat and watched the birds and the ground squirrels while I had my Talk with God. I had forgotten how beautiful it was to be out in woods and what it meant to just be alive. I knew then and there, that I was where I was supposed to be. I don’t mean hunting ……… I don’t really know what I mean, all I know is that was where I was supposed to be.

At about 9:00 am, with the sun to my back and me still sitting on the shaded side of the hill, I caught a glimpse of the sun shinning off of something that was moving down the opposite side of the hill .It was a buck and a pretty nice one too. So I started to try out some of my calls like bleat, snort and I even gave my rattle bag a try. But nothing was going to get his nose off the ground. So I started to pray "Lord, if you would send that Buck this way I could get off this cold hill and we could go home." But that big guy just turned and walked down the creek away from me. So I prayed again saying "that’s Okay Lord. You know me. I’m not a Buck hunter anyway, but if you could send me a doe I’ll get on home."

I kid you not. When I lifted my head, to my left came two doe just beating the brush down and coming straight at me. I then said " thank you Lord. Now if you could get them to slow down and stop about thirty yards off I’ll get on out of here." And to my amazement, they did. They stopped thirty yards right in front of me. And I said " Thank you Lord. You sure did push them along pretty quick." And with that I looked to my Left and here he came, shaking his head back and forth and tearing through the brush with his massive rack. And I said, " Lord, if you don’t mind I’ll wait on him." But he stopped further down the hill, about 50 yards away, behind two trees only giving me about an 18 inch shot at his chest. I had only sighted my crossbow in at 40 yards max. I thought if I would hold my 40 yard pin at the top of his back I might get it in the kill zone. But not knowing much about down hill trajectory, I steadied myself, calmed down and took the shot. WOW!!!!!!!!! He jumped strait up, and than I jumped up out of my seat and said, "Where did he go." He then jumped up again and fell. I thought, " NO WAY!!!!!!!!" I slowly made my way down the bank. When I looked over into the creek bed there he was looking at me and trying to get up and run, but the arrow broke his back and he wasn’t going anywhere. So I took careful aim and put a second shot into the heart and lung area.

I walked back to my seat shouting at the top of my voice " THANK YOU LORD, THANK YOU LORD, THANK YOU JESUS " Thinking back, if there was anyone else in those woods they might have shot me thinking I had flipped my lid. I gathered up my things and headed off the hill to give him time to die in peace. I had to figure out how in the world was I going to get him out of there. You see, I wasn’t healthy enough to drag that big deer out of the woods. I hadn’t even started my rehabilitation treatments yet because it could rip everything out that I have had done. OH BOY! Now what?

When I got back to the farm house my aunt asked "Well, where is that deer? " (Knowing good and well, I more than likely didn’t see anything, SO SHE THOUGHT.) That’s when I said " It’s up on the hill!" She gave a friendly laugh and I said, " No, really; I got one. A big one. A MONSTER!!!" And with great surprise in her voice she said, "REALLY!!" YES! I said. When I described it to her I thought she was going to fall over. I thought it was out of shock, but later she told me that my cousin Terry had been hunting that Buck the whole season. Then I called my wife and told her I got a big Buck. She also said, "yeah, Right". (Can you tell I’ve done this before, and it wasn’t true?) I said "NO! REALLY, I got a monster Buck."

She told me later that when I told her that I really did get a big one, she could truly hear it in my voice. Next, I called my Mom and told her, and she reacted the same way except that she almost started to cry. My Mom was so happy for me because she had seen my good years and my bad ones. This made for the best year of hunting yet.

When my Aunt told me about my cousin hunting this deer, I hate to say it, but it didn’t make me feel bad. I’m pretty surprised I even saw the Buck, because Terry is a very avid hunter and he usually gets what he goes after. So you can bet he was the first one I stopped and showed it too. I didn’t know what his reaction would be. At first when I told him (before we walked out to the car.) I think there was a good bit of disbelief. But when I opened the trunk, (Yes, I said trunk, The trunk of my Wife’s car. That’s another story, a pretty scary one too! ) I watched his face. I’ll never forget the look that came over his face when he said, "My golly! He’s a nice one " Than he yelled for his kid’s to come see it too. He was really happy for me, and I truly appreciated that. My brother (a good bit smaller than my 300lb frame) was so excited, he hugged me so hard that he picked my big butt off the ground. I’d like to give a big thanks to my Aunt’s neighbor, who let me use his 4-wheeler to drag the deer out of the woods, and to his son and his friend who put the deer in the car for me. To the amazed big-eyed hunters at the processor’s that pushed me out of the way and unloaded my deer for me. But my biggest thanks goes to my Lord, for a great hunt and for sending me all of those people that helped me.

I didn’t hurt my back, and I give God the praise for that and for all things. On March 13,2001 God blessed our lives again with a wonderful baby boy. God sure is good.

Well that’s it. That’s my story. I am working on a plaque to put under my deer mount that will read "WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!" A-MEN!

The Web and this World need more Christian men like Rod.

May God bless all your hunts and keep you safe.

This story is also in Loving memory of my Aunt Jenny, whose farm I harvested this buck.

I got the buck the day after Thanksgiving 2000, and she went home to be with the Lord,

May 29,2001

This sweet beautiful Lady will be greatly missed.