After 30 years of bow hunting, I have a great collection of adventures.  After turning 49 this November, the realization that I had less time ahead of me to find that trophy buck sunk in.  So, like many dedicated hunters, I decided to increase my chances.  It’s no secret that the midwest and northern states have big deer. I started my search on the internet and looked at dozens of sites.  Checking records, reading articles, and chatting with other hunters convinced me that Ohio was the place to go.

I called Kevin Arnold of Strut ‘N’ Rut Outfitters and he confirmed their website info.  Indeed, they did have thousands of acres with food plots, nut trees, and big deer.  Trail cam pictures showed large-bodied big-antlered bucks.  Kevin spoke of 200 class whitetails coming out of Muskegum County where I would be hunting and further research confirmed this. I told Kevin in the course of several phone calls that I know that while no one can guarantee a trophy buck on a wall, I did expect a reasonable chance to see one. Kevin brushed my concerns off and cautioned me not to waste my tag on a 120 class because there were much bigger bucks available. He then told me this farm was near Zanesville and had not been hunted this season. That did it. I was ready to go.

I called my hunting buddies and two could go so we sent in our deposits and counted the days. After 16 hours of driving and 1000 miles later, we arrived on Thanksgiving Day. We met with Ryan Montgomery, Kevin’s partner, and Dustin that morning. Ryan answered all our questions and repeated everything Kevin had told me before. When asked how many deer we could expect to see on a typical hunt, he said "4 or 5 bucks so don’t shoot a 120 - wait for a big one.” When we followed him to the area for our afternoon hunt, I had the first of many uneasy feelings to come. The "Farm" was a steep, wooded hillside. Ryan gave us a topo map with the trail and stands marked. The actual area we could hunt was about 100 acres of a 129 acre tract although Ryan said he thought it was 150 to 170 acres. When we asked about the houses we had passed and the hunting pressure, Ryan assured us "they don’t hunt or trespass on this place.”  That uneasy feeling was getting stronger, but I told myself I was being paranoid.

We wanted to start hunting. Ryan told us to call him if we had any problems or to get our deer out, again cautioned us to wait for a big buck, shook our hands, and left. We never saw him again. Walking the marked trail, we split up to go to our stands. I never found mine. The trail ribbons ran out into a thicket, and I circled the area for an hour before giving up. I walked the ridge and found another stand. The 17 foot ladder stand had one 20 yard shooting lane with no other openings. I settled down anyway, relieved I had found a spot. I saw nothing that afternoon. Walking out after dark, I discovered one of my hunting partners 50 yards down the trail from me on his stand. He saw no deer, either. Our other partner had a better story. His stand overlooked a backyard birthday party for Zack who was now 8 years old. He knew this because he was close enough to hear the party’s festivities. Someone, possibly Zack’s dad, was having trouble getting a job due to the background checks being run on him.  The late afternoon fireworks were pretty, too.  He also mentioned a hunter with a climbing stand on his 4-wheeler driving by. Needless to say, he saw no deer. That uneasy feeling was now heavier than my backpack. Back at the motel, I placed a call to Ryan and left a message asking him to call me.

The next morning, we left early to find the stands. Of the stands marked, we found 4, 1 plus the 3 hunted the previous day, so we had no chance to rotate sites due to the wind. Hunting the stand in Zack’s backyard wasn’t an option so that further narrowed it down. We saw no deer that day but had several gun shots close by, including a very close shot less than fifty yards behind me. My uneasy feeling was almost at the panic stage when I walked out that night. My call to Kevin was more of a plea than anything else. Reports of the missing stands, missing deer, and multiple poachers got me a "you need to call Ryan" and an abruptly ended call. When I called Ryan with the same report and requested that we hunt another area, he said "call Kevin.”   When I told him I already had, he replied, “Let me check and I’ll call you back.”  That’s the last time I spoke to Ryan. I called every few hours and left messages for both guys with no results or returned calls. I was then at the panic stage. I called every sporting goods store and deer processer I could find looking for a place to finish our hunt. While sympathetic, no local land owners could oblige us on such short notice. We had to face the fact that our dream hunt was over. On our 16 hour drive home, we had plenty of time to think about our hunt, and I continued to leave messages for Kevin and Ryan.

The next day, back home in Louisiana, I finally reached Kevin and told him about our experience. Kevin’s conversation was a repeated grouping of the phrases "That’s hunting,” "You have to stay on the stands to see the big ones," and "No refunds.”  He further lectured me that you have to "stick it out" to kill a buck. I tried to tell him that the problem is not whether we killed a deer or not. I was more troubled by his lack of concern for our safety, the ignored request to hunt a different area, and the nonexistent communication between us and our outfitters.  Thirty minutes later, with the conversation going nowhere, I told Kevin that as an outfitter, he has a responsibility to his clients to make an effort to assist them. He had not done that. The three of us were out $1,350 each for the hunt, not counting lodging, meals, gas, and time. In three days with 24 total hours on stands each, we had seen not a single deer, let alone a good buck, and with the shooting around us, we had actually been in a dangerous situation. Kevin did offer to allow us to finish out the week for a 5 day hunt, but the thought of the time and cost of another drive back to Ohio was almost unthinkable. I felt completely drained, not to mention naive and downright stupid. Even worse, I had convinced two friends to go with me on this nightmare. Although they assure me it’s not my fault, I can’t help but feel it is.

So what did I do wrong? I went over my checklist:

• I asked a lot of questions and got the answers I wanted.
• I checked for complaints about the outfitters.
• I checked with the DNR about deer numbers and harvest reports for the area.
• I talked with people about the area and the chances of taking a good buck.
• I asked for references, was told they could provide them, but didn’t follow up. This is probably where I failed.  I fell for the old "Michael Waddell hunted with us last year.”

Could I really be so gullible? The hard answer is yes. After 30 years hunting with some of the finest people in the country, I had become too trusting. It hurt me to think that I could be deceived by a "fellow hunter.” Live and learn.

So now after thinking it over, I’m going to report my experience to every agency I can and tell everyone who will listen. Hopefully, sharing my experience will prevent someone else from going through this.  As for that big buck, well...there’s always next year.

note... here is the web site http://strut-n-rutoutfitters.com/ Be very aware of these outfitters and spread the word!