Buckenstein: A 200-Inch Ohio Trophy Buck

Wounds, with time, are supposed to heal, but Sheterom noticed the opposite. Atrophy appeared to be setting in and after months of back and forth with doctors, it was discovered that his ulner nerve (think funny bone) in his elbow was damaged and was the culprit leading to his disability.

Enter Steve Esker, an Ohio hunter who turned heads in the whitetail world by shooting two 200+ inch bucks in consecutive years (2009/2010). A chance encounter between Sheterom and Esker on an plane that was en route to a vacation in the Dominican Republic sparked a friendship and when Esker heard of Sheterom's surgery, he immediately offered up an extra Excalibur crossbow along with insight on how the rig was shooting.

Sheterom, a Remax real estate agent who specializes in recreational property (www.ohioacres.com), had several spots staked out for where he wanted to hunt. There was one location however in Franklin County that he knew was dynamite and held big deer. Through his vast whitetail recon network, he had between six and seven thousand trail cam pictures and had seen a wide array of bucks that were shooters, but he had his heart set on taking a 200-incher and decided to set up shop in a small 80-acre patch of timber that he knew possessed a couple of Buckeye bruisers.

Without the use of one of his arms, Sheterom relied on his longtime buddy Jeff Baker to construct scaffolding so he could climb into his elevated ground blind. He was sitting in hardwoods with a ravine to the north and hay and cornfields to the south.

His second time out on November 2nd, with a wind that was less than favorable, Sheterom spotted a buck that took his breath away shortly after 6:30 p.m. The brute's head was a mass of horns splayed about like Medusa and was standing 35 yards away. He inched closer to Sheterom's blind, eventually standing broadside at 27 yards, offering a shot. Sheterom's aim and shot were clean and amazingly the one-armed crossbow hunter had his monster buck on the ground!

"As soon as I saw him. I gave him the biggest hug," reported Sheterom, "I was so happy about this buck and being able to share the experience with such a good friend."

Sheterom wants to personally thank Steve Esker, Jeff Baker and his wife Amanda, for helping achieve his goal of taking a true Buckeye State monster.