194-Inch Backyard Bomber Buck

November 07, 2011 By North American Whitetail Online Staff

Sometimes you don't have to look much farther than your own back yard for a true bomber buck!

Chris Miraglia knew there were a lot of deer that ran around in the small 3 acre woodlot that sat behind his suburban home in Plain Township, Ohio. He'd never bothered to hunt the area as his deer hunting occurred at deer camp with friends, away from home. All that changed however when he decided to hang a trail camera over the summer to see what was holed up in the woods behind his house.

The first night, a massive brute showed up in an image, still in velvet, and Chris's deer hunting plans switched from "going to deer camp" to "hunting in the wood lot behind the house."

After a long day at work, Miraglia was back at it and sure enough, the big boy came in and without fanfare or drama, the backyard bowhunter was able to seal the deal with a perfect shot.

"I fell over when I saw him. I was so excited that when I was climbing down my ladder stand, I missed the last couple of rungs and hit my head on the tree," shared Miraglia.

The buck was standing upwind 40-50 yards away , staring straight at Miraglia, and without any rhyme or reason, the monarch turned and bolted away, leaving the hunter devastated as he thought he had missed his chance.

After checking his trail camera the next night however, Miraglia had another image of the buck and knew he had to be back in the stand the next day.

Chris studied the behavior and movement of the deer over the next two months and discovered the deer were using his wood lot as a sanctuary as they moved from a quarry to his woods to bed down for the day.

The big buck wasn't shy about being on camera, until hunting season started.

"I had two months of camera pics of him hanging around, then he just disappeared. I know other people hunt in the area, I was nervous. My wife said that was the only thing that I could eat, sleep and think of was this buck," shared Miraglia.

Miraglia did Tinks 307 scent drags for two weeks and was seeing a lot of activity in his wood lot, but it wasn't until the second week did he spot the "the one" coming in. The buck was with another 8-point that Miraglia would have shot any other season had he not been with the hoss.

The buck was scored at The Hunt 'N Shack in Navarre, Ohio (330-879-2587) and featured 18 scorable points and green grossed 194 6/8 inches. The inside spread was 25 1/2 inches. A true magnificent trophy!

Congrats on a great buck Chris!

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