July 13, 2012
By North American Whitetail Online Staff
With the use of only one arm, Matt Sheterom used a crossbow to take a Ohio Trophy buck of a lifetime - a true Buckeye State bio-misfit. Here's his story...
Matt Sheterom wasn't entirely sure how the 2011 Ohio hunting season was going to fare. Earlier in the year while on an Arizona javelina hunt with his compound bow, he fell in a freak accident, and ran his hand through a fence post. The injury resulted in stitches and left the bowhunter without the use of one hand, making shooting any kind of bow almost impossible.
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.
So on October 6th, he had surgery to repair the nerve and was on strict orders from his surgeon to shelve bowhunting for the 2011 season and maybe beyond.
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.
Having never shot a crossbow, Sheterom was extremely thankful as he put it, "If I didn't have that crossbow, I would have been sitting on my couch at home."
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.
"I told everyone this was going to be where I shoot my 200-inch buck this year," shared Sheterom.
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.
Four weeks after his surgery, Sheterom was exactly where he wanted to be€¦in a deer blind. His first sit, he saw a fantastic nine-point buck that would have scored in the high 130s, but he held out, hoping to see something bigger.
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!
Unable to drag the buck with one arm, Sheterom called Baker about his success and when the pair saw each other, a celebration ensued.
"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."
The buck featured 18 scorable points and four drop tines and the early green score is right at 200 inches.
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.
