This One's for Dad, Lonnie Reynolds

Here's a story of a hunt I will never forget. This buck was taken in Logan County, Ohio during gun season.

November 26, 2011 while hunting with my father's Horton Yukon SL crossbow this buck came within 25 yards of my stand, but he wouldn't walk in my shooting lane.

After watching him for 10 minutes while he was checking several does around me, he started to walk away. I hit my PRIMOS bleat can, he stopped and looked around for a minute then continued to head towards the thicket, I pulled out my snort and wheezes grunt, hit it a couple of times, but the buck paid no attention and continued to walk away.

My heart sunk as I watched him walk away thinking I would never see him again. On December 1st during the evening hunt, I was watching a few yearlings feeding in a cornfield when a mature doe with a yearling came out behind me and started walking towards my stand from the left.

I decided to take the mature one and fill my doe tag, so I put the crosshairs on her, grunted to stop her but she continued walking. I pulled away from the scope and caught a glimpse of another deer looking at me but I couldn't make out if it was a doe or a buck because of thick tree branches blocking my view. It then turned its head and I saw antlers. I put the crosshairs on him as he started following the doe. I grunted to stop him, which he did. I squeezed the trigger, he ran about 100 yards and went down.

The first thing that came to mind was to call dad to tell him about the buck, but then it hit me, dad's not here anymore. He passed away March 16, 2011 from pneumonia. My brothers and I connected with our dad through hunting and fishing. After I thought about it for a few minutes I realized that my dad was with me when I took the buck. I was in the tree stand he always hunted from when he came to Ohio from Michigan to hunt with me. I shot it with the Remington 870 express pump that he gave me and I was also wearing his hunting boots. -- Lonnie Reynolds

Congrats on a great buck Lonnie!

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