Massive 27-pointer could be largest buck ever taken in Ohio’s Crawford County

Tiro, Ohio — By this summer, there weren’t many outdoor-type people in this small, Crawford County, Ohio, village that weren’t aware of the big buck that cruised the fields out in farm country.

One of those outdoor types was Ben Cramer, who decided early on that he would set his sights on this buck this season.

“This is our first year really hunting him,” Cramer said. “But, a lot of local people have known about the deer. We got permission to hunt (a private property parcel) not knowing if that buck was there. But, as the summer went on, you could almost set your watch by him. He would just be out there in a field kind of off of a main road like clockwork.”

As fate would have it, the young Cramer harvested the deer on Oct. 17, the buck’s 27-point rack measuring 225 7⁄8 non-typical. As it stands right now, the buck would be the largest ever killed in Crawford County. That final result will come after the mandatory 60-day drying period.

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Now, here’s the rest of the story. With hunting permission in hand, Cramer set up a tree stand on the property in hopes of getting a shot at the 27-pointer.

“When we were seeing him in the field we had a trail camera not too far away from there,” Cramer said. “But, we weren’t getting any pictures of him so we were just wondering what was going on.”

That all changed in mid- to late September when pictures of the buck started showing up on the camera.

“All of the pictures were in the dark,” he said. “But, nothing real consistent like we could (see him) when he was out there in the field.”

On the fateful day, Oct. 17, Cramer was in his tree stand nice and early, well before daylight. He was visited early on by several does and some other smaller bucks, but that was even before legal shooting time.

Another doe came in just as daylight was starting to break, about 7:15 a.m.

“I watched that doe for a little bit and then I heard some rustling behind me,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was some raccoons that I had saw earlier, another doe, or what.”

A little more time passed when Cramer glanced over his right shoulder and saw the 27-pointer coming through the woods.

“I swear he looked right at me, but he was walking the whole time,” he said. “He didn’t really alert or anything, just kind of kept walking.”

The buck was 40 yards away at that point. Cramer and his dad, Mark, had earlier cleared a 3-foot wide shooting lane under the tree stand.

It didn’t take long for the big buck to step into the shooting lane at 25 yards.

“He turned broadside and was right in the shooting lane,” Cramer said. “You couldn’t have drawn it up any better.”

Cramer let the bolt from his crossbow fly.

“I knew I hit him good,” he said. “So, I gave my wife and my dad a call and we kind of talked things over. Dad said to give it a minute and get down and look for some blood.”

The younger Cramer did just that, but there was no sign of the downed buck.

“I couldn’t find my arrow and I saw just where the leaves had scattered, but really no blood,” he said. “Still, I knew I had hit him good, but he must have shot out of there like a cannon.”

Not wanting to pursue what he thought was a wounded deer too vigorously, Cramer walked to the edge of the woods and finally saw some blood. Still, though no arrow or downed deer.

A bit more time passed with Cramer quietly surveying the wood lot when he walked what was now 75 yards from the spot where he made the shot. It was there on the edge of the woods where the big buck lay.

“So, he had gone about 75 yards,” Cramer said. “I didn’t hear him crash or anything, but I think he just fell in the weeds at the edge of the bean stubble.”

“When I walked up on him, I still really couldn’t believe it,” he said. “The arrow was still sticking out of him, but it was just held in by the fletching. So, I think I caught his back side shoulder blade.”

Cramer breathed a sigh of relief.

“This deer was obviously very visible and a lot of people had seen him,” he said. “That last thing I wanted to do was shoot him and wound him and have a long track.”

Several other people around the Crawford County area had trail camera pictures of the buck from 2020 and 2021, Cramer said.

“He was just massive back then,” he said. “I think he had a bigger frame back then. I think he added mass and he has like six spires coming off his G2s. Just really has a lot of character.”