Collin Derrow of Defiance, Ohio, has been hunting since childhood, and he has a slew of respectable Buckeye State bucks to show for it. But like many avid deer hunters, Derrow dreamed of having a piece of hunting property to call his own. In 2022, that dream came true when Derrow went in with his father and brother to purchase an 85-acre farm in Williams County, Ohio. It was mostly damp river-bottom land that looked like it had the potential to be a whitetail heaven.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrow and his family spent the first season doing whitetail recon on the new property. They ran multiple trail cameras and were pleased with what they saw, particularly one of the first bucks they picked up on the trail cameras. It was a large but peculiar-looking buck. From the front, he appeared to have double drop tines, but from the side, it looked like the end of his main beams bent downward, creating an odd, droopy look.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first night we put the cameras up, he came through the weeds into the picture, and he just looked awesome,\u201d Derrow tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cI realized he was a super cool deer. He had those two curls. They weren\u2019t super long yet, but you could tell they were going to grow down a few more inches.\u201d<\/p>\n The rack was so unique that Derrow\u2019s neighbors nicknamed the big buck Ed \u2014 or E.D., which they said was short for \u201cerectile dysfunction.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Collin Derrow<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Derrow became captivated by the big buck\u2019s unusual antlers and he spent hours watching him over the course of 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the summer months, I would go and watch him every night after work,\u201d Derrow says. I probably videotaped him 30 times in our bean field.\u201d<\/p>\n But during hunting season the big buck was constantly giving Derrow the slip.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI could never seem to catch up with him,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cI passed on a really nice mature buck that passed 20 yards under my stand because I was holding out for that cooler deer with the drop tines.\u201d<\/p>\n He hunted until late in the season and never saw the droopy-beamed buck once from a treestand.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery night, I would get pictures of him,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cIn the morning, I would walk down to my stand, and he\u2019d be up at another stand right before shooting light, walking around on the clear other side of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n With the 2023-24 season winding down, Derrow decided to hunt another buck on the property. He ended up shooting the same mature buck he had passed up earlier that season.\u00a0<\/p>\n After hunting season ended, Derrow and his family got back to work making the farm into the whitetail haven they wanted it to be. They spent the summer months planting food plots, cutting trees, blocking trails, and creating new ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe did all sorts of different stuff for land management. I wanted to keep that drop-tine deer in that area. We just wanted to make the property better all around, but I was specifically working for that deer. \u201c<\/p>\n With the 2024-25 deer season approaching, the buck started making regular appearances in a bean field on the property. Derrow would head down there to watch him feed every evening when he got off work.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was getting really excited. I get excited every year, but this year was a lot more exciting just because I knew that deer was in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n An outbreak of EHD, epizootic hemorrhagic disease<\/a>, in nearby counties had Derrow on edge. EHD is a viral, often fatal disease transmitted by biting midges. It can hit whitetail populations hard, and since it seemed to be spreading, Derrow was getting increasingly worried.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was affecting almost every property in the area, including my cousins\u2019 and uncle\u2019s. You would just walk the property and find dead deer everywhere,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cI was just hoping I wouldn\u2019t walk down in that river bottom one day and find that drop tine buck dead. He would disappear or not be on the cameras for a couple of days, and with all the EHD stuff going on, my head would be spinning, wondering if he died.\u201d<\/p>\n Somehow the Derrow\u2019s farm made it through the EHD outbreak untouched.\u00a0When the season finally opened, Derrow focused his hunting efforts around the bean field where the droopy buck regularly fed. He hunted stands around the field for the first five nights of the archery season. Although Derrow saw the buck every time he climbed a tree, he never could get close enough for a shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI knew he had four places he bedded all around the bean field, but he played the wind so smart that there was no way I could get in there without bumping him,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cI would get off work early and go down there thinking I had him tricked only to have him come out clear across the field. He was like 400 yards away every time I saw him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After the beans turned from green to brown in the fall, the droopy buck stopped hitting the field. So, Derrow turned his efforts to one of the food plots he had put in over the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cI got off work and went down, [and] I didn\u2019t have a ton of hope that I was going to see him because I wasn\u2019t hunting the bean field where I had been seeing him every night,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cI got lucky though.\u201d<\/p>\n Derrow had noticed that the droopy buck had been traveling with a nine-pointer. When that nine-pointer stepped into the food plot on October 16, he knew exactly what was coming out behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI put my binoculars up to make sure, and the only thing I saw coming through the weeds was those drop tines.\u201d<\/p>\n When Derrow put down the binoculars and picked up his Mathews V3, the buck he\u2019d been watching for two years had stepped right into the plot.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe stood there like he was looking for me for what felt like 30 minutes, but was probably 30 seconds. Then he turned broadside at 32 yards.\u201d<\/p>\n Derrow drew his bow and sent a 100-grain G5 Megameat mechanical broadhead<\/a> through both of the deer\u2019s lungs. He found his blood-covered arrow and, after he regained his composure, started dialing up reinforcements to help him recover the deer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three hours later, Derrow\u2019s whole crew, including friends and family members, arrived at the farm to help him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom even came down,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cShe never comes down for tracking jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n However, they couldn\u2019t find any blood to track once the team reached the food plot. After searching for awhile, Derrow was beginning to get discouraged.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I smoked him. I even heard him go down,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cI just decided to go down to where I heard him crashing. I got to the spot on the edge of the riverbank, and there was plenty of blood but no deer.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Collin Derrow<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n It turned out the droop beam buck had dropped straight down a 25-foot embankment and was laying right next to the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI felt this rush of excitement and relief and just started hugging everybody,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten excited over deer, but I\u2019ve never been that excited. I\u2019ve shot a lot of big ones, but this one was so unique. I figured I would never get another opportunity at a deer like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Once Derrow climbed down the riverbank and laid hands on his buck, he realized just how big he was. But they still had to figure out how to get the deer up that steep ledge and out of the woods.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad wanted to bring the tractor down and haul him up, but I didn\u2019t want him tearing up the bottom. There are still a few nice deer in there, and I didn\u2019t want to mess up the rest of the season,\u201d Derrow says. \u201cSo me, my brother, and my buddy dragged him inch by inch up the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n While heaving the deer up the steep hill, they realized the curled under beams had an unexpected perk.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/IMG_0227.jpeg?strip=all&quality=85&w=6000\")
Catching Up with Ed in 2024<\/h2>\n
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