It's no secret that bowhunting—or any deer hunting for that matter—takes a lot of patience. For Jason Shenkel, a bowhunter from Ohio, patience paid off in a big way: Landing a 214-inch buck after a three-year wait. Shenkel first spotted the buck in 2020, when he was a young 2 1/2 year old.
"You could tell he had a ton of potential, and he was easy to spot because he had these little paddles for brow tines," he told Field and Stream. "I hunt a 300-acre farm of a dear friend who lets me hunt in exchange for doing food plots and habitat work and hanging stands and blinds. I value the relationship as much as the hunting, and I told the guys that hunt with us that we needed to let this buck go for a couple years. He was going to be a special one."
In 2021, the buck showed more promise, but Shenkel passed again, leaving him to mature. When they saw him again in 2022, he was "beautiful," but another large buck kept him at bay. Shenkel took the 10-point buck that fall season, and the nontypical trophy of a buck came back to the farm.
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The 2023 season was Shenkel's opportunity to take the prize buck. Alas, after eight days of watching for him, the buck never showed. Shenkel said, "I finally realized my approach was probably wrong, and that buck could see me heading to one of my stands. So I took a break and decided to come back for the rut."
He tried again in early November, but the buck was hot on the trail of a doe with no plans of abandoning his pursuit. But, such is the fate of those hunting during the rut. They say that the third time's a charm, and the saying held true for Shenkel, finally downing the massive animal, which had 25 scoreable points.
"I made a perfect shot and watched as he tore through the woods, then I heard him crash. Even though I knew he was dead, I sat up there for a long time, just soaking it all in," Shenkel said. "I'm a retired police officer and the woods has always been the place I go to reset—and now I had a huge buck to celebrate. So I wasn't rushing anything!"
READ MORE: The Best Ohio Public Hunting Lands for Snagging a Big Buck
