Claremore Archer shoots the buck of a lifetime with his CAMERA before he decides to shoot it with his bow!!

By: Douglas Detherow

Ron Barnett, of Claremore, hunts a Kansas lease with Greg Pike and the rest of the Outdoorsman Archery group up in mid Western Kansas. Greg, the owner and operator of the Outdoorsman Archery shop, in Claremore, Oklahoma has been hunting the land for several years and has killed all of those big bucks he has hanging in the store on the property.

Ron writes articles for several different archery magazines around the country, and is an avid photographer.

Ron entered the thick creek bottom in anticipation of getting a shot at one of four monster bucks he had seen in the area. With the full rut looming just around the corner and the many bucks in the area showing ever increasing attention to the does, Ron decided to light a Hot Trails scented candle and place it in front of his stand. These candles omit a long lasting scented aroma that is carried down wind and easily traced back to the stand location. He has been using these candles for the past few years and swears by the effectiveness of the attractant.

He was photographing a doe, from his stand Saturday when she all of the sudden whirled up and looked behind her. He knew there was a buck coming, as he had already seen 17 others that morning, getting some really good shots to go along with some future articles.

As the buck moved in front of him at 18 steps, Ron shot this picture of the deer as he worked a scrape. Ron had no intentions of shooting the Kansas buck with anything other than his camera until he zoomed in and really got a good look at the rack noticing the two sticker points coming off the main beams just below the eye guards that appeared to be around 3 inches long.

As the buck moved out of the clearing in which this photo was taken, into some thick cover before reemerging in the next and last opening, Ron hung his camera up on the tree and grabbed his bow.

As the buck stepped out, Ron released the arrow and the buck simply jumped a bit and walked off into the thicket.

Thinking he had simply shot a descent buck with some really cool sticker points he began to follow the blood trail into the brush around an hour later.

After only a short 60 yard trip, Ron recovered his buck and couldn’t believe what he had nearly passed up.

This buck is huge. With only 15 inches of inside spread, and a body weight of 254 pounds the rack in perspective didn’t appear to be anything special. The base of the neck on this brute measures a whopping 36 ½ inches!!

At several places on the main beam, the mass measurement is over seven inches, both main beams stretch to near 30, and 5 long tines on each side nearly touch in the center of the really high rack.

My best estimates are that the main frame 10 point will score very near the 170 inch mark!!

Truly the trophy buck of a lifetime by any means, but especially with archery gear.

And not only did Ron nearly pass on the deer, he took the time to take a nice photo of the buck before he shot it!

Ron's Equipment:
Mathews LX @ 73 pounds
Vital Bow Gear Trapper sight
Vital Bow Gear Ultimate Fall-Away rest
Vital Hunter Warrior arrows
Ballistic Archery 100 grain SteelForce SaberTooth broadhead
FletchHunter release
Scent Lok Dakota camo
Kowa 10 X 42 binoculars
Hot Trail Scented Candles

I can be reached at 918.342.8422 or ron.barnett@centrilift.com or by writing:
Ron Barnett
9029 N. Yale Ave.
Sperry, OK 74073