Gentlemen, welcome to Rutcation 2025—our annual three-day camp-and-hunt grind on Ohio public land with my buddies Colin, Tyler, and my dad. I did some pre-season scouting and found super hot scrapes and massive rubs way back in the deep stuff, but on day one we actually slept in to check bows and make sure everything was dialed. Then we hit the woods late morning… and at 11:50 a.m. my dad texts me, “I just shot one.” That’s where this story starts. This video is the full play-by-play of Dad’s first buck with a bow, his first buck on Ohio public land, and his first Ohio buck since he was 13. We break down the shot (about 40 yards), why we didn’t rush him, and what the sign told us—especially the arrow and the blood. The arrow was a pass-through but looked questionable at first (light blood, white fatty stuff), until we found that pressurized “fingertips dipped in paint” spray that screams lungs/pressure. The track turned into a frothy, bubbly red-carpet trail, and when we finally laid eyes on him… yeah. Big Ohio public-land buck, punched the hard way, and I couldn’t be more proud.