Oh My God! Oh My God! - Ohio
Dusty with her Ohio Buck.
Great looking buck!
Tony & Dusty Perillo
Hunter: Dusty Perillo
Cameraman: Tony Perillo
When you see the video... the title will speak for itself. November 16, 2008 another special day I will log into my brain database as one of the most special hunting days of my life. Yes, me and Woz on my first turkey hunt is great, or me and little Eric on his first gobbler hunt, or even Dusty with her very first deer kill. They are all special, but this one pulls rank. For three weeks we have been hunting hard, very hard, trying to put our plan all together. As we all know it’s never easy or does not always work as planned. Early season scouting gave us great hopes on putting a good buck on the ground as well as on video. We scouted hard, practiced shooting, put out trail cams and hung 15 sets of treestands in order to be successful. Is this like work? Yes it can be, but the kind of work that I could do forever, because it’s really and truly what I enjoy doing. Add a video camera to the mix and look out. Those who do it, you know what I mean, but we do it for a reason, it’s our passion, our lifestyle.
Dusty and I were really hitting it hard early November. I have to say thanks to our bosses at work for giving us the time and the understanding for what we do. We appreciate it greatly. Actually things started off slow, is the rut even here I thought, did I miss something? All those good bucks, where did they go? Sun up to sun down in the stand really beats you up. Snow came early this year in Ohio and we were getting our butts kicked by Mother Nature, but our HSS vests held us in the trees all day to do what we put our minds to do. Yes we had been seeing some deer, but those are the ones that will be shooters next year. We were having fun. Me filming Dusty, Dusty filming me, me yelling at Dusty, Dusty yelling at me—it’s all good though. She is my huntress and I wouldn’t replace her for anyone.
Well to speed things up, November 15, we were set up on a clover/cut bean field in our Ameristep Choice blind. Wow, hunting is sure different from deer level. Some big monster rubs showed up in the area and many does, so we decided to hunt this area. Once again within an hour Mother Nature unleashed a pretty good storm. Wind, rain, sleet, even thunder. The blind blew off of us and Dusty wanted to leave, but I was determined to stay (Stubborn). Well we bugged out early, we had no choice, it was bad.
November 16, Dusty’s last day of vacation and her turn to film me. We did an opener in the garage with me talking about the mornings hunt, but that all changed. On the way to our hunting spot I told Dusty "I will film again, you hunt" she argued and wanted to film. "Listen" I said, "I have a really good feeling, and it’s your last day to hunt." With a little coaxing she grabbed the Ten Point crossbow and we were off. 5:45 a.m. in the blind a little early, but we wanted to be set up and be ready for first light. Dusty ranged all her shooting lanes with the Nikon, and did a little rattling and grunting. A small buck appeared but I could not find him fast enough for the camera. At 9:00 a.m. Dusty’s feet got cold. I couldn’t believe it—she had on those big Frankenstein boot covers, and she insisted she needed toe warmers too. It was cold so I helped her quickly and we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches hoping that would warm us up.
At 9:45 a.m. it instantly became 150 degrees. I lost all thoughts, all my composure; I still don’t know how I pulled it off. “Dusty” I said, “grab the bow, monster buck.” She said from her angle she could not see it. I was freaking out. A monster at 45 yards, we were in a ground blind, filming, Dusty hunting, I needed oxygen fast! He looked huge, big huge, so close and he just came in from nowhere. What felt like an hour and almost gave me a heart attack was one of the coolest moments I witnessed. Finally a 40 yard broadside shot at a huge mature buck, and me being there to share it with my wife to watch her harvest a deer of a lifetime. She shot it, it looked real good. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I lost it. All jacked up, Dusty yelled at me to relax. We celebrated, did a recovery I got emotional, thanked God and we were both grateful that our plan came together. Is this fun? It sure is! The best high in the world, but it’s also a little work, and with a little hard work, rewards will come.
Thank you Dusty for letting me share a priceless morning with you in the deer woods. Congratulations again. Oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tony P