GALION — Moe and Curly may still be lurking and prancing around a wooded area in Richland County, but Larry — a record-breaking buck — didn’t stand a chance.
Galion’s Carla Schwein has become the first woman to win the Ohio Bowhunters Association Big Buck Award, thanks to Larry’s gorgeous antlers and her own true eye. She brought down the big buck with a crossbow last year.
Schwein had no idea her name was going to be called at the recent 2015 awards banquet at the Deer Creek state Park Lodge in Mount Sterling.
“We’ve been to a lot of these,” Carla said. “They’re a lot of fun. There’s an auction and other things going on. We were just sitting around and we heard them call my name. We had had it scored by a neighbor, but we had no idea it would win that award.”
Her husband. who played a big part in developing her love of hunting, could not be more proud.
“The Ohio Bowhunters Association gives out one award every year for the most outstanding buck. Carla is the first female to win. Quite an honor,” Jeff Scwein said.
The prize has been years in the making. But it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows her family. Hunting may not exactly be in her blood — or it wasn’t when she was born — but it’s become a family-oriented habit via her marriage to outdoor enthusiast and hunter Jeff Schwein, a podiatrist in Mansfield.
That love affair with her husband led to a love affair with the outdoors, which has since turned into a passion that occupies much of the Schwein’s free time. Their 17-year-old daughter Taylor is an avid hunter and at least one of her hunts has been filmed for an appearance on Blitz TV, a hunting show on DirectTV anchored by professional football player Trent Cole, a good friend of Jeff Schwein’s. Jeff is a regular on the program, too, and has gotten pretty good at filming bits for the show.
“Taylor’s 9 pointer, I filmed this past fall for the show,” Jeff said. “I filmed (Carla’s hunt when she got her big buck, too. I have loved getting the girls involved with the outdoors and the show.”
Jeff also filmed for the show an outing where Carla got her first turkey with her crossbow. She was even more excited about making that shot than her big buck. It was also filmed for an episode of Blitz TV.
The TV show’s website calls Blitz TV “the show that brings modern Whitetail hunting action to your homes.”
It was a beautiful November evening and Carla Schwein was sitting in a tree stand on a farm her family owns in the Butler area. Her husband was in a tree stand above Carla and the buck’s image had already been captured on pictures and video. They new he was out there somewhere. There are several tree stands on the Schwein’s property and a number of cameras. They had seen this particular big buck several times leading up to Nov. 1, 2015.
“We called this one Larry. There was also Curly and Moe. We calling them the three stooges,” Carla said.
On that night, around 6 .m., from about 30 yards away, Larry meandered by. Carla took aim with with her TenPoint crossbow and fired.
The weather was perfect, 60 degrees and clear, with nary a breeze. Carla’s shot was just as good, and Larry went down immediately.
But the big buck has not been been forgotten.
Larry’s impressive rack adorns a wall at the Schwein’s cabin. It was mounted by local taxidermist Casey Watterson. The venison harvested from Carla’s most impressive deer to date has helped fill the family freezer.
“We eat venison all the time,” Carla said.
She enjoys the hunting and looks forward to every opportunity to get out and about in nature. But even more than that, she looks has grown to love the family time it leads to.
“It’s something that won’t be forgotten,” she said.
