Dustin Nippert & Derik Nippert are twin brothers that live in southeast Ohio and love to hunt big mature whitetails. This will be their first year on Midwest Whitetail but their season is already looking good - witha  good selection of great bucks to hunt. They will be teaming up with good friend, Chad Baker, to pursue the giants of the Buckeye State.

  Baseball and deer hunting are the subjects of much of the conversation around the Nippert family.  Derik  was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2003 and retired in 2008 after an exciting career.

Dustin is still in the big leagues as a pitcher for the Texas Rangers, taking the mound on a regular basis.  He too was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks, but in 2002 before being traded to the Rangers in 2008 where he continues his very successful career.

 -Dustin

These boys are just as passionate about managing for trophy whitetails as they are about baseball.  They practice quality deer management and are always busy planting food plots or moving stands to get ready for the upcoming season.  During the summer, while Dustin is playing baseball, Derik is busy at home getting things ready. 

Good friend Chad Baker is also busy helping the two brothers with their whitetail duties as well as getting his own plots in the ground. Both Dustin and Derik have been hunting whitetails for the past 15 years and are as passionate about bowhunting as any two men could be.  Chad carries the same passion with him and this season promises to be an exciting one for Chad and the Nippert family.

  They have some really good deer hitting their mineral sites and posing for pictures; the boys can't wait to get the season started.  As soon as baseball season ends, Dustin will be heading home to Ohio to join Derik and Chad in pursuit of big bucks.

Dustin lives with his wife Carrie and their 2 year old son, Caden Layne, and 17 month old daughter, Aubrey Faith.                                                                 Derik

Dustin and Derik's 2010 Hit List

"Skyscraper"

This first buck's name is Skyscraper because his antlers are very high.  We passed this deer last year hoping he would get bigger this year and he certainly did.  He is either 3 or 4 this year so we are going to wait and see if he is going to be shot if we see him because this deer could be a tremendous buck next year.  Either way he has some  pretty impressive height.  I also was lucky enough to find both of his sheds from last year and he has gained atleast 20 inches from last year.
 

"BNJ" (Big Nasty Junior)

This is another deer from last years hit list.  His name is BNJ  or Big Nasty Junior.  This deer is a 4 or 5 year old this y ear but I am leaning more towards 5 because of his body size.  He is a pretty impressive buck with some tremendous brow tines.   Last year we were going to hunt this buck during the rut but got pictures of him with broken brow tine and a broken non-typical point so we let him go for another year.  This year he is going to be one of the top two or three bucks on the hit list for opening day.  He has atleast 12 points but could have more.  Just have to wait and see how many, if we are lucky enough to get him on the ground.

"Lucky"

This bucks name is Lucky.  We are calling him Lucky because last year he only grew the right side of his  rack and some people told us to kill him because he would never grow his left because there was something wrong with him.  Thankfully we decided to give him one year and if he grew only half a rack this year we would hunt him.  Well we are going to hunt him this year anyhow because he is an absolute stud of a main frame 8 point with a kicker on his G-2 on his left side.  This deer is probably 5 year old this year.  He is one of the top bucks on the hit list.

Nippert's 2009 Hit List

Dustin and Derik are still out scouting and running cameras in an effort to more bucks to their hit list, but here is what they have so far.

"MAGNUM": This 4 year old buck was an 8-point last year and had about the same width.  Both Dustin and Derik passed on him last year to allow him to mature.  The buck has added a significant amount of mass as well as 2 more points to his head gear. 

"RED MAN": "Red Man" is from the same farm.  He is well known to the Nipperts as well.  They had several sightings of him last year as a 3 year old but the buck had 2 tines busted off.  This year, at 4, he's on the hit list as a clean 10 with significantly more mass.  

"DAGGERS":  "Daggers" is a 4 year old that the Nipperts let walk last year.  Like the other bucks, he too has added mass, tine length and beam length.  He's on the list this year.  

"BIG RIG":  This big old guy is sitting at the top of the list.  Derik passed on him last year, just hoping that he would survive the '08 season.  His management efforts paid off big and this year, he's back with a lot more mass and tine length.  He's mature.  He's big and he's on the list.  

"BIG NASTY JUNIOR (aka BNJ)": The Nipperts are still trying to figure out the age of this buck.  They believe he could be only 3 years old.  If so, he might get removed from the hit list, but would definitely be hard to pass if he swaggered underneath their stand this November. The brothers believe this buck carrys the same genetics as a giant that Derik couldn't quite get a tag on last year.  He had 17 scoreable points with many of the same characteristics shown by the antlers of BNJ.