Deron was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1967. He started hunting small game with his grandfather at the age of 10. In his early teens he began his pursuit for whitetail deer in the surrounding hills near his home in Ohio and northern West Virginia. Immediately out of high school, Deron moved to the state of Georgia to begin what was to be a near lifetime career in the Land Survey Professional.
Deron and his wife Patricia married at the age of 23. They were blessed with twin children, Anthony and Taylor and more recently a granddaughter, Bailey. It was Patricia who encouraged Deron to continue his big game hunting while in his early 20’s. However, as passionate as he was about hunting, his time afield was limited during his apprentice years and the next several years that followed. Deron started his own business at the age of 28. He then grew his business to one of the largest and most successful national commercial land survey companies in North America with multiple offices throughout the US and Mexico. He sold his business in 2023 and is currently continuing to follow his passion and lifelong dream of big game hunting.
Deron has several real hunting passions, but he feels the most rewarding are both the rainforest and mountain hunts, where mental and physical fitness meet. His most memorable hunts include Forest Elephant and Dwarf Forest Buffalo in Cameroon, Himalayan Blue Sheep in Nepal, Yakutia Snow Sheep in Russia, Thinhorn Sheep in Canada and Markhor in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The hardest hunt was his Yakutia hunt where we walked almost continuously for 26 straight hours. “The rams were far and the days long. “
Deron has placed an emphasis on mountain hunting and has harvested 37 Ovis Species with a total of 48 Ovis animals and 39 Capra species with a total of 91 Capra animals. He has always been committed to purely free range hunting and has harvested 271 big game species as defined by various organizations and over 500 big game animals. 118 of those species are Conklin species with 272 Conklin animals total. He has hunted 42 countries and has taken 122 international hunting trips. 36 of those trips were to Asia where he has collected 63 species.
