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Public Land Spot and Stalk Missouri Giant 5.5 year old

Hunter260

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2019
Messages
1,585
Location
Ash Flat, AR
All I can say is wow, what a night I had last night. Killed the biggest buck I may ever shoot and had a best friend there with me.
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Here’s the story

We’ve been scouting public land hard for 4 years here in central missouri and have found a fair number of bucks and places to kill deer, but I’ve yet to take a public land buck despite hunting pretty hard (as much as my schedule allows).
We found a big hayfield on public land that wasn’t being used by anyone. There’s hardly any trees or way to hang a portable treestand on the property and it’s just really difficult to hunt. On 2 sides is surrounded by CRP and the other 2 sides has timber. Big ag fields are in close proximity and we thought deer would move out of the CRP and through the hayfield to get to ag. I told my buddy about this and he goes and glasses it one night about 4 days ago. He spots 2 3.5 year old bucks and a bigger buck doing just what we thought they would. With a gameplan he goes back in and hunts from the ground the next 3 days, getting closer and closer each night until taking a great 9 point at 15 yards 2 nights ago.
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He was absolutely stoked, (we all were) and me him and another buddy went down, recovered the buck and had a great night skinning and enjoying his harvest. He told us about how he knows there’s another buck who is “a class above” using the field that he’s seen twice but hadn’t got a great look at yet.

I had to work until 5:30 the next day, but loaded my gear into my car so I could run right after work to hunt. I was skeptical about the caliber of deer on this property, and contemplated going to shoot an easy doe last night and hunting some great private land I have access to today for a buck. I elected to give this buck a shot even though the odds were low, because my friend kept insisting this was going to be a great hunt.

We got into the field at 6, about 45 minutes before he shot his buck the night before and I set up in some brush on a creek edge where the bucks had been coming out. At 7:00 a yearling entered the field in the spot and I hoped the big buck was behind him. My heart sank when I looked across the field and saw a giant 150+ yards from me coming out of the tree line, because I knew it would be dark if he did come my way and I would have no shot.

There was a slight hill that he was behind, and when he was grazing with his head down he couldn’t see over. I also had one large chunk of grass about 3 feet high between me and him. Even though I knew it was low low odds I went for the stalk. I crouch walked about 20 yards then hit the dirt and belly crawled for 40-50 more, stopping whenever he turned his head my way. I had perfect wind and could move silently through the 10 inch high grass.

Unbelievably I made it to clump of grass and got to my knees. The buck was grazing towards me and I pulled my rangefinder out of my bino harness. 19, 4, 8, 12. I could only get the rangefinder to hit different pieces of grass between me and him. I waited until he turned broadside and looked away to straighten up and range over the grass. 64, 65, this is it. I drew my bow and settled my 60 yard pin at the top of his lungs.

I have shot my bow literally thousands of times at ranges past 50 and out to 115. I’m very comfortable with shots that far but would normally never consider it on a live animal. I’ve shot my big fixed 2 blade simmons tree sharks at 60 and know they’ll pound the dot every time.

I floated the dot for a good long time and tore the bow in two on the release. I tracked the green glowing lighted nock through the air and watched it disappear behind his shoulder, before reappearing behind him. He never flinched, never ducked or even reacted to the shot. It made a resounding pop sound as both lungs deflated. He hunched for a moment and bounded away down the hill towards my friend who had been set up in a way he could observe more of the field.

We were 100+ yards from any cover and as soon as I released the arrow I jumped to my feet and sprinted towards where he was standing. I dove face first at a full run and grabbed my blood soaked arrow, to re-nock it in case a follow up shot was needed. It was not, as when I stood to my feet I saw the buck lying 40 yards away motionless. The deer ran and fell 20 yards from where my friend was waiting in a large bush. He was dead in less than 15 seconds, as both lungs and his heart had been punctured.

I have never been in as an exciting environment as that moment. My buddy ran out screaming, “He’s dead! He’s dead!” And I could barely contain my excitement as I laid my hands on his rack and called my wife to tell her about the hunt. This truly was the greatest hunt I may ever have, and I am so grateful for it. God, I love this sport.
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Both bucks are awesome! Congrats to both you and your buddy! Thanks for sharing the story, it sounds like an exhilarating adventure.
 
Way to get aggressive. You took a chance and made that opportunity payoff. Congratulations to you both. So cool your buddy got to watch it unfold.
 
Awesome story and a hunt I'm sure you'll never forget! Congrats to the both of you
 
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