|
|
State Trooper Fells 190” in MO
By Patrick Dunning
I can’t say I’ve ever had a story fall right into my lap like this one did.
I was in Missouri last week visiting my mom and sister’s family and was fortunate to sneak in a couple hunts on public land while I was there. I didn’t have any luck but got to bear the heat and bugs and see plenty of deer.
About three hours into my drive back to Alabama I got pulled over by the Missouri State Highway Patrol just north of the Arkansas state line for speeding. I won’t tell you how fast I was going but I certainly deserved a ticket. The 26-year-old state trooper, Troy Broyles, returned my license and registration and told me he was going to let me off with a warning for speeding, but that he was writing me a ticket for shooting a Prime compound bow.
I guess he’d noticed it on the floorboard of my passenger seat.
We shared a laugh and had a friendly conversation about deer hunting for 10 minutes or so. He asked if I’d had any luck. I said no, but that’d I’d be back after the first batch of cold fronts to try my luck again.
Troy told me he harvested his biggest buck to date with a compound bow on a 200-acre farm he gained permission to hunt. His 21-point stud on opening day of Missouri’s 2023 archery season rough scored 195 inches.
It’s not a long story with a long history but this 10x11 from northwest Missouri definitely deserves some digital recognition.
“I first got him on camera last year over the summer. Once September hit, he showed up once every couple weeks just passing through. Planned on hunting him this year, put cameras out in July and he daylighted on the farm I have permission to hunt,” Troy told Buckmasters. “I thought, dang I better get up there.”
He scheduled off work for the bow opener and was situated in a tree by 3 p.m. It was a slow afternoon and Troy was already considering where to hunt the next morning when he noticed horns walking through a drainage in a field of standing corn around 6:30 p.m.
Troy said he threw up his binoculars and his heart started racing.
“I knew it was him,” he said. “He was feeding around on the first row of corn and looked like he was going to walk the other way but all of a sudden turned and starting down the corn edge right to me.”
It took his target buck a few cautious minutes to get within 30 yards. The deer put its head down and started feeding at 20 yards and at one point was perfectly broadside at eight yards.
“I don’t even remember putting the sight on him, I just buried it behind his shoulder. He jumped the water hole, stopped then started walking again and finally tipped over,” Troy said. “Full pass through, he went 35 yards.”