Drop-tined Missouri monster should have stayed with his doe.
My husband, Andy, and I were on a whitetail hunt in Missouri a few weeks ago. The first day into the hunt, we headed out to the stands about an hour before sunlight, around 5:30 a.m.
We were about 400 yards apart on opposite ends of the woods. Once daylight hit, I heard shots and, of course, had to text Andy to see if it was him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Around 7:30, I got a text with a few cuss words in it. He was mad at himself because he had a big drop-tined buck come his way, but he somehow had scared the doe it was with, and they both ran off. I felt so bad for him, but we both know that’s part of hunting.
About 30 minutes later, two does came by. They stood under my treestand for at least 10 minutes. Since I hadn’t seen much yet, I got out my phone and took a few pictures. While I was doing that, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Two bucks were walking my way!
The first one was a little 6-pointer, but even through the thick brush, I could see the one behind had big mass. I had hung my gun on a rack on the treestand, so I had to carefully and quietly reach up to get the gun, all while trying not to scare the two does below me! I didn’t need my husband’s example to tell me what would happen if they spooked, but they didn’t notice me.
I managed to get my gun ready as the bucks continued to walk my way. I had to let the first buck go by and lead the bigger buck into the open. When he did, I made the infamous “mrrrrrp” sound and the big buck stopped broadside at about 45 yards. I put the crosshair on his chest and took the shot!
He jumped and then ran about 30 yards, darting right through the trees until I lost him in the brush. I immediately let my guide know I had shot, and he told me to sit tight. First, he wanted to make sure the buck had time to expire, and second, he didn’t want to disturb my husband’s hunt.
So, I sat and waited for three hours. What a long wait! There was so much doubt going through my head. In the meantime, I got down and checked to be sure I had blood. Sure enough, there were huge splatters all over the ground!
At about 11, the guide picked up Andy, and they came to get me. We tracked the blood together, and it took only about three minutes. My buck had gone just 50 yards and there he was, droptine and all! Andy went crazy.
Turns out, this is the buck he had spooked earlier. We couldn’t have been more excited that it was coming home with us, regardless of who shot it. It was a short, but awesome hunt!
– If you have a story for Smalltown Bucks, send a text or Word file with pictures to kpiper@buckmasters.com. Please include Smalltown Bucks in the subject line.