Feature Story In 2017 I was lucky enough to draw tags for one of the managed hunts I talked about earlier. This hunt took place in a large county park in the suburbs of Kansas City. I was able to arrow the required doe on the first evening's hunt. Now that I had earned my buck tag by managing the herd, I was free to go after that big buck. I let several nice bucks walk because I was hoping for a chance at that "big one" before killing a good 9 pointer on the next to the last day of the hunt. On the morning of November 9th, 2018, I was hunting another 100-acre piece of property that a friend of mine owns. This piece is mostly CRP type ground with a creek bordering the west side and a large soybean field to the north. I saw three does and two bucks that morning. One of the bucks, a big-bodied 8 point came out of the corner woodlot stepping into my shooting lane at 25 yards. My arrow flew true, and I found the buck only 40 yards down the blood trail. The eight pointer was my most massive bodied deer kill so far weighing in at well over 200 pounds. With opening day of the Missouri Firearms season beginning soon, my wife Kim and I loaded our gear and headed down the road to the family's Ozark border property. I kept the Hoyt bow in my hands for rifle season, put my blaze orange on, and hit the field hoping to tag my second Missouri buck of 2018. At 8:25 am, I heard what I thought was another squirrel running in the leaves behind me. Well, it was another squirrel; however, I also noticed movement about 40 yards past the squirrel. Sure enough, a buck was heading my way. The buck was going to pass my stand at about 45 yards, and he was traveling with a purpose. I grabbed the grunt call I always have hanging around my neck and blew a couple of moderately loud short grunts. I wanted the buck to hear the grunts over the noise he was making, and I needed to get a better look at his antlers. The buck stopped and looked my way. Yep, he is a shooter! I blew another grunt a little softer but also a little longer. He turned and headed my direction again walking quickly. At 22 yards I mouth grunted to stop him for the shot. At the sound of the shot, the buck ducked, and the arrow hit a little higher than I wanted. I watched him run off, losing sight of him at about 100 yards. Listening intently, I did hear a ruckus that sounded out of place in the woods. Being a little unsure, I waited an hour before taking up the trail. Sure enough, I found the buck where I had heard the strange sound.
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CONSERVATION FEDERATION
One of the Jeff’s 2018 bow bucks that he harvested using Bowhunters Logic. (Photo: Jeff Blystone)
All these bucks were harvested keeping what I like to call smart Bowhunter's Logic in mind. • Minimize hunting pressure by not hunting the same property more than three days in a row and changing stand locations for each hunt. • Hunt when the weather favors deer movement; always consider the wind direction when choosing your route into the stand and while in the stand hunting. • Hunt more during the rut. Be in the stand hunting during the last week of October and the first three weeks of November but continue keeping in mind hunting pressure and weather. By making logical decisions, you'll be able to up the odds of being in the right place at the right time to arrow your next buck! Author's Notes: On these hunts, I used a Hoyt Spyder Thirty bow, Easton Axis arrows, Rage Hypodermic broadheads, Trophy Ridge sight, Carter Insatiable 2 release, Leupold rangefinder, and Primos grunt call. Jeff Blystone