All summer I have been siting on my porch in rural Montgomery County Missouri watching a dozen deer grow into proud large bucks. Four of these bucks are sporting trophy racks. The excitement was building in me as the Missouri archery season start date of October 1st drew closer. Finally open day arrived; the weather is cooler than normal and the deer are starting to move around. For the first week I sat and watched deer come out of the woods and eat the beans. Just waiting for one to walk by. Finally on October 7th, 2000 it happened, here is my story.

    The sun was setting and darkness was falling on the fields, the wind was calm and the temperature was cooling off, I look at my watch, it was 6:40 pm only about another 15 minutes left to hunt. After watching several doe's and a couple bucks in the bean field north of me I was ready to call it a day. As I scanned the field and the wood line for the final time I heard a noise that caught me attention. I looked towards the dense woods behind me when I saw the deer walk into the field. I could tell it was a buck and had a nice rack. As the deer walked the edge of the of the bean field towards me, I judged where the deer would go and I drew back and waited. The excitement was building as I watched. I could tell there was good mass and at least 10 points. As the buck stared to enter the shot area, he stopped, My legs were getting weak and I was starting to shake as I looked at the head of this non-typical buck. My breath started to get heavy and I thought this is my year. Two more steps and the 15 yard shot will be made. As the adrenaline built, the deer turned and started to walk away from me. It walked to about 25 yards and turned somewhat broadside; I picked the shot and released. I heard the arrow hit and the deer ran into the field then turned back and hit the woods. I could hear the massive buck crashing through the dense woods behind me. I got down from the stand and marked the spot the deer was when I shot and the last place I saw it. Then I went to the house to get a flashlight.

    My stepbrother and another hunter joined me in the search for this animal. We looked the field over and found no blood or arrow. We found a hoof print where the deer should have entered the woods. Finally a blood trail was found about 40 yards into the woods. Not a lot of blood was seen at first but the further that we trailed the heavier the blood trail got. After about a mile of blood trail we entered a field, the frost was starting to make it difficult to follow the trail. Once across the field we entered a heavy grove of cedars. We were on our knees looking for the blood trail when the buck jumped up about 20 yards from us and started to run. A few minutes later we found the buck laying about 150 yards from where it jumped up.

    As we were all looking at the rack and commenting about how it was still completely covered in velvet, we noticed that the face and neck were very small for the body size and for a buck.  We rolled the deer over to field dress it and discovered that the proper organs were not there. We discovered this  massive buck was actually a large do with a 14 point rack.

    After 17 or so years of archery hunting not only did I get my trophy deer, but it is also a rare kill, a doe with a rack that would put most bucks to shame.

The Equipment used:
Browning X-Cellerator III
6" overdraw
60 pounds
50% let off
27" Easton XX75
Muzzy 90 grain broad heads