Estimating Range Of Deer

255 6/8-inch Missouri Trophy Buck

It’s rare enough for a buck to reach true physical maturity, but for a buck to reach maturity and carry the genetics to grow abnormally large antlers is extraordinary.

When a buck of this caliber meets a bowhunter in a fair chase setting and the bowhunter brings home the bone, well, this could be described as “the perfect storm.” Simply put, it hardly ever happens.

Scott Odenbrett of Barry County, Missouri, found himself in just such a storm in the fall of 2010, in the hill country of southwest Missouri.

The story is epic in many ways. First, Scott has a very interesting history with the giant deer in question. This was not the first year Odenbrett’s weapon had connected with the buck.

Second, the buck has a world-class rack. The net Pope and Young score of the buck will likely place him in the top 16 bucks ever taken with a stick and string.

Third, Scott wasn’t hunting for this particular deer; he was simply out to shoot a doe! This story exemplifies the aspect of whitetail hunting that keeps us all coming back — a big buck could be living right under your nose and appear on any hunt! You never know what your hunting ground can produce!

BACKGROUND CHECK During Missouri’s 2009 muzzleloader season, Odenbrett had intended to hunt in Barry County, his home county in Missouri. The muzzleloader season in Barry County falls in mid-December, and after a long season without a good buck, Odenbrett headed to the woods with his smoke-pole in hand. After sitting for some time, he decided to do some rattling. Much to his surprise, his calling sequence got the attention of more than one buck. Over the course of a few minutes, it drew in six!

One of the bucks was top-end for southern Missouri, pushing 150-160 inches based on Odenbrett’s estimate. As the hunter drew a bead on the buck and shot, the muzzleloader’s sabot flew off course. The moving buck, however, did catch the awry bullet — right in the antler! After the smoke cleared, the buck was unscathed, but Odenbrett had managed to shoot the right main beam of the buck, breaking it off at the base! He was confident that he would never see the broken-beam buck again.

Having hunted this region for years, Odenbrett knew that the big hardwoods of southern Missouri have a way of causing big bucks to disappear. Be it a liberal rifle season or simply the heavily forested and rough topography of the Ozark Mountains, a hunter rarely receives a second chance. He didn’t suspect anything different from this buck. However, what he couldn’t anticipate or predict, would be the perfect storm of events that would take place the next year.

Deer Scouting Tips

The second day of the bow season opener was drawing to a close as the woods changed over from an early fall day to a beautiful fall evening. Leaning forward to listen, the archer strained his eyes to the limit of his peripheral vision without moving his head, watching the corners. He heard the sound again. He knew the sound well: it was the footstep of a deer. But he couldn’t place it’s source, only that it was to his right, as expected.

Slowly raising his binoculars, he peered through the foliage and panned to his right, willing his eyes to register through the undergrowth. The rotation of the antlers gave away the buck’s location. Definitely a shooter. The hunter began aligning his body to position himself where he could stand and draw the bow in the vicinity of where he hoped the deer would appear. The buck emerged a half step behind to the right of the “30 yard mark” giving the hunter just enough time to stand and draw before it’s full head and vitals cleared the tree.

Sensing he was no longer alone, the buck stopped and put his ears on alert as the archer settled his second pin on the buck’s armpit and sent the arrow home.

With the release of the arrow, the hunter in the above scenario culminated what most would consider a good day’s hunting. In truth, however, it was the culmination of several months worth of planning, scouting, and preparation that helped the archer bag his deer.

While most bow hunters would readily accept being lucky whenever they can, there’s no substitute for being prepared. If you are one of these hunters, the time to prepare for the upcoming bow season opener is now. In days of old, many deer hunters spent countless afternoons in the woods trying to find pieces to a puzzle that would lead them to the arrowing of a trophy deer. Often time and money were invested in stomping up the woods while several good bucks were bumped off the property in the process.

The advancements in technology today, while not a substitute for good old-fashioned scouting, can sure assist the bow hunter in scouting smarter. Here are some high-tech deer scouting tips for your bow opener.

BROAD VIEW Consider deer scouting as a version of “sighting in” a gun or bow. The first step is to get the shot on paper and to do that you’ll need a computer and the Internet.

Back during the turn of the century, if you wanted to get aerial views of a piece of property, you’d probably have to hire an airplane pilot to take you up and use your own camera to take the pictures yourself.

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