"The Perfect Stand"
Written by Tom Logan

Tom's Utah buck is 26 inches wide and should score in the mid-160's.

My hunt seems to begin months before opening day every year. I'm either parked in front of the T.V. watching the weather channel or day dreaming of the perfect broadside shot. And trust me, my wife lets me know when she catches me doing either one!

I've been archery hunting mule deer in southeastern Utah since 1992, and have access to some private land south. The area consists of planted pinto beans, cut wheat and safflower fields. Most of our hunting is done from treestands and ground blinds that we setup between the fields and bedding areas.
The first evening of the hunt found me in a treestand overlooking a cut wheat field with very heavy deer trails leading to a pinto bean field. Nothing came by close enough for a shot that evening, they all crossed the field about 100 yards west of my stand. There was one group of seven bucks that still gets me shaking when I think about them. The smallest in the group was about 23 inches wide!
That night, back at camp, my hunting partner, Dave, and I talked about our game plan for day two. We decided to move our stands about 100 yards and place them where those seven huge bucks had cross. We also decided that if one of us did get lucky and harvest a deer from our stand, that we would remain in our stand until dark to give the other guy a chance.

We climbed into our stands at about 3:30 that second afternoon. My stand was only about four feet off the ground in a bunch of "Buck Brush", with one small cedar tree in it. I had two trails that came by that location. One of the trials was about 20 yards in front of me and would offer a perfect, broadside shot. The other trail was in a five foot deep, washed out gully that ran to the left of my stand.

It was exactly 4:15 when I looked out across the cut wheat field and spotted a huge buck about 600 yards on the other side. I was thinking to myself, "There is no way that buck is going to come into bow range", but the buck was walking right at me!
When he got within 200 yards, I became very nervous. I was getting excited! The buck continued closing the distance and I was beginning to think he was mine. He jumped through a low spot on a barbed wire fence and proceeded to follow the trail that was in the gully to my left.
That trail passes by my treestand at 8 yards! When he was about 20 yards away I drew my Jennings bow. I was on the edge of my treestand seat and my left leg was shaking out of control! Since he was down in the gully, all I had was a shot down through his spine. I set my 20-yard pin right on his spine and let my Rocky Mountain Iron Head tipped ACC go.
The arrow hit true and the buck dropped in his tracks like I had hit him with a rifle! He was only about 8 yards away! My entire body was shaking, I Love Bowhunting!!!

All I wanted to do was jump out of the stand and checkout my trophy, but I remembered the agreement that I had made with Dave to remain in the stand until dark. So, I sat there starring at the biggest buck I have ever taken with my bow. And to make things worse, the seven big bucks I had seen the day before came by me at 20 yards on the other trail! One of the bucks was every bit of 30 inches and would have probably scored in the 190's. Don't get me wrong, the buck I harvested is an awesome trophy and I would have never passed him up.

What a hunt! Having two trophy bucks within 20 yards and harvesting one all in the same evening, incredible! What luck! Of course I would rather be lucky than good anyway!

My buck is 26 inches wide and 22-1/2 inches tall. I'm still waiting for the rack to dry for an official measurement, but we rough scored him in the mid-160's. By the way, Dave harvested a great buck too. It is 19 inches wide, 22 inches tall, and very heavy. Should score in the high 140's.