Editor’s Note: Do you remember when you took a buck with a bow that made that time an exciting hunt? This week some well-known archers are sharing their adventures of bagging some of their most memorable bow bucks.

Eddie Salter’s Accidental Buck

Longtime, well-known outdoorsman Eddie Salter of Brewton, Alabama, has won almost every turkey-calling championship and has been the subject of numerous videos and TV shows about his great success as a bowhunter.

I planned to hunt near Camden, Ala., on some private land that belonged to a friend of mine one time. Since I arrived in the hunting area late in the afternoon, I didn’t have time to scout. But I found a place I wanted to hunt in about five minutes – a large swamp chestnut tree that had dropped its acorns. I saw numerous deer tracks and droppings around the tree and several large rubs. As I started to get into my tree stand, I noticed the two bolts that held my hand-climber together had disappeared and also realized I’d forgotten my pull-up rope. This was in the time before we knew the importance of safety harnesses. I took off my belt and used it to tie my bow to the bottom of my stand. Then I hugged the tree and pulled the stand up with my feet.

Within 15 minutes after I got in the tree, I spotted a super-fine 10-point buck coming from behind me. Although I drew on the buck three different times, each time he’d step behind a tree or some type of cover. Then I’d have to let my bow down until he once again walked into an opening. But the buck finally came within 18 steps of my stand, and I had an opening through which to shoot. I released the arrow.  Although the buck ran off, he failed to get out of sight before he dropped. My 10-point buck scored 140 points on Boone & Crockett.

Mark Drury’s Hilltop Buck                  

Mark Drury, the creator of MAD Calls, and one of the co-founders of Drury Outdoors in Columbia, Missouri, is a longtime avid bowhunter.

I was hunting in southern Iowa on private lands with my brother Terry. I’d scouted this farm the summer before and had found a stand of hardwoods on top of a hill surrounded by a cornfield. At the very point of the hill, I saw a small, 40-yard long and 40-yard wide patch of clover. In the center of the clover field stood a walnut tree where I put my tree stand. Many trails crisscrossed the clover field from four different directions. Apparently, the clover field provided a major intersection for all the trails that went back and forth across the mountain.  It looked like one of the best funnel areas I’d ever seen for white-tailed deer.

At 4:30 pm, Terry, who also had a tree stand in the walnut tree, spotted the buck first as he stood in the tree and filmed with my video camera. As soon as he signaled that he’d seen the deer, I picked up my bow. I saw the buck coming down one of the trails 40 yards from my tree stand. The buck stood just inside the tree line and was about to come into the clover patch when I took the shot. I judged the distance at about 25 yards. When I released the arrow, it centered the deer. He only ran about 80 yards. The buck, a 14-pointer, grossed 144 points on Boone & Crockett. His split tines made him unusual-looking. He was the most spectacular buck I’d ever taken with my bow at that time, I still remember the entire hunt today.

Expert Guidebooks on BowHunting Deer: Best Sellers

How to Hunt Deer Up Close with Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows
To be more successful as a deer hunter, learn all you can about the animal, the wind, the temperature and the techniques required to get in close.

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John E. Phillips also shares his own deer stories and hunting tips from 50 years of experience.

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If you’re serious about learning to hunt and take deer with a bow, if you’re looking for a different strategy that will help you identify and harvest big bucks, if you want to learn from your misses as well as from the shots that connect, and if you enjoy being in the great outdoors that the Good Lord has blessed us with, then this book is for you.

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