Gus McKinney tagged the buck in a spot he hadn’t hunted for two years<\/p>\n
![\"missouri](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/missouri_crossbow_buck_familiar_spot_1.jpg\")
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Gus McKinney with the buck he tagged on Nov. 26. Courtesy Gus McKinney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Gus McKinney has hunted a small piece of private land near St. Louis for nearly two decades. A new job forced the 48-year-old locomotive engineer to find new ground to hunt on in recent years, but on the morning of Nov. 26, McKinney returned to his old spot in St. Louis County. It was the first time he\u2019d hunted there in two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, friends and I have killed a lot of great bucks in that area, so I went to an old ladder tree stand on the property that morning,\u201d McKinney tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019ve had that stand there for over 12 years, and it\u2019s produced a lot of great bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n It was the middle of the rut, and McKinney\u2019s stand overlooked a low-lying travel corridor that whitetails had used in the past. The area was crisscrossed with game trails and bordered by a river on one side.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 8 a.m. I spotted a great buck coming out of the river bottom across a cut bean field tracking a doe,\u201d McKinney says. \u201cHe was about 150 yards away, and he could have gone anywhere. But he was chasing that doe, and she headed my way.\u201d<\/p>\n Several times the doe came within 70 yards of McKinney, and he was tempted to try a long shot at the trailing buck. But he wasn\u2019t comfortable shooting his crossbow that far. So, he watched and waited for the deer to work closer.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter about 30 minutes the buck chased the doe back into the woods beside the field, toward where I was,\u201d McKinney says. \u201cThere was a trail leading to where she was standing, and I\u2019d ranged that spot at 40 yards. When the buck got there, I softly mouth grunted to stop him, and I let my arrow fly.\u201d<\/p>\n McKinney watched the bolt fly true, hitting the buck just behind the shoulder. The deer kicked and ran for 20 yards before stopping. Then it turned and walked back toward the doe, which was still in the open.<\/p>\n \u201cHe acted like he wasn\u2019t even shot,\u201d McKinney says. \u201cI saw him bleeding. Then he got wobbly, and just fell over dead, with the doe watching the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n Recovering the buck was a chore. McKinney drove his truck up to the deer, but it was too heavy for him to load alone. He also didn\u2019t want to field dress the deer near his tree stand because he was worried it might draw coyotes in. So, McKinney tied the buck\u2019s head to his tailgate and dragged the deer for about 150 yards to a spot where a slight rise in the terrain helped him muscle it into his truck bed.<\/p>\n![\"missouri](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/missouri_crossbow_buck_familiar_spot_2.jpg?w=1850\")