Alabama outdoorsman Jake Markris has an uncanny skill of being in the best place on the proper time. And on Halloween night, he was in a lock-on tree stand in the identical Missouri oak tree the place he’d arrowed an incredible buck 4 years earlier.
“It had been scorching and wet late this October, and I used to be prepared to return residence,” Markris, 52, tells Outside Life. “The climate was unhealthy, deer exercise was terrible, and I used to be leaving for Alabama.”
However a great buddy satisfied him to stay across the 250-acre farm in Daviess County as a result of a chilly entrance was within the forecast.
“My good buddy Wade Robinson, who works for Drury Outside, mentioned ‘No! situations are gonna be excellent for the subsequent few days in West-Central Missouri – you’ve acquired to remain and hunt’,” mentioned Markris, of Fairhope. “So, I did, and I’m positive glad.”
Photograph courtesy Jake Markris
When the chilly climate swooped into the world on Oct. 30, Markris knew proper the place he was going to hunt the subsequent night.
“I’ve hunted that farm for 25 years, and understand it very properly,” he mentioned. “I hunt it with household and mates for deer and turkeys, and over time I’ve shot numerous nice bucks there with my bow.”
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Halloween morning was cool and shiny, and there was good wind for looking that afternoon. They have been excellent situations for the spot the place Markris hoped to ambush a buck transferring from its bedding space to an ag discipline. He headed there late within the afternoon and walked on to a line of oak bushes on a ridge that bordered a clover discipline with some standing corn rows. He acknowledged his tree instantly.
“It’s only a excellent spot, proper the place I shot a 150-inch, 8-pointer 4 years in the past — that was additionally on Halloween,” Markris says. “I acquired to the tree about 4:30 p.m. and crimson oaks have been raining acorns. There have been two large scrapes close to the tree I hung my stand on.”
Markris didn’t assume the scrapes had been labored due to the nice and cozy and wet climate the last few days. He figured if a great buck was close by, it might present that night. And only one hour later, Markris regarded down the ridge and noticed a buck at 35 yards headed immediately towards him.
“I didn’t know the way large he was, however I grabbed my bow and acquired prepared as he saved strolling towards me,” he recollects. “He walked in a straight line on to a scrape underneath me and commenced pawing it. The he began hitting a licking department above the scrape together with his antlers and nostril.”
Photograph courtesy Jake Markris
The buck was immediately beneath Markris, and with its head excessive working the licking department, it was trying proper at him.
“I couldn’t transfer — he was trying up, and I’m trying down,” Jake mentioned.
The buck lastly dropped its head and completed working the scrape, then was the timber the place it was thick and troublesome to string an arrow by means of.
“I had one small opening to shoot by means of the quilt, and it was tight,” he says. “However the buck was solely 12 yards away, so I drew, anchored and launched.”
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The arrow handed by means of the deer’s coronary heart in a flash, and Jake watched it run and fall simply 50 yards away. He instantly known as his spouse, Shai, to inform her the excellent news. Then he known as a close-by buddy who introduced his ATV to assist haul out the buck.
Photograph courtesy Jake Markris
Markris’ buck has 14 scoreable factors, with great antler mass, and the nontypical rack inexperienced scored at simply over 172 inches. It has a break up G2 and triple forehead tines on one aspect.
“Once I acquired my palms on the buck, I spotted he was blind in a single eye, probably from preventing,” says Jake. “Perhaps that’s why he didn’t see me up in my tree stand when he was trying up working the licking department on the scrape proper beneath me.”
Markris says the buck’s uncommon tine off its proper aspect made him take into consideration the odd buck he noticed on the identical discipline whereas turkey looking there final spring.
“My son Lawson and I have been working a gobbler and regarded throughout the sector and right here walks a buck proper to us. I videoed the deer [with my phone] and thought of it after I shot the 14-pointer on Halloween,” he says. “There’s little doubt that’s the identical buck, as a result of it had a wierd trying starting antler on that very same aspect.”