Kentucky Couple’s 164-Inch Velvet Buck Sparks a Standoff

Logan and Kaylin Beach of Bowling Green, Kentucky, set up on the same ridge in separate trees only 16 yards apart on September 6, the second day of the state’s archery season. Kaylin was carrying a recurve, Logan a Prime Divide 31 compound. A nomadic buck neither of them was hunting stepped through at nine yards between their stands, and that’s when the couple realized they’d never worked out who would take the shot.

A Buck That Kept Moving

Logan already knew the deer. He’d crossed paths with it at eight yards on the ground the previous November, and his trail cameras logged it off and on afterward, along with photos shared by neighbors as far as two miles out.

“He’s super nomadic for a whitetail,” Logan told MeatEater. “He wasn’t sure where he fit in. He just knew he needed to move around.”

This season, Logan turned up only two camera pictures of the buck: one on August 8 during the middle of the day, and another at 1 a.m., 16 days before it walked out in daylight.

The Shot

A little after 6:30 p.m., Logan heard a sneeze down the ridge and picked out a six-pointer, with the nomadic buck trailing behind it. The big deer moved in with two smaller bucks, heading straight for the stands on a crosswind. It halted nine yards out, but sat on both hunters’ weak side, then drifted toward a corn pile.

Logan came to full draw twice and let down each time, uncertain whether Kaylin intended to shoot. On his third draw he held for 10 or 15 seconds before settling his pin and driving a G5 Mega Meat broadhead through both lungs at 30 yards. The buck covered about 25 yards and dropped.

The rack didn’t spread especially wide, but it carried 42 2/8 inches of mass over 22 scorable points, grossing 164 1/8 inches in Buckmasters scoring.

Kaylin’s camera had been running the whole time. The footage showed the buck stepping into her lane and Kaylin raising the recurve into it just as Logan’s arrow got there.

“You couldn’t have given me one more step?” she asked afterward.

“There hasn’t been any couch sleeping or divorce papers or anything,” Logan said.

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