Veteran Missouri bowhunter Jerald Utt of Cameron, Missouri, has taken more than 20 bucks by bow since he started hunting at the age of 15. But last season may be his most memorable year of all. On Oct. 19, 2007, Jerald bagged a massive 31-point buck while bowhunting in northwest Missouri that ranks as the highest-scoring whitetail taken by bow in Missouri last year. It also ranks as the largest non-typical taken by bow in North America in 2007. Jerald's Missouri monster netted 246 2/8 non-typical points.

"I'm a landowner and a dedicated cattle and grain farmer from DeKalb County, Missouri," Jerald says. "On Oct. 17 last year we had a good rain, and it was too wet to combine my soybeans. My farm work always comes first, but when it rains, I sometimes get a chance to fit in a hunt. Oct. 18 turned out to be just such a day, and I grabbed my PSE Bow and a quiver of arrows fitted with Thunderhead broadheads and headed off to my secret hunting spot.

"I already knew that a huge buck was living in the area I was hunting. I had seen him four times the year before as he was exiting my timber. Also, my neighbor had found one of the buck's shed antlers across the fence line near the spot where I hunt. This 'whitetail haven' of mine contains about 30 acres of timber, mostly hedge and locust trees. I have designated this 30-acre bedding area as a safety zone for all whitetails, and I never hunt inside the core of this sanctuary.

LOOKING FOR MR. BIG
"Each year I plant soybeans in a two-acre food plot adjacent to the bedding area. These two acres are left for the deer, and the soybeans are never harvested. My secret hotspot is in a secluded area about a half-mile from any road, so it's never disturbed by any passing vehicles. I hunt this area sparingly and only a few times each year. I routinely pass up more than 30 bucks each year waiting for that one special trophy-class deer that I can take with my bow.

THE JERALD UTT BUCK
Scorable Points:	31 (18R, 13L)	TOTAL LENGTH OF ABNORMAL POINTS: 77 4/8
Tip-To-Tip Spread:	14 4/8
Greatest Spread:	21 3/8
Inside Spread:	19 0/8
AREAS MEASURED	RIGHT	LEFT	DIFFERENCE
Main Beam	26 0/8	27 5/8	1 5/8
1st Point (G-1)	8 3/8	8 2/8	1/8
2nd Point (G-2)	10 6/8	13 2/8	2 4/8
3rd Point (G-3)	6 7/8	10 3/8	3 4/8
4th Point (G-4)	5 7/8	5 2/8	5/8
1st circ. (H-1)	5 4/8	5 3/8	1/8
2nd circ. (H-2)	4 2/8	4 2/8	--
3rd circ. (H-3)	4 6/8	4 3/8	3/8
4th circ. (H-4)	3 7/8	3 6/8	1/8
TOTALS:	76 2/8	82 4/8	9 0/8
Gross Typical Score:		177 6/8
Subtract side-to-side differences:		-9 0/8
Add abnormal points		+77 4/8
FINAL NET TYPICAL SCORE:		246 2/8
TAKEN BY: Jerald Utt, DATE: October 19, 2007, LOCATION: DeKalb County, Missouri

"While hunting the afternoon of Oct. 18, I saw a bunch of does and small bucks. But the wind wasn't right, so I decided to leave my stand. I returned at 2:30 the next day (Oct. 19) and hung my lock-on stand in a different tree. It overlooked a staging area between the bedding area and the food plot.

"Now the conditions were right. It was a sunny day, about 50 degrees, with a breeze blowing toward me from the west. I like to keep the wind in my face and the deer in front of me. The ground was damp, so I didn't make any noise walking in. Within a short time, 10 does and fawns came out to feed in the soybeans. They eventually moved on. At about 5:30 a bachelor group of five bucks came out near the staging area. The fourth buck in line really got my blood pumping. It was the huge buck that I had seen the year before!

"The first two bucks started sparring and the others moved away from them. The heavy-bodied bruiser that I had my eye on started to angle toward me. When he was 40 yards away, I centered my 20-yard pin a half-inch over his back. I released my arrow and made a perfect shot right through the deer's vitals. He went down, but then he got up and ran into the brush. He didn't go far, though.

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