Troy Broyles is a bowhunter and Missouri State Trooper whose years of legwork and door-knocking helped him tag a giant buck in September. Although he now lives and works in southern Missouri near Thayer, he used to be stationed in Carroll County east of Kansas City. During his time there, the young sportsman met plenty of private landowners who gave him permission to hunt deer on their properties.
Broyles still hunts some of those properties and says the long drive across the state is well worth it. On the evening of Sept. 17, he killed the biggest buck of his hunting career: a 21-point behemoth with 190-plus inches of antler. The buck weighed more than 250 pounds.
“I had trail camera photos of the buck last year on the same farm, but never saw him while hunting,” Broyles tells Outdoor Life. “I placed cameras out before the 2023 bow season on the same farm, same spot. I checked them on opening day of the bow season [Sept. 15] and had photos on both cameras of the buck during late afternoon.”
Broyles didn’t get to hunt the area until Sept. 17. He walked in that afternoon, setting up a ladder and lock-on stand near a creek crossing where he could see a standing corn field 20 yards away. His stand was about 80 yards from where his trail cameras had recorded the giant buck two days prior.
“The wind was good for hunting the field edge and creek crossing where I set my tree stand,” says Broyles. “I got settled in about 3 p.m. but didn’t see much for a couple hours. Then I saw antlers in the corn, about 100 yards way. Using binoculars, I saw him stand up, and start walking my way, eventually to the edge of the woods and the corn field. He was feeding the whole time with no other deer around.”
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Broyles recognized the massive buck from the trail cam photos. The deer slowly worked its way through the woods and headed to the trail leading to the creek crossing where Broyles was set up.
“When he was at eight yards, I drew my bow, aimed, released, and hit him right behind the shoulder,” he says. “When the arrow sailed through his chest he made a couple big leaps, then started slow walking away. He fell 35 yards from my stand.”
An excited Broyles called his wife Samantha at home. Then he reached out to his local buddy Dalton Hutchenson to help him get the buck out of the woods. Broyles met Hutchenson at a road near his hunting spot, and they drove close to where the buck was down. They estimated its live weight around 270 pounds, and then field dressed the deer before dragging it to Broyles’ vehicle for the 5.5-hour trip home.
“I packed the buck with ice, and took off for my house,” he said. “It’s a long drive, but well worth it for a whitetail of a lifetime.”
Broyles is having the buck mounted by Cane Creek Taxidermy in Poplar Bluff. The taxidermist gave the 21-point non-typical an estimated green score of 195 2/8 inches. After the 60-day drying period is complete, the rack will be officially scored for entry into the Pope & Young record book.