On November 7, relatively new hunter Jody Marsteller Davies shot a 195-inch whitetail in Putman County, Indiana less than 10 minutes after climbing into her treestand. Here’s her unbelievable story.Although she took a doe while hunting with her brother during her high school years, Jody didn’t really catch the hunting bug until years later. “I’ve only been seriously hunting for 15 years or so. I gun hunted in high school. My brother put me in a tree stand with a shotgun and I shot a doe, but I really wasn’t all that into it. I tried again after I got a bow just out of college and just got hooked.”Jody put her bow to good use and in the last few years she has taken turkey, squirrels, and whitetail. She took what had been her largest buck three years ago (Pictured here). “He measured 153 inches and I never thought I’d get anything bigger than him.” Little did Jody know what the future held.Jody and her brothers hunted private land — a farm in Putman County, Indiana. “I’ve been hunting it for 15 years. My brothers more than 25.” And despite the fact that they run several trail cameras on the property – and have for years – none of them had caught a picture of the buck Jody would later name Goliath. Only after Jody’s hunt did they find three photos of Goliath working a scrape. Jody went afield with a friend on the morning of November 7. They saw plenty of deer but things never came together. “We saw a 10 point that morning and several smaller bucks. The 10-point was a shooter if he would have come into range.” But, it didn’t . After the morning hunt, Jody and her friend pulled memory cards from cameras and headed home. “My friend had to work that night so I planned on hunting by myself. I went home and got into a comfy chair and told myself I was gonna take a 45 minute nap.”Jody’s nap accidently turned into an hour and 45-minute nap and when she awoke she rushed to the farm to hunt. “On the way I said a prayer asking for guidance on which stand to hunt. When I got to the farm the wind direction told me to hunt the Tilted Cherry,” a stand so named for the partially turned over cherry tree next to it.“I looked around when I got there n’ didn’t see anything so I got into the climber n’ went up. I pulled my bow up and my backpack looked around and didn’t see anything. I reached around and put my strap on then when I turned back around he was standing right there. BOOM!” “He was only 30 yards away but I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have anything ready. I grabbed my bow then nocked an arrow then got my release outta my backpack. Luckily he had come into a scrape so he didn’t really seem to notice me.”“I was ready then I realize my quiver was still on my bow and I never shoot it with the quiver on so I had to make the decision to try to take it off or not. I figured I better so I took the quiver off and placed it on my backpack. I look up to see the buck’s started walking on a path and I knew that if he stays on the path he’ll walk right in front of me at 20 yards.”
The buck did and Jody let her arrow fly.Jody’s buck was a brute and easily the largest ever taken on the property. He measured 195 inches, weighed more than 270 pounds on the hoof and is estimated to have been around 5 ½ years old. –Photograph by Patrick Hayes
On November 7, relatively new hunter Jody Marsteller Davies shot a 195-inch whitetail in Putman County, Indiana less than 10 minutes after climbing into her treestand. Here’s her unbelievable story.
