Logan Beach and his wife Kay were bowhunting a hardwoods ridge in a well-used travel area between a creek drainage and a beanfield the afternoon of September 9. They were on a 200-acre farm in the rolling hills of central Kentucky, and they were hoping to see a massive velvet buck they’d captured on camera in the summer.
The bowhunting pair were in different hang-on tree stands overlooking the trail, but close to each other. Kay is a dedicated recurve bow shooter. Logan was using a 70-pound, Prime Divide 31 compound bow.
“We got into our stands about 2:30 that afternoon,” Logan tells Outdoor Life. “Our trees were close to each other, and she was nearer the trail we were hunting because of her short-range recurve bow. She likes close shots of about 15 yards or so.”
The couple settled in during a very warm evening, but they had a good crosswind for the trail they were hunting. They watched a doe and spike ease along the trail. Then just after 6 p.m. they heard a buck sneeze.
“There were two small bucks on the trail about 100 yards away,” says Logan, 29, a salesman from Bowling Green, Ky. “I watched them for a while, then saw a better buck on the trail behind them.
“As they got closer, I spotted the velvet rack on the bigger buck. It was the same buck I’d seen last year, and had trail camera photos of this year from August.”
As the deer slowly walked toward the bowhunting couple, Logan recalled that he and his wife never discussed what would happen if the giant velvet buck showed up that night.
“Who was going to shoot is something we didn’t talk about – but we should have,” he says with a chuckle.
The buck stopped 10 yards from the bowhunters but was in a difficult position for either one to shoot.
“Finally, he turned and from my angle it walked by Kay and I figured she wasn’t going to shoot it,” Logan says. “I’m waiting for her to draw on the buck, but she didn’t and I thought she wanted me to take him.”
Logan drew his bow to shoot, but the buck turned facing him and he had to let down his bow.
“He turned and came through an opening at 30 yards and Kay still hadn’t moved to shoot,” Logan says. “I knew we couldn’t let the buck get away. So I drew my bow, aimed, and sent a 3-blade Megameat mechanical broadhead right through his chest.”
Read Next: The Best Mechanical Broadheads of 2026, Tested and Reviewed
The deer bolted and piled up just 25 yards from where Logan shot it.
“I looked at Kay and we both were silently ‘high fiving’ each other in our tree stands,” he says.
The couple climbed down to the ground and regrouped.
“She said to me, ‘You could have let him make one more step before you shot him – because then I could have shot him.’”
The bowhunting couple got an ATV, loaded the buck, and headed home.
“He really wasn’t a heavy deer,” Logan says. “My dad shot a giant 6.5-year-old buck that same night nearby that weighed 245 pounds. My buck could have fit inside his deer.”
But what Logan’s buck lacked in weight, it made up for with its rack. The estimated 160-pound, 22-point velvet deer was officially scored by Buckmasters at 164 1/8-inches. Much of its score was from huge antler mass.
Logan says he’s been taking some good-natured needling from Kay about him shooting the buck instead of her. But he knows “pay back” is coming.
“She’s been a good sport about that evening’s hunt,” Logan says. “But we have an African bowhunt planned next year, and Kay is already talking about taking a sable or a kudu. I think she wants both.”
Read the full article here
