Coyote Almost Steals Recurve Hunter’s Big Public-Land Buck

Traditional bowhunter Marvin Yoder had this public-land buck and a couple of other nice deer on his trail camera in 2024 but never encountered them. He caught up with the great buck during a mid-October outing this fall and made a great shot with his Samick recurve bow. Image courtesy of Marvin Yoder.

Marvin Yoder has lived in a few places in the Midwest and has had access to good private-land hunting at times. But now he and his wife live in the country in Indiana, on a 2-acre homestead with no hunting prospects. Yoder got permission to hunt a small piece of private property this year, but it hasn’t been the best place for deer hunting. So, for the past few seasons, his primary focus has been on a public parcel nearby. His past scouting efforts had turned up some deer that he believed were worth attention, including pictures of three nice bucks in 2024.

None of the bucks were on a regular pattern, but the area where Yoder had captured the photos seemed to be good, so that’s where he hunted. Despite his efforts, he didn’t encounter any of those bucks, but he passed on a nice little 8-pointer.

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Unfortunately, a thief swiped an SD card from one of Yoder’s public cameras this past year. He didn’t want to risk a repeat of that this year, and so he didn’t put out any new cameras there, opting instead to only put a couple of cams on the small piece of private ground where he’d gained permission. But by Oct. 19, photos at that spot were limited. Yoder was unsure if any of the nice bucks from the previous season were still around on the public land, but he decided to try it anyway. It was his first sit of the year.

“It had been raining on and off that Sunday,” he said. “I got into my stand on a cornfield edge around 2 p.m. The wind was whipping at about 25 miles per hour, and it was still raining. The wet ground and wind allowed me to get in with minimal disturbance. Throughout the afternoon, I was very exposed to the wind and rain, and I got cold. A few different times, I almost climbed down to sit at the base of the tree just to get out of the wind. But I stuck it out and held tight.”

Around 4 p.m., Yoder noticed another hunter slipping through the woods. With an arrow nocked, the hunter appeared to be still-hunting. The hunter never spotted Yoder in the tree and soon disappeared. About an hour later, the hunter reappeared and noticed Yoder from about 10 yards away.

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“He was super-respectful and told me what he had seen,” Yoder said. “Then he slipped out of there. Not long after, a small 8-point buck moved through.”

With the end of legal shooting time 15 minutes away, one of the big bucks that Yoder had hunted in 2024 suddenly appeared and walked through about 18 yards away on a deer trail that Yoder's stand overlooks. He readied his recurve bow.

Although Yoder didn’t put his trail cameras out in 2025, another hunter’s trail cam photo (shown here) shows how impressive the buck was, even early during the antler growing season. Image courtesy of Gary Keyes.

“I was very confident,” he said. “I pulled back and held at full draw for about 30 seconds, making sure I had my anchor point and that everything was right. I let go, and my arrow hit the buck dead-center. I was shooting a light-poundage bow and a lighter arrow than normal because I’ve been dealing with an elbow injury. Everything looked good, though.”

When Yoder climbed down to investigate, he followed the buck’s travel path for about 25 to 30 yards before he noticed any significant blood. The blood got much heavier as he tracked the buck through the cornfield, and he noted that the deer had plowed a path through the standing corn, which was easy to follow.

“At one point, I heard something running through the corn,” he said. “I was afraid that I had bumped him. But I continued tracking and found my buck just 10 yards ahead. That’s when I noticed a coyote had found him already. There were teeth marks right in front of his rear leg, by the belly.”

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Yoder called several people and explained the details. Before long, his brother, sister and a buddy showed up to help drag out the magnificent deer. Based on the trail camera pictures from 2024, the buck had packed on some inches. The rack is tight and tall, sporting 12 scorable points and grossing 148-5/8 inches.

“I’ve always hunted with a recurve because it’s a bigger challenge,” Yoder said. “It’s very rewarding to harvest an animal like that. It’s cool to be more in touch with the way bowhunting started. I look at bowhunting as a game of, ‘How close can I get?’ and not, ‘How far can I shoot?’”