Busy Basketball Coach Arrows Big Oklahoma Buck

Jaicee Jo Powers missed a mature buck on the afternoon of Oklahoma’s archery opener, but she redeemed herself when this bruiser Sooner State buck walked out on October 15. Image courtesy of Paul Powers

Jaicee Jo Powers of Oklahoma is a mother and basketball coach, so she is very busy during the fall. Still, she finds time to go deer hunting here and there and really enjoys it, especially when her daughter comes along. In fact, she took her last buck, which was her second ever, while hunting with her daughter. The two had been sitting on the ground — not in a blind — when the encounter unfolded.

“I’m not sure that my husband, Paul, thought I’d be able to pull it off on the ground like that,” she said. “We also have twin boys, and we had tried to hunt as a family prior to the hunt with my daughter, but it just didn’t work. Anyway, we just had some tree limbs and stuff that Paul had put there for coverage. A nice buck came in and I got him. It was definitely one of the coolest hunts being that it was just my daughter and me with no blind.”

During her first hunt of the 2023 archery season, which was on the afternoon of the opener, a big buck came in, but she unfortunately didn’t connect.

The buck was very regular on the trail cameras but became a no-show for a spell prior to Powers successful hunt. Image courtesy of Paul Powers

“Including the buck I got this fall, I’ve taken three bucks,” she said. “But, I haven’t hunted all that much in the last three years. I guess I just got a little bit nervous when he came in. I shot right over him. It was an embarrassing shot. I did some practicing to get my confidence up before I went out again.”

Paul puts a lot of work into deer hunting and management, so he has tabs on which bucks are running around the Powers’ Sooner State hunting grounds. A particular buck, one that Paul had passed up in 2022, was on the cameras early but disappeared for a while. Naturally, the focus went to two other mature bucks. However, the buck that had gone missing came in during Jaicee Jo’s second afternoon hunt while she was out with Paul.

“He came in really close where I could shoot at him,” she said. “I drew my bow and held it at full draw for quite a while. He needed to take one more step, but he turned and left. We hoped that he would come back.”

Jaicee Jo enjoys hunting with her daughter, Autumn. A couple of seasons ago, they sat together on the ground (no blind), and Jaicee bow-killed this nice buck. Image courtesy of Paul Powers

Meanwhile, two other bucks came around. One was small and one was really nice but pretty young. Those bucks hung around for some time. Eventually, the original buck that Jaicee Jo had drawn on returned on the scene.

“With bowhunting, I’m not as established as my husband is,” she said. “It’s difficult for me to get to full draw without being detected. With all three bucks right there, I was extremely thankful that I got drawn back without any of the bucks seeing me. Once again, I held at full draw while waiting for him to move into my blind window where I could take a shot. Finally, he took the last step I was waiting for and I took the shot.”

Although the arrow hit just slightly low, Jaicee Jo was fully confident in her placement. She said that it looked and sounded good.

“We watched him run away,” she explained. “A few minutes later, one of the other bucks ran over to where we had last seen him. He spooked away, which meant that my buck was probably down for good. I was ready to go out and look for him, but Paul was a little less confident in my shot. So, we left and came back a couple of hours later. Just like I’d thought, he hadn’t gone very far.

“I’m not a very experienced hunter,” Jaicee Jo continued. “I have to give Paul a lot of credit for this buck. He puts a ton of work into deer hunting. Normally, you can’t hunt twice and get shots at mature bucks both times.”

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