Missouri Hunter Bags 2 Trophy Bucks in One Season

Missouri hunter Ashlea Neill had an amazing deer season in 2024. The private lands wildlife biologist and DSG pro-staffer bagged a pair of mature bucks, one with a rifle and one with a bow, that totaled more than 306 inches of antler. “It’s been a pretty good year,” Neill says.

Neill tagged a trophy buck with her bow then turned around and took an even bigger one with her rifle just two weeks later. All images courtesy Ashlea Neill

Neill and her husband, Cooper, are passionate land managers who run numerous trail cameras on their home property. She had spent the summer waiting on a mature buck to show up, but hadn’t seen many that got her really fired up. Once the Missouri bow season opened last fall, she spent as much time as possible in a tree stand. The season started out slow, but Neill did get a shot at a nice 150-inch buck that she missed clean.

On the morning of November 7th, she again headed to her stand, and decided to try a rattling sequence shortly after the first rays of sunlight broke the horizon. After a few minutes, she heard a buck fight in nearby cover. “They were really going at it pretty aggressively,” Neill said. Just a few minutes later, a 130-class buck ran a doe out of the cover and past Neill at about 60 yards. A minute later, the other buck stepped out at 40 yards. It was a big, mature buck that Neill knew well. “I have photos of him from the past two years. He had pretty much topped out and had only put on about 10 inches of antler over last year’s rack.”

Neill grunted at the fired-up buck, which instantly turned and headed her way. Neill drew her Mathews Prima and when the buck stopped at 15 yards, she released her arrow. The shot was good and the buck only went about 40 yards before going down.

Neill’s archery buck came to a grunt call and then fell to a perfect arrow at 15 yards.

Neill estimated the buck at 5 years old. The symmetrical 5x5 frame taped out close to 150 inches. “This one was special. We’ve owned and managed this property with controlled burns and timber stand improvement for 5 years now and this is the first mature buck we’ve taken from it,” she said. “We’re getting ready to sell the property and it was nice to take a buck from it before we did.”

With her archery tag filled, Neill turned her attention to the upcoming Missouri rifle season. Without a target buck in mind, she decided to hunt some nearby leased land. Her sister had mentioned seeing a large buck crossing the road nearby and Neill thought it might be worth checking out.

With her archery tag filled, Neill turned her attention to finding a big buck for her rifle tag.

The morning of November 21 dawned with 30 mph winds gusting in the area. Without much of a game plan, Neill decided to wait until daylight and then still-hunt into a cedar thicket, hoping the deer would seek shelter there from the wind.

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Once shooting light arrived, she slipped into the heavy cover and almost immediately jumped a buck and doe. The doe ran about 50 yards and stopped, and the buck followed. Neill could tell the deer was mature, but in the low light, she couldn’t get a good look at his entire rack. The side of the rack she could see was nice, but not overwhelming. As the buck stood concentrating on the doe for several minutes, Neill strained to make out the opposite side of the rack to fully judge the buck.

After jumping the buck in the early morning light, Neill struggled to judge its age in the low light. When it stopped and turned its head, all doubt was removed.

After what seemed like an eternity, the big buck finally turned its head, giving Neill a full view. “I immediately realized the buck had incredible mass and the side I had been looking at was the smaller of the two. I knew he was a shooter and I raised my rifle,” she said.

Since the buck was standing in heavy cover, only his neck and head was visible. Neill isn’t a fan of neck shots, but she knew the buck would disappear completely if he took another two steps. She settled her crosshairs and squeezed the trigger — and her rifle clicked.

“Because I had waited till light to start walking and jumped the deer almost immediately after going in, I had never worked the bolt to load a round,” Neill said. Quickly cycling the action to load a round, Neill again took aim and squeezed. This time the rifle went off and the big buck collapsed where he stood. The entire hunt had taken just minutes from start to finish.

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The buck taped out at 156 ⅝ with an incredible 47 inches of mass. “I hadn’t planned on mounting this one when I took the neck shot, but seeing the mass and character in the rack changed my mind. I’m just glad I have a good taxidermist,” Neill laughed.