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The Biggest White-Tailed Buck Taken By a Woman in North America with a Bow with Deb Luzinski
 Editor’s Note: Deb Luzinski of Woodbury, Minnesota, near Minneapolis-St.Paul, a deer-removal specialist and bowhunter for deer for 15 years, saves lives and prevents accidents. Luzinski has taken 73 deer with her bow. Five of those deer were antlered bucks, and two were monster-sized whitetails. Through her efforts and those of the members of Minnesota’s Metro Bowhunters Resource Base (MBRB), the number of deer/vehicular accidents was reduced by 150 in one region in Minnesota.
I got my first pair of Alpen Apex binoculars in 2003, and I seldom go anywhere without them. On October 27, 2007, I was doing deer removal in a regional wooded area. I went to my stand about 4:00 pm, hoping to take a doe. I’d found a 35- to 40-yard-wide bottleneck between two large cattail ponds. Since there were plenty of vines in the area, this bottleneck was most-likely between the deer’s feeding and bedding regions. As soon as I climbed into my tree stand, I started tipping my Primos Original CAN and making a series of bleat calls. I waited a while and then gave another series of bleats.
About 5:20 pm, I heard the cattails rustling. With my Alpen binoculars, at 35 yards out through thick brush, I spotted a beautiful, 150-inch, 10-point trophy buck. He had a fantastic mass, good width in his main beams and high points. Because he was in the thick cattails, I couldn’t get a clean shot. So, I watched the buck with my binoculars. As the buck started to leave, I tipped my call again. The buck came toward me on a little higher ground. He stopped, and I heard the cattails rustling to the east of where he was standing. As I looked through my binoculars in the direction of the rustling cattails, I saw a second buck with a much-bigger rack than the first buck.
 As I watched the two bucks, the 10-point I’d originally planned to take walked about 10 yards toward the monster buck. The two bucks got within nose reach of each other. I was having a great time watching the two biggest bucks I’d ever seen in my life have a stand-off. Finally, the 10-point buck dropped his head and backed away in a submissive posture to the 24-point buck. Even if I’d never had an opportunity to take either one of these bucks, I’d already had one of my greatest days of bowhunting ever. No one would believe the size of the two bucks I’d just seen. I thought the 10-point buck was leaving, so I tipped my can again, trying to get either one of the bucks into a place where I could take a shot with my bow. The cover was really thick. I knew I’d only have one or two shooting lanes where I could take the bucks.
The 24-point buck started making his way around the bottleneck and moving away from me. I tipped my Primos CAN again. Although the buck was only 22-yards away, I still didn’t have a clear shot. After I tipped my can once more to get the big buck to stop, I looked down and saw the 10-point right under my tree. As I tipped my can, the 10-point saw my movement and blew. I thought to myself, “That’s it. I won’t get either deer.” But the big buck stopped, turned and took about two steps toward me. I just knew he was going to bolt and run. However, as I studied the buck’s body language, I realized that there was no tension in his muscles. He was still somewhat relaxed. I looked at his antlers with my Alpen binoculars, put the binoculars down and started watching the buck’s shoulder. I didn’t want to look at the antlers any more because I wasn’t going to shoot the antlers. I was going to shoot the spot just behind the shoulders.
The 10-point buck stomped his feet, but he didn’t leave. Since the big buck wouldn’t come in, after about a minute, which seemed like an hour, I tipped my can again. The 10-point buck under the tree blew again, bolted and ran. But instead of spooking the big buck, he turned and started walking toward my tree. I was looking for a place to take a shot. I realized I only had one shooting lane at 17 yards where I could get a clean shot at the buck. The buck was walking toward that shooting lane, and just as he stepped into it, I grunted. By this time, I already had my bow drawn. The buck took one more step, and I grunted again. Finally, he stopped in that shooting lane with only the portion of his side right behind his shoulder visible. I aimed carefully and released the arrow. The buck ran about 20 yards through the cattails and stopped. I saw the cattails move violently and then stop moving. I knew the buck was down. So, I picked up my Alpen binoculars and started looking for my arrow and a blood trail. I didn’t see either one.
 I took out my cell phone and called my friend, Ron Cormier, who’s taken more than 40 Pope & Young class bucks with his bow. I told Ron, “I’ve just shot the biggest buck I’ve ever seen.” He said, “Deb, I’m on my way to help you find your deer and drag him out.” I climbed down out of my tree stand and went to find my arrow. I walked over to the spot where I thought I’d arrowed the buck and looked back at my tree stand. I said to myself, “Oh my gosh, this is so thick. I really didn’t have a shooting lane.” But I was 2-feet away from the shooting lane where I’d fired. I took two steps forward, saw the shooting lane and spotted a lot of blood. I followed the blood for about 45 yards and located my buck. I didn’t look at his antlers at first. I wanted to see the spot where the arrow had entered to determine where I’d hit the deer. Just as I’d thought, the arrow passed through both lungs and the top of the heart. That’s the reason the buck went down so quickly. I was really excited about the shot. Then I looked at his antlers and said to myself, “Look at all the antlers.” The buck had dropped tines, and plenty of kickers, stickers, palmation and every configuration of antler you ever could dream of a deer having. His antlers were a deep, chocolate brown, and they were incredibly beautiful.
When Ron arrived, he saw my buck. His face turned red, and he dropped to his knees and said, “Oh, my God!” My buck was the largest he’d ever seen in his life. He had the buck’s antlers scored for both the Pope & Young and the Boone & Crockett. The antlers gross-scored 228-2/8 and net-scored 222-2/8 points. The buck was declared the biggest buck ever taken in North America by a woman with a bow. This tremendous buck was a direct result of the deer-removal program I’ve been participating in for the last 13 years. Being a part of a deer-removal program in a metropolitan area is a fantastic way for hunters who don’t have a lot of time to hunt to bag a big buck because they don’t even have to leave their counties.
 One of the things I’ve learned is that suburban deer often travel greater distances than deer in the wilderness areas. The big buck I took was spotted by a friend of mine 5 miles from where I took the deer. In suburban areas, there’s often very-little wooded property and thick cover. Therefore, deer may have to travel a long way between their feeding and bedding sites. The suburban bucks’ ranges during the rut are often much greater than bucks in wilderness places. In 2006, after our organization, Minnesota’s Metro Bowhunters Resource Base, began removing deer, the number of deer/vehicular accidents on Highway 94 leaving St. Paul was reduced by 150. Our organization’s mission of removing deer is having a tremendous effect on lowering automobile accidents on this road. In the future, organizations like ours will become more prevalent in more metropolitan areas.
For more information about the Metro Bowhunting Resource Base, visit www.mbrb.org.
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