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Marti Davis Afield

Marti Davis grew up in southwest Missouri in a family that hunted and spent time together outdoors. She started hunting herself in her mid 20’s after Jimmy, her husband, introduced her to deer hunting.

She and Jimmy still reside in Willard, the same small hometown they were both raised in; along with Maggie, their mini dachshund.

Hunting and the outdoors isn’t just a past time for Marti, it’s her lifestyle and her passion. She enjoys hunting, trapping, fishing, scouting, working on food plots, riding an ATV and even brush hogging — although it’s not at the top of her “favorites” list.

Besides her home state of Missouri, Marti has traveled to hunt in Tennessee, Idaho, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico. She has taken whitetail deer, turkey, black bear, elk and antelope. She also hunts small game, traps and hunt predators and occasionally hunts waterfowl. Whatever season, is open, she’s up for it.

Hunting and the outdoors isn’t just a past time for Marti, it’s her lifestyle and her passion

Last season, I can’t have any complaints about last season. I hunted the usual, hunted here around home in southwest Missouri, I live in Willard and I do some hunting here locally. Which we’re not known for big deer, big whitetails, but there’s some whitetails here to get me by until I get over into my hunts in southern Illinois where the big boys are. So mid-November, actually November 15th it was opening weekend of our Missouri rifle season here at home and I’d actually overslept that morning.

I’m going to tell on myself here. I overslept that morning and didn’t get out, and when I did finally get up I just took my time, got some stuff done around the house and went out later in the morning and got up on a tripod stand overlooking a food plot area and before I climbed up in the tripod stand I went ahead and set a buck decoy out in the middle of that where this decoy could actually be seen from all four directions from this field here.

There’s little gaps along the edge of this field where the decoy could be seen from the neighboring fields and properties and midday I haven’t seen much because it’s November 15th, midday, not a lot of traffic through the day but I was seeing a little bit, and all of a sudden I had a three and a half-year-old buck coming into the food plot and he started posturing and stomping and got all furred up and he was heading right for that decoy.

And I haven’t hunted a lot with decoys

And I haven’t hunted a lot with decoys, I haven’t had a lot of experience with ’em but the few times that I have I’ve usually had a buck posture and take notice of the decoy. A few times it’s also ran deer off but it was also younger deer that was running off so that’s really not a problem with me.

Here at home, this is the first buck, I haven’t harvested a buck in Missouri it had been six years since I harvested a buck here in Missouri. Mainly because I’m trying to let ’em get older and quality deer management can let the bucks mature which is hard to do here in southern Missouri. More times than not a two and a half year old deer jumps a fence goes on a neighboring property you’re going to hear a gunshot.

So it’s hard to do. But I still that’s what I want to do so that’s what I do. So I’ve harvested does off this property for this past several years and I’ve had opportunities to shoot younger bucks and passed ’em up and it finally paid off this year he wasn’t a real mature deer but he was three and a half, four and a half years old, which for this part of the country is an older deer, unfortunately.

A lot of guys say, “Oh I can’t shoot an older buck,” but no, not when you keep shooting them when they’re a year and a half, two and a half year olds. And that’s fine if that’s what they want to shoot this is just the way I’m hunting this property and I saw that buck come into view, he started posturing across that food plot, and was walking right for that decoy and I didn’t really let him get quite to the decoy. And I went ahead and put a stop to it and dropped him right there. And so I was very pleased with that at the time. Midday, yeah.

Marti is on the pro-staff for Mossy Oak camouflage

Marti is on the pro-staff for Mossy Oak camouflage. She enjoys working with several other outdoor companies and representing them at trade shows and outdoor stores. Marti also writes her column ‘Marti Davis Afield’ at the Women’s Outdoor News. (www.womensoutdoornews.com)

She also loves sharing her passion and introducing new hunters to the sport. Marti truly believes we must pass on our great hunting heritage.

Marti truly believes we must pass on our great hunting heritage.