Bill Yost is the oldest member on the Missouri staff. He has hunted whitetails for over 45 years in northwest and north-central Missouri on public and private land starting with a fiberglass longbow. Bill is retired and operates a small farm with a few acres of row crops and a cow calf operation.

He lives alone on the farm his grandparents purchased in 1942. The terrain is rolling hills with bottomland adjacent to creeks and small streams. There is a large deer population due to the crops and timber along the creeks and bluffs. Many of the deer Andy and Bill will be hunting travel between adjacent properties of timber and pastures. The area has produced many large body bucks over the last 40 years.

The area has had the 4-point one-side antler restriction since the Department of Conservation instituted the new regulations. However, Bill requires most hunters to pass on deer with eight points unless it is a mature buck. He encourages the harvest of does and they have taken a significant number for many years. This has maintained a healthy herd and plenty of exciting hunting. Bill’s hit list is the same as Andy’s since they will be hunting together. However, they hope to see new bucks move in as it gets closer to the season opening. Last year a youth hunter harvested a 150-class buck during the two-day youth season that neither Bill nor Andy had seen before.

Andy Yost lives in the Kansas City area with his wife, April, and two son AJ and Aaron, ages 11 and 7. Andy has been taking his boys hunting with him since they were 4 years old. AJ has shot 5 deer over the past 3 seasons and shot his first antlered buck in 2010 during the regular firearms season, with three of those hunts appearing on Midwest Whitetail.com . Aaron shot his very first deer, an adult doe with triplets during the late youth portion last winter in January.  

Much of his time is spent helping his father farm the property, plant food plots, work cattle and manage the land to maintain a balanced healthy deer herd. They are in year three of a wildlife management plan and are very excited about what the future has in store on the property. They have seen the overall age of the buck structure increase from passing on immature bucks. They hunt in a very high pressure area. The farm is rolling timber with bottom crop fields and has two large creeks that run throughout the entire tract of land. In his spare time Andy enjoys playing or watching sports, completing remodeling projects and working on his video editing and photography skills. They are nearing completion of building his father’s dream house that has encompassed a lot of their time over the last year and a half, a two-story log home.

This will be their 3rd year being a featured team from Missouri. They have their best hit list line-up yet this season with all new bucks, two of them they have been following for 3 years and a few more they have shed hunting success with and late season sightings of. Three of the 4 bucks they were hunting in 2010 never made their presence known again after early summer. Andy and Bill believe those deer must have died without knowing the details. One of the bucks however, “Junior” was shot during the second weekend of Missouri’s rifle season and the neighboring land owner brought the deer over to share in his success believing that Andy and Bill knew the deer.

Bill and Andy's 2011 Hit List

“Lopsided Lefty”

This 5-year-old buck gets his name from the unique left side to his rack. He has a big gnarly base and tall brow tine on that side. Andy and Bill do not have much history with this buck. He showed up during the rut last year on trail cameras and has not left since. Last year he was a tall 140 inch 9 point. This year he is sporting 10 points and looks to be pushing into the Boone and Crockett range. They managed to get a little bit of footage of this giant NW Missouri buck in late July feeding in a bean field with their #2 and #3 hit list bucks. There is a set of stands on a pinchpoint just for hunting this buck. They will wait until the time is right after getting MRI (Most Recent Information) before getting back in the timber and trying to kill this buck.
Approximate Score: 170+

“Little Ten”
This is another 5-year-old buck. Andy and Bill have 3 years worth of history with this deer. This buck got his name due to having a rack that resembled a buck on their 2009 hit list named the Intimidator.  At the time he was a  

2-year-old 12-point. They didn’t realize he had 12 points until they got a head on picture later in the year after they had already named the deer, so it stuck. They have thousands upon thousands of photos of this buck over that span. Amazingly enough they have never seen the deer while hunting, but they have a complete set of sheds from 2009 and his right side in 2010. They captured the moment of him shedding the antler in mid air chasing a small buck from the feed pile while the Reconyx was set to HyperFire mode. That shed (smaller side) scored just over 64 inches last year. This year he added kicker points to his brow tine and G3 on his left side. He has 14 scoreable points and sports unique G2 points that sway backward with double crab claws on the ends of his beams. This buck would probably be #1 on the hit list if he was a daytime mover, but his history has showed he is very nocturnal and will be a tough buck to hunt. They are going right after this deer the opening weekend of bow season. They believe they have located his bedding area and are hoping to get a crack at him before he switches to a nocturnal pattern.
Approximate Score: 160

“Big Buck”

Approximate Score: 150

Bill and Andy's 2010 Hit List

“The Godfather”

This deer is a wary old buck that is #1 on the hit list for 2010. This 6 year old buck is smart and elusive. He has mass, tine length and  plenty of points that would make any hunter lose sleep over just getting the chance to have an encounter with him. The Godfather is  running the bluffs on the south side of our farm and we are going to try and get on this deer in early bow season. He has not shown his face in front of any cameras since last season, but we are unaware of any hunters around us seeing or killing this buck in 2009. I  looked very hard trying to locate his sheds this off season, but was unsuccessful.

Approximate score: 160+ inches. 
 

“Hercules”

This is a buck that makes the hit list for the 3rd season in a row now. My dad and I have a long history with this deer having found one of his sheds a few years back during the youth turkey season and trail camera photos dating back that far, as well. He hasn’t grown much over the past year and is still only sporting 8 points this season. He just recently showed back up on the trail cameras in late August. We never saw him from the stand in 2009, but we got trail camera photos of him all throughout the hunting
season and into winter last year.
He is a nice mature 5 year old buck
that we need to catch up with. 

Approximate score: 130-135 inches.

“The Underboss”
This buck showed up on trail cameras late summer in 2009 on the south side of our farm with The Godfather. He came out limping into one of our turnip plots with a couple other bucks in late December last year during the muzzleloader season, but we elected to pass on him because he appeared to be too young and didn’t seem to be hurt badly enough that he needed to be put down. He sports kickers on both G2’s. He has good mass, tine length and long beams. He survived the long hard winter and showed back up at
three different camera sites in early
June of this year.

Approximate Score: 145+ inches.

“Junior”
This buck gets his name from my son AJ. AJ stands for Andy Junior. Ever since laying eyes on this buck AJ has had visions of sitting behind this fine Missouri buck. He has unique beams that come together and point upward. I will once again be filming AJ during the youth season in hopes of bringing that hunt to the viewers of Midwest Whitetail. Last year my dad and I weren’t sure of his age and whether we would shoot him or not, if we had an encounter with him. He came out into a turnip plot in late December during the muzzleloader season with a couple other bucks and we elected to pass on him thinking he was either a 2 or 3 year old.

 Approximate Score: 135+ inches.

Bill and Andy's 2009 Hit List

The following words are Andy's.

“JUNIOR”: This buck gets his name from my son AJ. AJ stands for Andy Junior and this is his desired buck this year. AJ would be happy to harvest any mature whitetail, but he has his eye on this buck with unique beams that come together and point upward. Andy and Bill will be filming AJ during the youth season in hopes of bringing that hunt to the viewers of Midwest Whitetail. We have been getting many pictures of this buck since the spring and watched him grow into a near perfect 8-point rack. He sports the typical large body our local deer display. If he steps in front of me or dad during the early season we will have a tough decision, will we pass and leave him for AJ or will we shoot him?  Only time will tell.

“HERCULES”: This is a buck that makes the hit list in back-to-back seasons. My dad and I have a history with this deer having found his right side shed from last season during the youth turkey season. We also have trail camera photos from 2008, as well. He has grown quite a bit in the past year but is still only sporting 8 points this season. He has been all over the farm in recent weeks. He is a beautiful buck that might need one more year to reach his potential. Approximate score: 140 inches.

“INTIMIDATOR”: This 11 point buck is another mature deer that we were never able to get a bead on until recently. There was always a big mature buck with Double Brow, but the trail cam shots only showed antlers. He just recently showed himself after we moved the camera to the other side of the mineral lick and pointed it out into the field. His left side is taller than his right but he is a main frame 10-point with a kicker point off his left G2. We are pretty sure we know where this buck is bedding and that just might lead him underneath the tree stand in the coming weeks. Approximate score: 150+ inches.

“DOUBLE BROW”: This amazing buck has been frequenting three different trail cameras since early spring. It’s clear where he got his name with split points on both brows. He shows up at the cameras every 3 days. He is a true camera hog. If there has ever been a buck not afraid of the camera flash then you are looking at him. It’s a tough choice whether to give this deer the top spot on the list knowing full well he has the potential to explode in size next season. He has an amazing 17 point rack. He was born to be a monster buck. Needless to say, if this buck sticks around and we can get to full draw on him, we will gladly take this deer as our highest grossing buck yet. Approximate score: 175 + inches.

“THE GODFATHER”: This deer is a wary old buck that is #1 on the hit list for 2009. What else can you say about this deer other than he is a true trophy. He has mass, tine length and plenty of points that would make any hunter lose sleep over just getting the chance to have an encounter with him.  This deer is running the bluffs on the south side of our farm and we are going to try and get on this deer in early bow season. He is visiting this mineral site just before darkness every few days. My dad and I are hoping he heads past our setup to get a drink from the creek or to dine on an evening snack in the 40-acre bean field that spans the field bottoms. Approximate score: 155+ inches.