He finished the season with 11 encounters, but passed the buck each time in hopes of it living another year. His late grandfather started JJ Ranch in 1961, but passed in 2009, and its been worked by the family ever since. Justin, his brothers, and his father targeted this deer in hopes of arrowing it. It brings me to tears thinking of dads face when I told him the news. He was just a special deer, and very much a result of patience in both management and hunting. and the buck followed. Arkansas deer usually score around 120 to 130 inches, Moreland says. During the summer of 2019, the big buck appeared regularly in a few fields close to where Hall hunts. Eric Mullina thought it would be a good decision to hunt whitetails with Indian Hill Outfitters last season, and he was right. Deer. He couldnt retrieve his deer since he had to go immediately to the hospital. Not only that, but he also got the biggest buck killed in Arkansas during the 2008-09 deer season. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Taylor's Temptation. Ryan's foresight and patience were mature beyond his years. '. Hall hunts some swampy ground, and some of it is navigable by water. That errant shot allowed him to stay in the stand, wait another hour or so and shoot and kill a 183-inch 16-point non-typical with double drop tines. The buck took off, the arrow still in him. He was 19 inches wide.. the only deer I killed was an 8 point, and I shot him at 295 yards. I couldnt believe what I was looking at.. Spencer Neuharth Mar 1, 2021. Alabama: 25 deer per square mile. The buck was as massive as hed looked on camera, and the biggest Moreland had ever killed. It was another doe, and the big buck was right behind her. "He got to about 25 yards, and I drew when he went behind the tree," Ryan says. The W.A. But when I shouldered the rifle, the sight of the crosshairs oriented at a 10-4 o'clock angle was definitely a different look from the normal 12-6 position we all practice from. Now in private ownership and no longer a club, it was on that same property he took the 16-point. | Put everything together and you have a gross 9-point frame score of 193 6/8. After graduating from college, the West Memphis, Ark., native moved to Jackson in 1992 to begin his career. This was one buck that didnt have ground shrinkage, but had ground growth, he said. Watts shot the buck at about 50 yards with a rifle chambered in 6.5mm Creedmoor. Whitetail deer harvest in W.Va. grows by more than 12 percent in 2022. In fact, he wouldnt be able to see the slain 163-inch buck until the following afternoon when his friend brought the deer to the hospital parking lot. Lefty was gone., Then, our family received news that rocked me to my core, Lee said. Chase Watson shot the biggest buck he's ever killed two weeks ago while hunting from a treestand on his family's farm in Arkansas. The biggest buck entered so far was a 195-2/8" behemoth shot in Drew County, Arkansas. I noticed on my iPad that it was 1:50 p.m., so I figured Id better keep my eyes peeled in case something came by.. Eight hours later, one of the trail cameras captured photos of the buck, who seemed to be acting as if nothing had happened. Now 25, hes taken three whitetails, all over 140-inches in the last 15 years. All Rights Reserved. At just about any time I could have gone and seen him a mile away in a bean field. Kamps was hunting along some thick bedding cover with steep bluffs around him. It was about 100 yards . Stephen Tucker's non-typical record once the largest hunter-killed non-typical in the country was taken in Sumner County in 2016 and is the fourth largest non-typical of all time. Wardens recently concluded a three-month investigation centered around a 34-point whitetail that was poached this fall in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. The Pope and Young Club's minimum score for world record non typical whitetail bucks is 155 inches, which would be a great deer, likely with a great camp story to match that would only get better with . Still, he only had five or six trail camera photos, and didnt have much hope of seeing the deer. He decided to leave work early, hiked into the woods, and climbed the same tree he had done so many times before. "I got down after 15 minutes and went to the truck and went and brushed in the duck pit," the bowhunter recalls. He grew up around hunting and intuitively knew how to put the pieces together on this home-turf trophy. I hunted him hard all of 2020, but he disappeared mid-October. Around 6:55 p.m., this giant buck stepped out of the cover and walked toward him. Bucks this big dont get that way by being stupid. It was a very sunny day with temps in the mid-50s. Ive been hunting all my life, Murdaugh said. A hunter who told authorities he killed and skinned what he thought were two coyotes, but later discovered they were a Connecticut family's pet German shepherds, has been criminally charged. He watched the buck working a licking branch from his tree, but again, didnt have a shot. He was hunting an area mixed with crops, hardwoods and thick cover. And theres only one of their treestands thats beside water. And on Thursday, Myers was found guilty of the . It walked down a trail, turned broadside and offered a 20-yard, slightly-quartering-to shot opportunity. That errant shot allowed him to stay in the stand, wait another hour or so and shoot and kill a 183-inch 16-point non-typical with double drop tines. Hall just couldnt seem to be there at the same time as the buck. Ontario, 1977. When it walked into the open, she touched off the 75-yard shot. Bucks over 200 pounds in the state receive a patch to display on [their] hunting jacket. I moved 150 yards downwind of his bedding area and started rattling, Lee said. I took one last look at his antlers, couldnt believe what I was looking at, and then took aim. In the meantime, the Moreland brothers continued their own search. But with no exit wound, they didnt have a great blood trail. Lee settled the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. After a while, he looked for the deer and recovered his buck. Knowing I couldn't even come to my knees without breaking the little concealment we had, I decided to lie on my left side, using my left elbow for as solid a rest as could be achieved within the slight incline of the old fencerow. "I remember the exact time because I got a text from a friend saying that he had killed a buck." "The doe saw me and started blowing. Many mallards were saved during his absence from the flooded timber. I was trying to get another arrow in him, but he kind of flopped over in some brush and I couldnt get another [shot] from the stand.. Check out these 10 monster bucks that were taken throughout the country. My dad started taking me when I was three years old. 6/8 inches wide and sported sky scraping G-2s over 12 inches long. Despite his pursuit to further his education, his desire to pursue the buck hadn't diminished. This time he got a gross non-typical score of 261 3/8, with a net of 230 7/8. And I knew I would get to do some duck hunting, now that the buck was dead. He had high hopes for the afternoon hunt. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam. We dont think it could have been this big buck.. Literally a 600-yard radius. He closed the remaining distance needed to get within range, dropped into a kneeling position and took the shot. 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I settled the crosshairs where I needed to place the bullet and steadied the rifle. Matt Reed tagged his biggest whitetail buck ever on Kentucky's September 3rd archery opener, after eying the buck all summer. I was locked down by the doe that was really close.". When I got him he weighed over 300 pounds on the hoof, as suspected. Site by Gray Loon. His stand location was in a draw between two ridges that led to a destination ag field. The cutover has no food sources, other than natural, and it had a small drainage ditch down in this one bottom with one stretch of small pines. | That was set to change on Aug. 22, though. He waited until the deer got behind a tree and started to move, but Lefty heard him, and stopped cold in his tracks. Unbeknownst to Ryan, the buck would live three more years and make huge jumps each year. When the buck stopped in an opening about 35 yards away, Watson drew his pin and let go. At the 2009 Arkansas Big Buck Classic, the huge typical mainframe 5x5 rack officially gross-scored 182 7/8 inches and netted 174 2/8. On Dec. 3, 2018, William Lloyd of Wynne killed a 14-point buck in Lee County that netted a Boone and Crockett score of 200 1/8. Follow along as the unbelievable story of Arkansas's New Longbow State Record unfolds!Watch as some of the most rare occurrences ever recorded on film during. It netted 209 0/8 Boone and Crockett, but grossed 216 2/8 B&C before the mandatory, 60-day drying period. They dreamed of another season hunting this big deer. He threw up his head and was looking around. Sept. 25, 2021, brought warm temperatures in the 80s and clear skies. Gordon Whittington talks with Steven Sprout about the trophy buck he took back in 1998 while bowhunting public land in Illinois. The giant non-typical sported a typical 1211 frame, but was scored as a non-typical because of an abundance of small kicker points. The moment Moreland got photos of a buck with wide, heavy antlers and what looked like 15 scoreable points, he made the decision to target only that deer. But Ryan isn't just any hunter. Besides how big he was, I couldnt keep my eyes off the double drop tines.. My thermals would be rising. With his head down, did I hit an antler? A week later, deer season opened. West Virginia hunters killed a total of 118,606 deer . Rather, there's a short muzzleloader/shotgun season. March 3, 2023 |Timber 2 Table Wild Game Recipes, March 1, 2023 |Timber 2 Table Wild Game Recipes, The story of Preston Halls two-year quest for a monster buck on state ground. James Kroll and Haynes Shelton talk about being realistic when it comes to managing a smaller deer property in this edition of Dr. The buck had morphed into a world-class bruiser right on Ryan's home turf. It was a long 4-year process, but it paid off.". He came to 40 yards and stood by a brush pile. The day before Halloween, Johnathan saw the buck chasing a doe at 4:30 p.m., but the buck stayed out of range. The latter was a perfect candidate for the first-time hunter, so Ryan directed his cousin to shoot the smaller deer. He was quartering to my right and I let him put another 100 yards between us so I could get turned. They hoped itd survive another season or two. The campus is only about an hour away from where he hunts. My dad gave me news that he had terminal liver and pancreatic cancer. About 74,000 hunters participated in the state's 2017 spring turkey season, and killed 33,000 birds. Then, 2020 arrived, and Lefty was back on the farm. From there it was probably a five-minute ordeal, and he worked every scrape that young 8-pointer had worked, Watson said. Ryan says, "I could have killed this deer with a rifle if it had been legal. We got permission on a new property in early July of 2021, and thats the first time we got him on camera, she said. 10. Jason Lucas didnt have any history with this buck from prior seasons, but he knew this was a surefire target when he first saw it in 2021. Then, a big deer walked out of the timber to his left. Arnold, an environmental engineer for Tyson Foods, is an expert bowhunter who hunts in some of America's most . Bryant scored big in 2007 when he took the Oklahoma state record whitetail deer. ", His first knowledge of this deer came in 2010, when Ryan was just 15 and the buck is believed to have been 3 1/2. The limited gun hunting and rich Delta soil combine to make this a hotspot for big deer. My two boys were familiar with the buck, as they go through pictures with me. The doe, however, wanted nothing to do with her pursuer and jumped into a nearby pond in an attempt to flee the buck. "I keep cameras up nine months of year on the 300-acre block of woods I'm now in charge of managing," he says. Four hours later, Latimer returned, and followed the trail 140 yards to where the buck had fallen. . The mammoth rack was 17. However, when it happened, he was focused on finishing the job. On the afternoon of Oct. 13, Moreland finally got the shot hed been waiting for. Follow along to see exactly how. They followed blood about 150 yards to the downed buck. . Official B&C measurer Glen Salow came up with a 'green ' gross score of 258 7/8 inches. Although leery of making any predictions on the buck's score, the bowhunter knew the rack was considerably larger than the 193-inch sheds. It ran 177 yardsan incredible distance for a deer with a 190-grain broadhead inside of him. The right beam was 26 4/8 inches long, the left 24 3/8. She came in and started eating, but he caught our wind, Reed said. I hunted him pretty hard, but never encountered him.. . My dads spirits never once faltered.. In fact, going into 2013 he'd shot two net Boone & Crocketts: one a non-typical scoring over 200, the other a typical from public land. This, however, wasn't the last of the action. Its not as common, however, to see that monster buck taken with traditional equipment. He was coming right towards me. I enjoyed every day of the hunt, but being successful with this buck made it a hunt I will remember forever, Mullina said. The second time, I actually drew back, Hall says. It was my best chance to get a shot at this buck before he got off his pattern.. "He stopped at 40 yards, standing behind some trees. Copyright 1998 - 2023 Mississippi Sportsman, Inc. All rights reserved. Everytime we go out, we can get our hopes up that the deer crunching the leaves behind the stand we're in is one we have only seen in our dreams until now. I was just hoping he would survive in 2013 and not lose too much . I took a picture and texted it to my dad. There were bucks going everywhere at one time, and I actually shot at another deer and missed. Nick continued to watch several bucks harass does throughout the morning, but chose not to take a shot at them. We called the buck Spider Man because we had hundreds of velvet pictures of him with a spider web in front of the camera.. As he left his tree stand to get a better shot at the buck, the strap on one of his climbing sticks broke, and he fell some 17 feet to the ground. Although Moreland hadnt gun-hunted in years, he made the decision to muzzleloader hunt during Arkansas early blackpowder season. Still, they thought they had a good chance of seeing Spider Man up and on the hoof. 'I'm sure the entire encounter only took a few minutes, but it seemed an eternity. The stage now was set for him to truly blossom into a world-class trophy. His travel patterns were extremely tight. But, I will keep shooting the 125s and 130s because around here, those are what you expect and they are trophies.. They were a little downwind and they started getting nervous. About 45 minutes later, he heard a leaf crunch to his right. "About 50 yards behind the doe, there he was. He had a little standoff with the 10-pointer, with them grunting at one another. The buck turned broadside, and Hall grunted to stop the buck for a top-pin shot. As luck would have it, the buck didnt show. Taken in Pushmataha County, this deer is nearly 2 inches bigger than the previous record. All told, Moreland would see the buck a total of six times before the deer slipped up. To their surprise, he wasnt there. But the big buck, even with a good shot, bounded out of sight. I do know it was not the deer I killed. I could never get a consistent wind. On Sept. 30, 2021, he was glad of these strategic decisions. He encountered the buck a second time soon after. Buster was a magnificent animal and exceeded our expectations, Kamps said. Id have him on camera morning and evening. With the estimated spread credit, it grossed a whooping 193 inches! He lived in Mississippi until 2004, when he moved back to the Arkansas town of Benton just southwest of Little Rock. He stood broadside, eight paces away. I unhooked from the rope attaching me to the safety harness, and I made it two steps down. We estimate he was 7 1/2 years old. He was sitting in a blind on the edge of where CRP, timber and a food plot meet.
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