Panther Swamp yields funky buck that could have scored in the 150s

Mike Monju and his buddies have hunted Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge for several years, so they didn’t have to think too hard about where to set up when they hit the woods early Oct. 30.

And the funnel proved itself once again when Monju arrowed a big buck that might have scored in the 150s – if the rack hadn’t been so funky.

To say that the buck’s rack was non-typical is an understatement. It’s probably better to say it was atypical.

“A game warden kind of taped it out and said a rough score was 145, but he said it wouldn’t net anything because they would deduct all the non-typical points on the right side,” Monju said.

While the left side of the rack has five huge typical points, the left side looks like a pin cushion, with points sticking out everywhere. The total count is 13 points.

Click here to see other photos of the deer.

The hunt started early that morning, with Monju, MS-Sportsman.com moderator Eddie Peterson (aka wpd008) and one other buddy climbing in their trees before daylight.

Monju had an uneventful hunt for much of the morning, not even knowing what time it was.

“My phone was dead, so I didn’t know what time they wanted to get down,” he said. “I figured I would just sit until 9:30 or 10.”

About 9:45, Monju saw a nice 8-point feeding through the woods toward him.

“I got up and got ready to shoot him, and I looked behind him and saw this big buck coming,” he explained. “The smaller book was still a good buck, but it’s just that the other buck was bigger.”

The two bucks were clueless of the hunter’s presence, and Monju watched as the bigger buck moved toward his shooting opening.

“I had a pretty good look at him, and I knew he had one side that was messed up,” Monju said.

When the buck stepped into the opening at 30 yards, an arrow was loosed. The buck bolted.

“I knew he was dead,” Monju said. “I thought I heard him pile up.”

While he replayed the scene over in his mind while waiting, Monju still didn’t really know exactly what kind of headgear the buck wore.

“I shot him with the typical side showing, so I didn’t know what was going on on the other side,” he said.

When he finally climbed out of the stand 20 or 30 minutes later, Monju couldn’t believe what he found.

“He was definitely weirder than I thought he was,” Monju said. “The game warden and Eddie (Peterson) looked it over and said he may have been around 156 if he hadn’t been so messed up.”

You also can go here to view a big Lauderdale buck that was arrowed earlier in October.