Fifth grader puts 12-point down
Finn Norsworthy of Brandon is only 10 and a fifth grader at Brandon Elementary School, yet he is already an accomplished hunter. In October he claimed his first buck with a compound bow.
And, boy, what a buck it was.
The 12-point buck gross-scored just over 162 inches, despite having a 15½-inch inside spread. The rack may not have had a lot of air, but it sure had an abundance of boney material — 5½-inch bases, 22½-inch main beams, split G2s and long G3s (both over 10 inches). It carried great circumference the length of the main beams.
Yet, oddly enough, the youngster didn’t even notice the antlers when the deer first appeared in the acorn flat.
“I had just woke up,” he said. “Five minutes later, it walked out.”
No big deal, right?
“I was like, ‘it’s a doe; I’m going to kill it,’” he said.
Then his hunting partner, mentor and father, Mike Norsworthy, sitting beside his son in the Millenium 2-man ladder stand, noticed something else.
“Dad, said, ‘it’s a buck!’” the youngster said, adding he sat up and not only noticed the hardware but that it was the biggest deer he’d ever seen.
Mike Norsworthy said the deer was coming in their direction, closing from the 70 yards where it had first appeared.
“When it got to 25 yards, I grunted with my mouth to attempt to get him to stop,” the dad said.
It worked.
Given the shot, a nervous Finn Norsworthy became a steady hunter.
“I was shaking a bit until I pulled back the string,” he said. “Then, I was OK.”
With the 32-pound Hoyt Ruckus bow at full draw and a broadside target, Finn Norsworthy released the arrow. The buck travelled just 150 yards, falling dead.
“Because of the size and quality of the buck, we called Jim Risher with Mississippi Blood Trailing Network,” Mike Norsworth said. “He and Jay Legette showed up with their dogs Jack and Copper, and they made quick work finding him.”
Reality then hit both dad and son.
“Finn looked at the buck, and said ‘most deer have ground shrinkage; this one has ground grow-eth,’” Mike Norsworthy said, laughing. “He was bigger than either of us thought.”
The elder Norsworthy wasn’t shy bragging about his son.
“He’s killed some deer with both a gun, his first was with a .243 when he was five, and with a crossbow, including a 125-inch 8-point last year,” dad said. “This year, he said he didn’t want to use the crossbow any more and wanted to shoot a compound.”
So, what’s next?
“He’s got a recurve bow now,” Mike Norsworthy said. “He wants to kill one with a recurve next.”
Mike Norsworthy, a noted tournament bass fisherman on Barnett Reservoir, is a devoted father of two sons, Lake and Finn. Yep, Lake and Finn. Lake, the oldest, is Dad’s current tournament partner and a successful high school tournament fisherman, thanks to Mike Norsworthy’s commitment. In the two weeks after Finn’s monster buck, Mike and Lake Norsworthy have travelled to the coast and to Pickwick Lake for high school tournaments.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, fishing and hunting with my two boys,” he said. “I have had some special times with my boys and this one, this big buck, is definitely at the top of the list.”
Click here to read other big-buck stories from this season.
