Big 10-point shot with crossbow
Gerald Moore of Madison will turn 70 years old on Oct. 17. But he received an early birthday present when he shot a 155-inch buck Saturday afternoon.
Moore’s friend Jack Webb had invited him to hunt on Webb’s Madison County property as a way of thanking the Madison hunter for help over the years.
The “two old goats” climbed into a ground pop-up blind on before daylight that morning where Webb had been catching a couple bucks on camera between first light and 10 a.m.
Nothing showed.
Returning for an afternoon hunt, Moore and Webb settled into the blind again. Several small bucks came into view, but none of them was considered a shooter.
The two hunters heard a snort, but with the wind in their favor they knew it was not them the deer were smelling.
Webb then spotted two bucks moving through the woods. But Moore could not see the racks from where he was seated.
All of a sudden both bucks bolted, but they turned and came back.
Broadside to the blind.
“I recognized immediately that this second buck was a definite shooter, but I wasn’t totally sure just how big he was,” Moore said. “His mass was, well, massive.”
Webb was impatient as Moore lined up his crossbow.
“Jack whispered to me that if I was not going to shoot the buck to hand him the Ten Point crossbow just about the time I released the trigger,” Moore said. “That (bolt) tipped with a Kill Zone broadhead sailed right through that buck.
“He ran off into the woods out of sight.”
The buck ran only about 35 yards before falling down a ravine slap into the bottom. That was at 6:08 p.m. after the 27-yard crossbow shot.
Moore and Webb were less than thrilled with the work ahead of them.
“We both looked at each other and then back at the buck, asking how in the world were we going to get that huge deer out of that creek bottom?” Moore said with a laugh.
When they finally heaved the deer out of the ravine and got it back to the cleaning shed, the buck tipped the scales at 255 pounds.
The mainframe 8-point featured two kickers, a 15 1/2-inch spread and 23-inch main beams. The rack’s bases were 7 1/8 and 7 3/8 inches around.
The buck was scored at 155 inches Boone and Crockett by measurers at Brandon’s Solomon Taxidermy. They aged the buck at 5 ½ years old.
*Don’t forget to enter photos of your bucks in the Big Buck Photo Contest to be eligible for monthly giveaways.
Read other stories about big bucks killed this season by clicking here.
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