biggest buck killed in arkansas biggest buck killed in arkansas

As I walked up to him, it started dawning on me how big the left horn was. The latter was a perfect candidate for the first-time hunter, so Ryan directed his cousin to shoot the smaller deer. He was directly downwind of me and lifted his head and sniffed," Ryan recalls. ", 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. Hunting public land, he killed a buck in the Natural State that would make a Midwesterner swoon. Whitetail deer harvest in W.Va. grows by more than 12 percent in 2022. Halls bruiser gross-scored 212 3/8. They didn't want me to leave. Watts shot the buck at about 50 yards with a rifle chambered in 6.5mm Creedmoor. They followed blood about 150 yards to the downed buck. And wouldn't you know it not long after the cousins had sat down, the 9-pointer appeared, walking directly behind a good 7-pointer. We called the buck Spider Man because we had hundreds of velvet pictures of him with a spider web in front of the camera.. "The doe saw me and started blowing. I ran to the house and headed straight to Dads, he said. In the end, Josh walked right up on the buck. Pennsylvania: 34 deer per square mile. Did I gut shoot him? It walked down a trail, turned broadside and offered a 20-yard, slightly-quartering-to shot opportunity. But at his shot, the deer jumped the stream and his arrow hit high. Moreland, with his Arkansas archery buck. He was truly the deer of a lifetime.. No more long nights checking every single cellular picture coming through. The deer instantly whirled and ran out of sight . The buck walked to about 20 yards and started raking tree limbs. Everything sank in, and it spurred a conversation a long time coming, Lee said. 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 was one buck that didn't have ground shrinkage, but had ground growth," he said. Instead, they hunted elsewhere in hopes of allowing the deer to live another year. They were very happy for me to take this buck. Knowing it wasnt a great shot, Johnathan called a buddy who had a tracking dog. The doe he was following came right beneath my platform.. Last year, we thought he was a really great deer, but this year, hes a world-class 8-pointer. With the buck on his right side, Watson spun himself around to get in position. By late afternoon, about 15 deer were out in the open, including a couple of nice bucks. I only saw him one time on stand while bowhunting in 2011, and he skirted around me at about 60 yards.". Lance Hill's South Carolina Stud. To our surprise, nothing. When the buck is adding 20-30 inches of antler per year, the stakes just keep getting higher. Skis are easily the most efficient way to cover snowy ground on foot in winter. . 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. Copyright 1998 - 2023 Mississippi Sportsman, Inc. All rights reserved. He arrowed a 5-year-old giant. It is my biggest to date. It worked, Lee said. The gross score evidently makes this the highest-scoring wild whitetail ever harvested on professional video. The region is unique to Arkansas in that it doesn't have a traditional rifle season. This deer means so much, Reed said. Thats when the strap on the stick broke.. Moreland, who always brings his camera along to film hunts, talked to the rolling camera for about 20 minutes before settling into his climber to wait. This deer is special because 8-pointers typically dont get to this level. His stand location was in a draw between two ridges that led to a destination ag field. Typically, in regions influenced by the flood stages of the Mississippi River, the rut is later than the traditional Midwestern rut of mid-November. After all the crazy things that happened to me while hunting this buck, I just think that I was meant to shoot him.. Around 6:55 p.m., this giant buck stepped out of the cover and walked toward him. Morelands first encounter with the buck occurred on a hunt early in the season. From his stand, he was able to see the buck go down. I called my dad at 7:45 a.m. and told him what had happened." The limited gun hunting and rich Delta soil combine to make this a hotspot for big deer. 10. That anxiety would have been a lot worse had he known the full extent of the bucks antlers. I couldnt see behind me so Im not sure where he came out from but he was walking up out of that drainage ditch. Advertisement. An hour or so later, at 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 22, Hooper would realize his good fortune when a bigger buck, not showing the rutting behavior of the many that had passed that morning, suddenly appeared. Its hard to put into words. But, I will keep shooting the 125s and 130s because around here, those are what you expect and they are trophies.. However, this 4-year quest came to fruition on the most stereotypical whitetail rut day on the calendar for most of North America: Nov. 15. Within minutes, the buck showed. Watson has been bowhunting on his familys 450-acre farm since he was 10. Deer. Even though he was in the tall weeds and stuff, I could see his body and his vitals. The colossal deer has a 25 2/8-inch inside spread, two tines over 13 inches and superb mass. . Late November through December is usually the prime time for breeding, as that results in higher fawn survival. Nick continued to watch several bucks harass does throughout the morning, but chose not to take a shot at them. In regions without great habitat, many deer seem to plateau out after age 4 1/2 and don't make the huge leaps in antler development. He had cameras at the private hunting lease he hunts with his brother, Josh. At least, he did until a buck he'd never seen showed up on one of his trail cameras. I killed him in the mock scrape I created., The deer ran 30 yards and tipped over. Lefty showed up on camera after a long Tennessee rifle season.. I still had no idea about the size of the rack, Hooper said. The rack gross scores 214 1/8 and nets 212 1/8. When the buck stopped in an opening about 35 yards away, Watson drew his pin and let go. After a while, this deer emerged, and slowly worked toward the blind. . I couldn't get a shot.'. He had high hopes for the afternoon hunt. In the meantime, the Moreland brothers continued their own search. What Hooper found was a 205-pound buck with long, thick main beams. In 2011 the buck blossomed into a true shooter. He found the matching sheds of the buck from the year before, and he played his cards just right during the multi-year pursuit. Then, in 2020, it made a huge jump, and turned into one of the largest 8-pointers hed ever seen. Score: 155 inches. 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. The Boyett buck sits at . Did I hit him in the leg? It was a very sunny day with temps in the mid-50s. After the excitement settled, he climbed down, called his friends and waited for them to arrive to assist with the recovery. Although he doesnt remember the fall, he does remember picking himself up, walking over to the buck, and putting another arrow in him. A few minutes later, his friend, David, who was also in the tree, said he heard something in the bottom. Even so, I didn't figure that would matter if I aimed at the right spot and squeezed off a clean shot. Dan Taylor, 33, of Shinglehouse, McKean County, bagged a massive 10-point with a 19-inch spread on the opening day of rifle season in north central Pennsylvania. We estimate he was 7 1/2 years old. []. I sprayed some Tinks Doe in Heat Urine, more to check the wind direction that anything else, he said. This 8 1/2-year-old buck killed by Mississippi hunter Justin Develle on Oct. 22, was ear-tagged in 2018 by the Mississippi State University Deer Lab as part of a buck-movement study. Typical: 186 1/8 inches. A little after 5 p.m., we heard running from the creek bed behind us. I saw a big-bodied deer with extremely wide antlers that day, too, but I thought it was just a 6-point. Arkansas County in the southeast is in the heart of the Natural State's big-buck zone, and that's where Joe Schimmel of Stuttgart killed our largest typical with archery equipment last year. Copyright 1998 - 2023 Mississippi Sportsman, Inc. All rights reserved. Any serious whitetail hunter knows that it's not often that we get a second chance on the buck of a lifetime, or even a first chance for that matter. It scored 164 6/8 and ranked 9th overall. A friend killed a big buck that he entered in the Big Buck Classic, and Watts said the bigger buck was running with it. Still, he never caught up to the deer during the 2018 season. He hunted hard, but the deer evaded him. This was a resident buck., Thinking the deer would remain on the property, they decided to not hunt the farm that year. Then, later in the season, he finally crossed paths with the deer one last time. He wasnt hunting that day so I asked if I could borrow his.. I was speechless. This is the heaviest whitetail deer ever killed. About 74,000 hunters participated in the state's 2017 spring turkey season, and killed 33,000 birds. The buck dropped close by, but as Watson climbed down the tree to make a follow-up shot, the strap on one of his climbing sticks broke and he fell roughly 17 feet to the ground. Subscriber Services. The stage now was set for him to truly blossom into a world-class trophy. Throughout the day, we saw a few bucks that I rattled in, one being a nice 4-year-old, Kamps said. The buck was at 50 yards and closing. 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.. So, Lance went with that. Lee, Im not going to be able to hunt with you this year, his father said. "The buck chased in a doe at 7:05 a.m.," he says. Watts shot the buck at about 50 yards with a rifle chambered in 6.5mm Creedmoor. The day before I killed it, two of my brothers and I were hunting in the same area and they both killed two smaller bucks, you know, like about 100 inches. Stan Potts doubles down in Montana and Wyoming. Man, that stand doesnt have any cover at all, not at all, and I was sticking out like a sore thumb, he said. That was set to change on Aug. 22, though. The one on the right was 4 inches. The brother came to join Luke for the search, and the two found the buck dead in that last treetop. Behind them was a solid 10-pointer, so he stood up and grabbed his bow. I saw him on camera in 2013, and he had grown a tremendous amount. I would hunt this deer in the afternoon and the wind would be blowing 1-2 miles per hour and swirl, Latimer said. Gordon Whittington talks with 13-year-old Troy Metzger about the 2016 hunt that landed the young man a monster non-typical buck on this edition of Big Buck Profile. Two weeks ago, Arkansas hunter Chase Watson took the biggest buck he's ever killed however it came with a price. Still, they thought they had a good chance of seeing Spider Man up and on the hoof. When they found the arrow, coated with chunks of meat and hair and little blood, they knew the buck was not dead, and backed out. While in Mississippi, Hooper made many friends and became a serious deer hunter, joining a club in Scott County. A friend killed a big buck that he entered in the Big Buck Classic, and Watts said the bigger buck was running with it. Deer: Balancing Expectations for Small Properties, Get to Know Your Neighbors for Better Deer Herd Management, Big Buck Profile: Reid Crawford Kansas Buck, Choosing Correct Magnification for Rifle Scope, Big Buck Profile: Troy Metzger's East Illinois Giant. Purdue clinched the Big Ten regular-season title outright earlier in the day when Illinois beat "He stopped at 40 yards, standing behind some trees. Now in private ownership and no longer a club, it was on that same property he took the 16-point. I thought he was bigger than 190. Thinking the hunt was over, Mullina started looking at his phone, trying to determine a game plan for the next day. Junior's outstanding whitetail is the biggest ever recorded from Monroe County, and he ranks as one of the Bluegrass State's top bucks from the 2013-14 season. Again, Moreland tried to call his buddy with the tracking dog again, but couldnt reach him. Fortunately, the boy was able to take him, resulting in a great first whitetail and sparing the big one's life. Check out these 10 monster bucks that were taken throughout the country. The first time, the buck was chasing does and didnt come close enough for a shot.