Amazingly, after first taking a few minutes to get oriented on the right trail, the dogs located the buck in approximately 30 minutes. The big deer had traveled 200 yards before crashing down in a thicket, apparently dead on its feet.

“As it turned out, my arrow had passed through the liver, which explains the green color,” Moore noted. “Knowing that, it is unbelievable the deer was able to travel that distance. I couldn’t have been happier with the dogs’ work. And considering I had been looking in the wrong direction, I might very well have never found the buck without their help.”

Seeing the impressive antlers up close for the first time, the archer was somewhat overwhelmed at the rack’s nearly perfect 7x7 typical frame. Although the overall antler spread was a little less than Moore had guessed, everything else about the rack seemed to be bigger.

Without question, an evenly matched 7x7 typical whitetail is about as common as hen’s teeth. Statistically speaking, the average hunter probably has a better chance of taking a record-book deer than finding a true 14-point typical. In this case, Moore’s great buck also has seven abnormal points, but they are clustered around the burrs of both main beams and not immediately noticeable.

Official antler measurements include main beams of 24 4/6 and 23 5/8 inches, and five of the 12 normal tines tape 9 inches or more. Antler spread is 17 2/8 inches outside and 14 6/8 inches inside.

The typical frame grosses 177 5/8 and after asymmetry deductions, nets 169 4/8. After adding in the seven abnormal points, totaling 15 6/8 inches, the final non-typical Pope and Young score is 185 2/8.

In addition to ranking high in the P&Y record book, the buck also qualifies for Boone and Crockett’s Awards record book. Within Crittenden County, it stands as the largest non-typical bow kill ever recorded.

DON JENKINS’ WIDE-ANTLERED 12-POINTER
From a hunting perspective, owning land with plenty of whitetail cover in the middle of Fayette County’s picturesque rolling horse farms would be akin to acquiring an oasis in the middle of the Sahara.

Under such conditions, there would never be a question of having deer, simply a case of properly managing their numbers. This is exactly the enviable problem that Lexington’s Don Jenkins must deal with.

Last spring, Jenkins cleared a half-acre food plot in the middle of a wooded tract of land on his farm. His idea was twofold: to provide a location where deer could feed within a significant acreage of dense cover, and to create an area that the hunter could utilize as both an observation site and for bowhunting.

In late summer, Jenkins’ trail cameras recorded several photos of a giant 10-point buck with long matching drop tines. Additionally, bordering landowners reported seeing the huge buck out in the fields grazing with their horses!

“Several of the neighbors I talked with estimated the buck’s weight to be over 300 pounds,” Jenkins noted.

“They couldn’t believe the big deer was able to jump their pasture fences. Except for the photos, I never actually saw the buck myself, but I was certainly hoping to see him during bow season.”

Other than planting the opening in winter peas, Jenkins stayed completely out of the area through late summer and early fall. During the second week of October, with ideal weather conditions and a light southwesterly wind, the bowhunter decided to try a late-afternoon hunt.

Around 4 p.m., Jenkins climbed into a stand that he had positioned during the spring, when he cleared the opening initially. After sitting until after sunset and seeing only a few does and a small 4-pointer, he began making preparations to leave.