Jeff Humphrey arrowed this multiple forked-droptined beast from a 180 Realtree blind in September 2022. It's the 10th largest crossbow-felled whitetail ever taken in Kentucky, measuring 201 4/8 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records.
Because Jeff isn't a big fan of social media, not many people have seen this giant buck, nicknamed Gnarly, but it and the hunter certainly deserve some attention.
"When the bolt hit him, he jumped 4 feet in the air," Jeff told BTR master scorer Dale Weddle. "His antlers got hung up in a tree, which flung him on his back. He tried to get up, but his rack was hanging in the underbrush and it looked like he was tilling the ground with his antlers. He ran 50 yards and went down. It's an unbelievable deer, I never expected to take a buck like this."
Late in 2021, Jeff got permission from a landowner to hunt a 95-acre cattle farm in Franklin County. The only condition was he had to use a compound or crossbow. He narrowed the property down to an 8-acre section of thickets and underbrush and concentrated his efforts on a travel corridor loaded with fresh rubs and scrapes. He didn't tag a buck or doe last year but gathered some intel while Gnarly kept growing.
This year, Jeff was tracking two potential shooters, an 8-pointer and 10-pointer that were daylighting consistently. Just when he decided it was time to drop the hammer, Gnarly showed up.
"At the start of this season, I put a Tactacam Reveal up on a corn pile along a travel corridor where I hunted last year. Right away I started getting photos of a solid 8-pointer and a 10. If I had a choice, I was going to shoot the 8-pointer. Those bucks showed up on camera three days in a row, and the fourth day, the big one showed up!"
Jeff hit the woods 72 hours later during a west/southwest wind and sealed the deal.
It took Dale two hours to measure the incredible rack, and Jeff's taxidermist noticed the 270-pound giant's teeth were filed down to the gums, indicating it could be 7 or 8 years old.
You can read the full story about Jeff's quest to take Gnarly in a 2023 issue of Rack Magazine.
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