|
|
And the Floodgates Have Opened!
By Kenneth Piper
It’s great to see that so many hunters are having better seasons than I am, even if the sheer volume of giant bucks hitting the ground makes me feel like I must be doing something wrong.
Once again the bucks we’re about to share with you are but a sampling of the great deer that are falling, and it includes candidates for the 2025 Buckmasters Deer of the Year.
Speaking of DOY candidates, let’s start with Chad Chambers’ bow behemoth. Chad shot a 255 7/8-inch Irregular in Kansas on October 27. The 36-pointer has a typical-looking frame with a multitude of small kickers — and one really big 12 1/8-inch irregular tine. Only two of the remaining 21 irregular points exceed 3 inches! If Chad’s deer is selected as the Buckmasters DOY, it would be the third-consecutive award to go to a Kansas buck, and the third-consecutive to be measured by BTR scorer Kenneth Forbus. As a side note, antler score is only one element in determining a Deer of the Year. The buck’s significance in relation to multiple factors also comes into play.
Chad’s buck casts a big shadow, but Batavia Ohio’s Jacob Moore isn’t intimidated. Jacob got a 210 1/8-inch buck with his bow on November 3. The 20-pointer has great mass, with its smallest circumference measurement at 4 2/8 and two others at more than 6 inches, as taped by BTR master scorer Ed Waite.
Granted, our numbers are skewed because we have so many great scorers in Ohio, but there’s no denying the Buckeye State is one of the nation’s top producers of giant whitetails. Toby and Lori Hughes measured another one last week, this time a 217 5/8 crossbow buck taken by Brady Jenkins in Fayette County on November 4. Brady’s buck is another one where mass stands out, with circumference adding 41 7/8 inches to its score. The 26-pointer has 14 irregular points, including a 3 7/8-inch drop tine.
And those are just the 200s. The BTR scorers also recorded multiple bucks in the 190s, 180s, 170s and 160s. Keep ’em coming, guys and gals!