For three years, Jeremy Huffman had been hunting a huge buck he had nicknamed “Moose” on his parents’ property in Demossville. After purchasing his own farm down the road in Morningview, he came across the same buck.
On September 24, twenty-five yards away with a Ravin crossbow, Huffman took the shot.
“He hit the dirt like a ton of bricks, and this was the end of the journey,” he said about the shot.
Hunter Schmitten of Buckmasters verified the deer at 16 points, a tip-to-tip spread of 21 1/2” and greatest spread of 24 3/8”. The score was 200 3/8.
The record was previously set by Mark Belcher of Logan County, Ky, who tagged a buck on Sept. 28, 2019 that scored 190 and 2/8.
Huffman told Kentucky Outdoor Media, ““I first got pictures of him in 2017, and he was probably 145-inch deer,” Huffman said. “I only got pictures of him in 2017; I never saw him while hunting.”
In 2018, he purchased some Cherry Bomb attractant from Redmond Hunt to put out for the deer on his farm. “Moose” began to show regularly at the mineral site, and his growth exploded from the previous year. That year, Huffman told them that he only saw the buck with his eyes once in 2018.
“I had him come out under me one time and it was right at dark,” Huffman said. “I didn’t have any camera light or anything, I thought it was him but couldn’t attempt a shot due to lack of light. I just had to sit and wait until he moved off. When I got down, I checked my camera and it was him.”
While his wife was seeing the buck in front of her car during the 2019 season, Huffman never saw the monster buck in person. He did have some photos on his trail camera, too.
He put out some more Apple Bomb attracant before the start of the 2020 season in front of his trail camera.
“I actually had him come under me three times, and I had to let him walk because it was right at dark each time,” Huffman said. “He would come out of the field in the daylight, and he would come straight to me, but then he would hold up in the thickets. He would stay in there long enough for it to get dark and then he would come up to the Apple Bomb.”
Settled in his stand tucked into a walnut tree where some small creeks come together, Huffman had seen the buck there before. The creeks separate a hay field, hemp field and brushy thickets.
According to Kentucky Outdoor Media, “The deer followed the same pattern; he crossed the road and the hay field, and then came down into the thick brush. This time, instead of holding up in the brush, the buck decided to walk in front of Huffman’s stand.”
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Huffman said. “I finally got the deer I was after. It’s like, what am I going to do now? For the last three years and into this season, that has literally been my life once hunting season comes in. It has always been, let’s go find Moose.”
