A hunter from Johnson Woolen Mills and the Northwoods Whitetails group, staying with Ron and Lynda Hamilton at Cedar Ridge Outfitters in Jackman, had a rare experience this fall: he shot a big north woods buck and later found the deer’s shed antlers from a previous year.
Casey Moore shot a 9-point, 188-pound buck on Nov. 4 while still-hunting on bare ground. Moore said he slowed down after spotting the deer’s track in the mud, easing his way across ledges that overlooked a cut bowl he had hoped to reach. After navigating several dead ends, he finally slipped onto a quiet trail.
That’s where he caught the buck broadside at a little more than 60 yards.
“I was uphill to his left and he knew something was up, but I saw him first,” Moore said. “If I hadn’t taken the exact path that I did, I would never have seen him.”
Four hours later, he had the deer out to the road. The buck carried a rough score of 130 inches.
The next day Moore returned to the area from a different direction to scout and see where the deer had been traveling. He had already found a moose antler during the drag out and hoped to learn more about the buck’s habits.
A few hours into the walk, he realized he was close to the kill site and pulled out his camera in case something was on the gut pile. Before he could turn it on, he saw a Canada lynx trot off. The cat had been covering the remains with leaves.
While searching the surrounding area, Moore made an unexpected discovery: the buck’s shed antlers from the previous season. He found the first shed about 150 yards from where the deer died and the second roughly 100 yards beyond that. Despite being faded, the antlers showed no signs of being chewed.
Moore said the buck had 10 points last year and the sheds rough scored nearly the same as this year’s rack.
“He gained mass, but lost some tine length,” he said.
Before the group’s week at Cedar Ridge Outfitters was over, hunters Joey Davis and Brent Dragon of Northwoods Whitetails also tagged deer.
“We had a great week,” Moore said.