In a world where we can identify as just about anything, it seems as though there are odd cases in the natural world where this happens as well.
Looking to beat the September heat, Missouri hunter Kelly Moore set up for an evening hunt in Shell Knob, MO, looking for the same thing we all dream about; the shot at a record buck.
He prefers the evening hunt during this time of the season as the 80+ degree heat can be tough to beat.
“I told myself when I went out there that I’m not going to shoot anything unless it’s special because of the heat of the day,” Moore recalled.
Passing on a few deer early on in the hunt, Moore was determined to wait it out for the right buck to wander his way. And wait it out he did and was eventually rewarded when a deer with amazing headgear stepped out into view.
Pulling up his trusty crossbow and letting an arrow fly, the anticipation was suddenly over. He gave the deer ample time to expire before he headed out of his blind to admire the amazing animal he had just taken.
Walking up to the deer, he was elated to see the detail in the animal’s impressive antlers. Assuming he had shot an elusive buck that had evaded hunters for a number of years, he admitted he was quite disappointed when he noticed the animal was missing key male body parts.
After realizing that the antlered deer was in fact a doe, he got on the line with the Missouri Department of Conservation to alert them of the odd kill. The hunt prompted him to do some research on just how common, or uncommon, these antlered does are.
“But after doing some research on it and finding out what it is, … it’s just something that had too much testosterone in it,” Moore said.
“They don’t do all the things that a buck does, which may have played a role in why it showed up when it did,” he said. “They are extremely elusive, especially when they get to that size.”
The Department informed Moore that the deer was definitely a freak of nature of sorts. Noting that the odds of running into one of these heavy-headed female whitetails is about 1 in 10,000. While the odds are incredibly uncommon, another Missouri hunter downed a 14-point doe in 2017.
Moore still has plans to score the deer despite the sexual confusion and believes it might end up high on the list.
“It’s definitely a record,” Moore said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be No. 1. A friend of mine came over and got a rough score on it of 157 7/8 and believes that it’s going to be like the third largest in the world.”
Time will tell on the official scoring of the deer, but there is no doubting that this deer truly is a once in a lifetime kill.
