FAIRVIEW, W.Va.– Most deer hunters would be content with one big buck during a season, but the 2016 hunting season proved to be a memorable one for Chuck Moore who lives in western Monongalia County. Moore had not one, but four big bucks, to brag about for the season.
“I had one other year that was a pretty good year,” Moore said in an appearance on Northside Automotive West Virginia Outdoors. “I killed a 13 point, and 11 point, a 10 and an 8.”
This year Moore has three 10 point bucks and an 11 pointer to tell about.
The year started while bowhunting in Monongalia County. The rut was on when his first deer of the season strolled near his treestand.
“I had never seen that buck before,” said Moore. “He came in cruising for does all by himself. He was about 22 yards.”
Moore continued to bow hunt and although he saw several more bucks he never found one which met his minimum qualifications. In fact, it didn’t happen until rifle season. The opening day of gun season, Moore’s son killed a nine-point buck and again Moore saw a few but passed on the opportunity. The second day of gun season proved to be much more productive.
“The second day I killed the 11 point,” said Moore. “I had never seen that buck either. He and a smaller buck were chasing a doe and I saw them up on the hillside through the woods. I had to pick an opening to get through and one shot, down he went.”
The hunting area was several miles from where Moore had killed his10 pointer during archery season and he knew there were other big bucks nearby. He kept on hunting and the day after Thanksgiving he got a chance at buck number 3.
“That buck I had seen before,” he said. “Actually I thought he was a different buck. I had seen two 10 points in that area and the other one was bigger than him.”
Moore spotted the 10 pointer crossing a ridge near his stand following the same path several does had passed a half hour earlier. He didn’t have much time to make a decision, but noticing a thick main beam on the buck’s rack, Moore dropped the hammer again. With the third buck on the ground, Moore was tagged out in West Virginia just in time to take a planned hunting trip to Kansas.
“We have gone out there the last two years and just hunted public land,” he said. “Those deer out there are huge body size compared to ours here. But we didn’t see near the number of deer we did last year.”
But on the second day in Kansas, Moore’s luck continued when another ten point buck showed up.
“Out there a lot of times you see one and it’s running. It’s not like here where they stop and look back,” he said. “There were three bucks with a doe and we had seen him the night before. I went back in the next day and they were still in the general area. He was at about 250 yards.”
The ten-point Kansas buck is expected to score in the 150’s. Moore’s taxidermy bill for the 2016 hunting season is expected to score much, much higher.