Hunting

Photos: 181-Inch Buck From Connecticut

By Marc Alberto

December 12, 2011

Moises Torrent was having an uneventful archery season in his home state of Connecticut (just like the rest of us CT hunters). According to Dan Atchison, Curator of Wildlife in Westchester County, "the lack of deer has become a state wide phenomenon this year. I believe it is due to 1) lack of acorns 2) abnormally hot weather 3) extremely bright evenings 4) already diminished food resources and 5) a later rut than we've had over the last several years." But despite the odds, Moises was still able to take this massive 181-inch buck earlier this month during gun season. Here are photos and the story of his hunt.

On the afternoon of December 3, Moises was debating whether to stay home and rest or head out for the afternoon hunt. Earlier that morning Moises had been bowhunting and had an uneventful sit - something that sadly seemed to be a reoccurring theme for his 2011 archery season. Instead of bringing him down, the lack of deer sightings pushed Moises to hunt harder and he was determined to figure our what the deer were doing differently this season.

With the temperature in the 40s and a slight wind out of the North, Moises had the perfect stand for the afternoon rifle hunt. Around 3:00 p.m. he was able to get to the woods and made his way through the crunchy leaves to his stand. Moises moved through the woods quietly and deliberately in an effort to avoid disturbing the deer in a nearby bedding area to the East.

At 3:15 pm, Moises could see his stand just 75 yards away. He stopped for a few minutes to look around and listen for the sounds of nearby deer. As he looked over his back trail Moises noticed a deer coming from the West about 120 yards away. The deer was headed East towards a doe bedding area and Moises quickly sat down next to a tree to check out the deer and determine if it was a shooter.

"Could this be the 100-inch eight pointer I passed on earlier in the season?" he wondered. Moises knew if it was the same deer it wasn't going to get a pass this time. As the buck continued towards Moises he began to notice the flier point on the buck's G2 - this was definitely not the same buck he had seen earlier in the season. As the buck closed the distance to 50 yards, he turned and looked right at Moises.

"Then I noticed his width, body size, and mass all at once! It was sensory overload and buck fever set in! Five seconds seemed like five hours!"

Taking deep breaths, Moises tried to calm his breathing and focus on the big buck's vitals. Slowly Moises squeezed the trigger of his 30-06 and the round fired off. Instantly the buck hit the ground!

With instinct taking over, Moises chambered another round and kept the crosshairs on the buck. If the buck somehow got up, Moises would be ready to finish him off, but this buck wasn't going anywhere.

"I thought to myself, what have I just done? As I approached this beast, he only got bigger. I sat there and marveled at the size and character of this deer. I could still smell the cedar bark on his antlers from rubbing and his musk was overwhelming"

Moises believes this buck was out of its home range searching for hot does. With five trail cameras running on the farm since July, there was just three photos of the deer all during the same evening. The buck has a mainframe ten point rack with a flier off his right G2 and a split G3. On his left side, he has a nice brow tine with two kickers off the base. With 14 scorable points, Moises' buck green scored 182" and field dressed at 190 pounds.

Despite the odds, Moises Torrent was able to take this massive 181-inch buck earlier this month in Connecticut. Here are photos and the story of his hunt.

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