Bone Collector Cameraman Kills Big Kansas Buck

Moore leased this ground, put in a lot of work, and filled his tag on a dandy deer. Image courtesy of Joshua Moore

Joshua Moore is a dedicated outdoorsman, as well as a freelance videographer. He spends a lot of time filming hunting shows, but the lion’s share of his schedule goes toward producing Michael Waddell’s Bone Collector.

Even so, Moore finds some time to hunt each fall. Recently, it led to a 6 ½-year-old Kansas buck in the back of the truck. It was one of his most memorable times in the deer woods.

“We’ve had this lease for about three years,” Moore said. “We just picked up a couple new pieces attached to it that we weren’t able to hunt in the past.”

In late October, Moore and a friend hung some treestands, positioned a few cameras, and put out some corn to inventory the deer herd. Then they returned home. Within a couple days, Moore noticed a cold front in the forecast. Within 72 hours, temperatures dropped from the 70s to the 30s.

This Kansas buck is what whitetail dreams are made of. Image courtesy of Joshua Moore

On October 28, he jumped in his truck and drove the 20 hours from his home in North Carolina to his deer lease in Kansas. He arrived about 6 a.m. on the 29th.

“I had a buddy with me, named Hunter,” Moore said. “He’d always wanted to run a camera, and he went with me.”

After getting there, they prepped some gear and settled into the treestand around lunchtime. It was really cold with sleeting snow and 30-mph winds. Soon, the rain and snow stopped, but the wind kept gusting. Eventually, the sun started to break through the clouds.

Full of hope, he scanned the landscape for signs of movement. It’s a lot of wide-open spaces full of cottonwoods, crabapples, open pastures, and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields. “It tends to be hard to bow hunt,” Moore said.

His stand was in a cottonwood tree. In front, a dried-up creek bed weaved out of view, lined with crabapple and scrub trees about 10-15 feet tall. To the right, a cow pasture sprawled into the distance. CRP stood to the left. And the same creek drainage continued onward behind him.

Moore put in the work, and it paid off. Image courtesy of Joshua Moore

Within 10 minutes of sitting down, a doe appeared. Then a yearling. The young buck made some rubs and scrapes.

Around 4 p.m., a doe walked up the draw. While watching her, he turned around and looked through the scrub trees. Antlers.

“There’s a nice buck coming,” Joshua said to Hunter. It was the third biggest deer on the property, and Moore considered shooting it.

That deer took a long time to leave the woods, though. While waiting for it to move, Moore spotted a bigger deer further in the timber. It too, seemed to take forever. “There was a squirrel on the corn pile that he did not like,” Moore said. “He kept stomping at it.”

This massive buck scored 176 inches and change. Image courtesy of Joshua Moore

Eventually, the bigger deer continued onward. But he stopped and faced Joshua for several more minutes. Finally, the deer walked into bow range. Moore drew back, buried the pin in the vitals, and took the 23-yard quartering-to shot opportunity. The arrow hit high lung, but also clipped the spine. The deer dropped instantly.

“I don’t think we’d have ever killed that deer if we hadn’t hunted the cold front,” Moore said. “I’d never had a picture of him during daylight until the cold front. It was about being there at the right time.

“I’ve killed deer in multiple states,” Moore continued. “But to get my first Booner, from a stand I hung and on my own ground, it’s kind of crazy. I wouldn’t be able to do this without my Lord and Savior.”

The deer scored 176 6/8 inches. Moore believes it’s 6 ½ years old, but is sending the teeth off to verify that. “A lot of people comment and say this is a rich man’s sport. But it’s not. Put the work in. Find good people to work with. I came across this with some farmers I communicate with. I don’t have a lot of money in this deer, but it means the world to me.”

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