Bowhunter Takes 160-Inch "Moose" Buck with 13-Inch Spread

The best part about deer hunting for Rusty Ruble is that he gets to enjoy it with his son, Clay, and his son-in-law, Ryan. The three hunt, film, and run trail cameras together each season.

Prior to this season, one buck in particular caught their attention. It sported a massively palmated rack that looked more like a small moose than a whitetail.

Rusty, his son, Clay, and son-in-law, Ryan, love to run cameras, do habitat work, and hunt together. Image by Rusty Ruble

They all knew the buck. It had first shown up as a 2.5-year-old in 2022. Even then, it was easy to see the palmation and odd cluster of points beginning to emerge. All three hunters looked forward to seeing what the deer would look like the following year. But the buck never showed.

“We all talked about it and asked each other if we had seen it after every camera check, but he never showed back up. We wondered if he was even still alive,” Rusty said.

Rusty Ruble had several years’ worth of trail camera images of the deer.

This summer, after putting out trail cameras and preparing for the upcoming season, a familiar sight greeted the hunters. The palmated buck was back, only now he was absolutely massive as a 4-year-old deer. The buck’s rack swept up in incredibly thick main beams, and Rusty wondered if the velvet was growing like webbing between the tines.

As season neared, Rusty, Clay and Ryan began to realize that the buck truly was that palmated. They also realized that, while the buck was at least 4.5 years old, his body was extremely small compared to older age class bucks they had on camera. “This buck was timid on camera back in ’22, always being pushed around by bigger bucks. We were afraid the older, heavier bodied bucks would push him completely out of the area once rut started. We knew that, if we were going to get him, it would have to be early,” Rusty said.

Ruble knew he needed to get on the big buck early before heavier bucks pushed him from the area. Image by Rusty Ruble

The velvet versus rack question was answered two days before season when they got a photo of the buck in hard antler. He was every bit as heavy as they had hoped.

On opening evening, the plan was for Ryan to be the shooter and for Rusty to video. When Ryan pulled into the driveway, he emerged from his truck grinning and telling Rusty that he had “forgotten” his bow. “We all want the others to shoot big deer. I just shook my head and laughed, then went inside and reluctantly got my bow,” Rusty said.

The two got situated in their stands. The wind was borderline, but Rusty thought if he could get past the early does that would come out, they would be OK. “I’m a big fan of the Evercalm line of deer and cover scents and we both used it to help hide our scent that evening,” Rusty said.

Rusty had intended for Ryan to hunt the buck on opening day, but Ryan “forgot” his bow so that he could video. Image by Rusty Ruble

The first deer to enter the scene were the expected does. They milled around the area and didn’t spook. Soon, a mature 10 entered wandered in. Ryan turned to look behind their setup. “I was pretty sure by the way Ryan was slapping the tree next to my head that he saw the buck,” Rusty laughed.

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He slowly turned around to see the big rack headed their way. “I looked once to verify it was him, then never looked at the rack again. I didn’t want to concentrate so much on the antlers that I couldn’t make the shot,” he continued. To add to the excitement, Ryan whispered that his camera card was nearly full. They both wanted to get the buck on video.

The big buck passed directly under Ruble’s stand. Image by Rusty Ruble

Rusty watched as the big buck passed directly under his stand. When the deer emerged from under his platform and started to walk away, the hunter drew his bow. When the buck stopped slightly quartering away at just 15 yards, Ryan gave him the OK to shoot. He put the pin just behind the buck’s shoulder and released the arrow.

He watched as his white fletching disappeared into the buck, exiting low on the off side. The buck lurched forward into the cover and both hunters heard the unmistakable crash just minutes later. He had only covered 70 yards before going down.

Rusty Ruble’s unique buck featured 14 scorable points and a narrow inside spread of just 13 inches. The bulk of the score came in the mass measurements. “You couldn’t get your hand all the way around the rack until the very end of the main beams,” Rusty added.

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After getting the buck skinned and in the cooler, he took the rack to his taxidermist, Ronnie Best. “Ronnie has been doing this a long time and said that he had seen bucks with bigger scores, but he had never seen a buck with this kind of mass,” Rusty said.

Interestedly, upon skinning out the buck, the hunters realized that it had only one testicle, possibly explaining the small body size and timid nature around other bucks. “I thank the good Lord for letting me take this buck,” Rusty said. “The best part of it is that I got to do it with family. I lost my dad earlier this year, and I know he would be just as proud of this buck as we are.”