Hurricanes and deer hunting don’t usually pair together well, but Hurricane Francine gave a Mississippi man an unusual opportunity.
Jacob Mosco of Cleveland said he’s typically harvesting crops when the early archery season happens in mid-September. The storm drenched his fields and put the harvest on hold, but that allowed him to harvest a trophy buck in velvet that scored 169 3/4 instead.
“I got to hunt that weekend and capitalize on it,” Mosco said. “The wind was wrong on Friday, so I waited until Saturday. I had a history with him and passed on him last year.”
Mosco said if he’d gotten an opportunity to shoot the deer during the 2023 archery season he would have done it, but the opportunity didn’t come. He said he could have shot the deer on the second to last day of gun season, but he’d already harvested a nice buck scoring 149, so he let the big 10-point walk.
“I just wanted to see if he’d get any bigger,” Mosco said. “He wasn’t quite as big last year.”
Scent control was key
The direction of the wind changed on Sept. 14, but even though it was in Mosco’s favor, he did everything he could to control his scent. Mosco said he used scent-free cleaning products and left his clothes outside for three days before the hunt. He said he carried the clothes with him into the woods and didn’t put them on until he got closer to his stand. As an added precaution, he used a scent-control unit in his stand.
“I went above and beyond on scent control, and I think that had a lot to do with it,” Mosco said.
Mosco said he went to his stand at 3 p.m. and even though he done everything he could to put the odds of harvesting the big buck in his favor, the hunt started terribly wrong.
“Some does busted when I got in the stand,” Mosco said. “They started blowing and making a bunch of racket.”
Big buck comes in downwind of hunter
With all the noise the does made, Mosco thought the hunt may have been over before it really started and that seemed to be the case. Mosco said he didn’t see any other deer the rest of the afternoon. At 6:30 p.m. his luck changed, but Mosco wasn’t sure if it was for the better. Mosco saw the big buck coming toward him, but he was coming from the wrong direction.
“He came from the opposite direction I expected him,” Mosco said. “He came from due downwind of me.
“I thought he was going to smell me before I could get a shot. I waited for the wind to get right and he came in downwind of me. That tells you big bucks know.”
However, it appeared his scent-control measures paid off.
“He just kept coming,” Mosco said. “He ended up coming straight to the tree I was in and walked the trail under me.
“I thought I was about to black out I was so nervous. He was right out from under me. It was 10 yards at the most. To be that close to such a fine animal is something special.”
Deer hunter takes a giant buck in full velvet
Mosco calmed himself down and made the shot. He watched the buck crash twice before crashing the final time just out of sight. Mosco said he sat in his stand for a while counting his blessings.
When he got to the buck, it was everything Mosco thought it was.
“I was in awe,” Mosco said. “I just sat there and was thanking the Lord. I was thankful to take a deer like that.”
And there was good reason to be in awe. The main beams measured 24 2/8 inches and 25 6/8 inches. The G2s measured 9 inches and 9 4/8 inches. The G3s were 9 4/8 inches and 11 1/8 inches and the inside spread was 17 6/8 inches.
“I don’t think I’ll ever kill a deer like him and he’s in full velvet,” Mosco said. “He’s a deer of a lifetime in my eyes.”
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