This is not the first time I have interviewed Zach Jones about big bucks he has taken. Jones and I first crossed paths when he was 12 years old and we featured his first big buck. We have been privileged to cover his stories several times over the years. He is now 24 years old, a college graduate and works with his dad in the oil and gas industry.
Jones lives in Sterlington and hunts with his dad on Ashbrook Island along the Mississippi River in northern East Carroll Parish.
“I first encountered this particular buck in 2022 as a young 8-point and could tell he had potential,” Jones said. “He had a wide frame and I have kept up with him since then.”
The following year, the buck showed up on Jones’ cameras in velvet and looked to be a 9-point in the 160-inch range.
“He disappeared and I only saw him one time this past January,” Jones said. “He was a big, wide, heavy deer with parts of his antlers broken off from fighting other bucks. I sort of wrote him off and concentrated on another big 10-point. Then on Aug. 14, I got a good picture of him and noticed the palmation on his rack. I told my dad his rack looked like a backward moose rack, so I gave him the name ‘Moose.’”
Bedded down
Doing some scouting, Jones determined where the buck was bedding down in a button willow thicket, so this became his target area. On Friday morning, Oct. 10, Jones slipped into the area, mounted his saddle stand and waited to see what the deer would do.
“About 7:30, I looked up to see a big-bodied deer, and when he picked his head up, I knew it was Moose,” Jones said. “I watched him go into the button willows and bed down. I sneaked out of the area around 9:30 with plans to return that afternoon.”
Slipping back into the area at 2:45 p.m., Jones got into his saddle stand on a different tree that was nearer where he saw the buck lay down. Around 4:45 p.m., seeing movement, Jones watched a big hog coming toward where he knew the buck was bedded. He knew something was about to happen because the hog was headed right where he knew Moose was laying.
“The willows started shaking and out stepped the big buck at 80 yards,” he said. “I got my bow ready and the buck was trotting toward me to get away from the hog. I knew he wasn’t going to stop so I followed him and released the arrow on my Hoyt Carbon RX-5 bow at 22 yards. The buck jumped and I watched him crash after running 15 yards.
“I have a good friend, Dalton Richardson, who was hunting on the property, so I called him and he walked 500 yards to help me drag the deer out.”
A true trophy buck
The buck had 14 scoreable points with impressive palmation; his third circumference measurement on the left side was almost 7 inches. The buck’s inside spread was 19 6/8 inches and it weighed 210 pounds. He was determined to be 5 ½ years old.
“The rack scored 171 inches and we determined that before several inches of antler were broken from fighting, the rack would have measured in the 180s,” Jones said.
Thanks to the meandering of a feral hog, the buck Jones had been zeroed in on was rousted from its bed to trot within 22 yards of where he waited with bow drawn. Hogs are often hated, but this one did Jones a big favor.
