WMA buck could score more than 175 inches.
Texting usually isn’t considered a vital hunting technique – but don’t tell that to Leesville’s Charles Moore who used his cell phone to ask a buddy to bleat so a hung-up deer would come out of a thicket during a hunt on Peason Ridge Wildlife Management Area.
The result was an impressive 14-point WMA trophy killed last Friday (Oct. 14).
The Peason Ridge WMA deer, which has yet to be officially taped, is estimated to score between 160 and 180 inches, wildlife personnel said.
“I have a buddy, Cleveland Borders, who usually hunts with me,” Moore said. “We have a 400-acre lease behind my house outside Leesville, but we also like to hunt the Peason Ridge (WMA) in Vernon Parish as well.”
Since Borders had the day off that Friday, Moore took a vacation day from his job at American Moving and Storage, and the pair went out to Peason Ridge to a spot pretty much at random.
“We always hunt blind,” Moore said. “We just pick out a spot on the map of the area that we think looks pretty good, go out and scout it and if we find what we like, that’s where we hunt,” Moore explained.
The day before the hunt, Moore and Borders went to just such an area, found some buck sign and planned to take advantage of the last day of the early primitive firearms season in Area 3.
Plans were made to be in their stands early the next morning.
“This is the first time I’ve hunted with a breech-loading gun,” Moore said. “I always used a muzzleloader for this week of deer season.
“I was packing my .444 when I settled into my Summit tree stand long before daylight that morning.”
Borders was set up in a tree about 200 yards to the north.
As dawn turned to sunrise, nothing was stirring around Moore’s stand so he decided to use his grunt call. Within moments after sounding out a few grunts, he saw movement in the thick brush near his stand.
“I could tell it was a deer but the brush was so thick I couldn’t tell if it was a buck or doe,” he said. “The deer was walking back and forth and looked like it wasn’t going to come out to give me a clear view and possible shot.”
Then Moore reverted to modern technology; he quietly sent a text message to Borders on his cell phone, asking him to use his Primos Can call to make a bleat hoping the deer would respond. Moore was afraid that if he tried to use his own Can, the deer was too close and would probably become wary.
“I know that when you’re turkey or elk hunting, you can get somebody to start calling behind your position, bringing the animal past you without suspecting you are there,” Moore said. “I heard Cleveland make the bleats with the Can and looked up to see the deer step into an opening 40 yards away.
“I saw it was a good buck, put the scope on him, squeezed the trigger and he dropped in his tracks.”
Thinking he’d taken a nice 8-point, Moore was stunned when he started counting points – 14 in all on an almost-symmetrical rack with an inside spread of 19 ¾ inches.
The deer, weighed approximately 200 pounds, has been green scored at more than 175 inches.
For Charles Moore, a cell phone text message and a buddy with a Can meant the difference between bagging a genuine trophy buck or spending just another quiet morning in the Vernon Parish woods.
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