
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 5, 1995                   TAG: 9511060104
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`MONSTER' TALE WAS NO MYTH

You might think the bowhunting season has been going poorly for Nelson Moore if he tells you he has seen only three deer. But two of them were bucks, one an eight-pointer the other an 11-pointer, and Moore got them both with his bow.

Maybe he even took home the ``Monster Buck of Bradshaw.''

``There has been a thing going on up here that there is a huge buck in the Bradshaw area'' of Roanoke County, Moore said. ``It is supposed to be running with two smaller bucks. One of the bucks was a 10- or 11-[pointer], the other was an eight-[pointer], and then there was supposed to be this monster buck, from what I hear.''

One thing is certain: The 11-pointer Moore killed was a huge buck. It weighed 230 pounds on scales at the J&B Market, a big-game checking station on Bradshaw Road.

``I have been hunting since 1970 with a bow,'' Moore said. ``This is the 45th deer I have killed, 25 of them bucks. I've never gotten one this huge. I though he was a bull coming through the woods, he was so big.''

When the buck was heaved onto the scales, the people at J&B's told Moore they weren't certain it was the monster buck. It's body was big enough, but the rack might not measure up to the stories that have excited hunters and residents in the area. Now the word is the monster buck still is out there. He has been spotted since Moore's kill, waiting to challenge muzzleloader hunters Monday.

That kind of talk is enough to jump-start the enthusiasm of Moore, who describes himself as a 55-year-old with a bad back and a bowhunting career nearing its conclusion.

``I almost didn't go this year, my back was hurting me so bad,'' he said.

Moore has hunted long enough that he doesn't do much scouting. He has his share of hot spots, places the bucks move through season after season.

One is midway on a ridge deer funnel along as they feed in the valley at night, then travel to the mountain top to bed down in thickets and sniff the air the sun sends up the slopes.

``The trick is to catch them moving in daylight,'' Moore said. ``Most of the time they do it at night.''

Well before daylight early in the season, Moore was laboring up the ridge to his tree stand when he heard a buck.

``He was just tearing the brush up,'' Moore said. ``It sounded like he was in there fighting.''

Moore hunted the stand that morning, then let it rest a day and came back on the third day.

``The buck came in about a half-hour after daylight,'' he said. ``He was crossing at a different angle. I didn't see him until he was right up on me, about 20 yards.''

This was the eight-pointer.

Two weeks later, and a mile away, Moore got the 11-pointer. He watched a doe pass his stand that afternoon, then a bear and several flocks of turkeys. Squirrels were everywhere. Darkness was approaching.

``All of a sudden, the buck stepped out on the bank,'' Moore said. ''When I saw him, I saw the horns. I said, `Don't look at the horns.' He never slowed down. He didn't give me much of a chance. When he came out of the brush he was on the move and I had to shoot fast. I didn't realize he was that big. If there is a bigger one out there, he's got to be huge.''

Now Moore is thinking 50 deer sounds like a nice number to finish his career, all the better if one of the last is the monster buck.

by CNB