Jesse Morehead and his wife Ginger decided to spend their 7th wedding anniversary in the deer woods doing what they love best – bowhunting. Little did Morehead know that’d he’d be celebrating more than just his marriage during their trip to Kansas that November of 2000.
Some of you may have heard of Jesse Morehead. Jesse is a World Champion 3-D Archer, and is the friendliest face on any competition range in America. Many of us remember Jesse showing up to 3-D tournaments, to shoot 40 targets of unknown distance, with his bow and only two arrows stuffed down into his back pocket. Jesse has had his up's and down's, but he has always been competitive archery's #1 Ambassador.
Jesse is a pretty fair bowhunter also, but the big monster had always slipped by someone else's stand. However, this was about to change for Jesse Morehead. “This was my first hunt to Kansas, and I was pumped,” Morehead says. “I knew that Kansas had monster whitetails, and I told Ginger that I wasn’t going to shoot any deer under 160 inches.”
Morehead stuck to his guns and passed on an 8-point buck that measured approximately 150 inches the first morning of the hunt. A cameraman had filmed Morehead’s hunt that morning, and when he returned to camp with the footage of the nice buck that Morehead had passed on, his friends and wife thought he was crazy. “After seeing the footage of the buck, I started to agree with them,” Morehead said.
Another hunter in camp was working a really good 170 class buck so Jesse told the camera man to go with the other hunter that afternoon, as they were hoping to get a really good buck on film.
As luck would have it, that afternoon (with no camera to record the action) Morehead had just set up in his stand when he saw movement in the bushes. He began rattling and instantly a nice 10-point came running in toward his stand but turned away before he got into bow range. Then suddenly, a giant main-frame 12-point monster buck charged in...looking for a fight! After finding a place to cross the river that separated him and Morehead, he kept his course straight toward the sounds of the fight and straight to Jesse's stand.
When Morehead first saw the buck, he wasn’t that impressed thinking that the rack was tall and narrow. But when the buck turned his head to the side, the hunter could see its true mass.
“When I realized how big that deer was, I could hardly contain my excitement,” Morehead says. “I was so tore up that I didn’t know which way was up. All I knew was I had a monster in my sights and I was going to let a Muzzy fly.”
Morehead knew he couldn’t let this trophy get away. As the buck began to make its way past the stand, Morehead grunted to stop the buck at 29 yards and made a successful shot with his Muzzy 3-blade, 100-grain broadhead.
After downing the deer, Morehead ran up to the buck with great excitement, understandably so since this was a dream harvest of a lifetime.
“I was thrilled beyond belief,” Morehead says. “I never thought I’d shoot a buck that size. That buck was a true blessing and a wonderful anniversary gift.”
The non-typical Pope & Young buck had 25 scorable points, which grossed 223 7/8” and netted 215 5/8. It boasted a 17 7/8 inside spread and a 20 2/8” outside spread. Its bases measured 6 4/8”.
Although he didn’t capture this hunt on video, he can still see in his mind the magnificent buck charging in for the fight.
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Archery only, fair chase harvest, Pope & Young certified, whitetail bucks. |
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All harvested by real, everyday, avid bowhunters with a Muzzy Broadhead. |
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Each rack scores 200 net inches or better. |
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Over 2,600 total inches of antler mass in only eleven racks! |