Ohio's Chris Moermand is all smiles after tagging this giant 7x7 typical on the morning of October 5, 2024.
October 10, 2024
By Cam Coble
Chris Moermond hadn't given much thought about hunting the early weeks of bow season. The Ohio native was looking forward to a New Mexico audad hunt in the coming weeks. After that, he planned to spend his time hunting the Buckeye State when the rut would be getting started.
All that changed on October 2nd when he got trail camera pictures of a giant 7x7 typical buck. It happened again on October 4th at 6:30 a.m.
“I got another picture of what I thought was the buck, but it was blurry and I couldn’t confirm it 100% was him,” Chris explained.
The small piece of property Chris was hunting consisting of hardwoods and had a long peninsula extending out with a field sitting above of it.
“I wasn’t overly excited just yet," he said. "I figured the buck I’d just seen on camera was just passing through.”
After seeing photos such as this one, Chris Moermond decided to alter his hunting plan. Originally, he had decided to forego the early season and focus on hunting Ohio's rut. Placing more corn in front of his camera — which is legal in Ohio — Chris wanted to confirm the first pictures he’d gotten weren't a fluke.
The next morning, October 5th, Chris arrived at his stand two hours early. With a new bow in hand, and hunting a new spot for the first time, Chris waited in darkness for the sun to rise.
A nice 10-point was the first deer to arrive on the scene just before 7 a.m. Pulling up his rangefinder, Chris read the distance to be just 15 yards away. The buck milled around for a bit, but then abruptly picked its head up to look back in the direction from which it had just come.
Moermand's 14-point will be in Ohio's Top 10 for archery typical kills once the mandatory drying period is complete. Chris followed suit, turning his attention to where the 10-point was looking. Sure enough, the giant he was hoping to see was poking its head out of a honeysuckle bush, and began thrashing its rack in the limbs. Not long after, the buck worked its way toward the 10-point, and quickly ran the lesser buck off in a display of dominance. Now standing just 15 yards from his location, the only problem was that he was perpendicular to his stand with no viable shot available. Seizing his opportunity, Chris came to full draw as the buck was still at a bad angle and waited.
“Seconds seemed like hours," Chris said about waiting for the buck to offer a good shot.
Finally the buck turned to his left, opening up a picture-perfect broadside shot at just 15 yards. Wasting no time, Chris settled his pin on the deer’s vitals and made a perfect pass through shot. The buck made it just 25 yards before falling over.
“I got him, I got him!” Chris remembers saying to himself.
(All photos courtesy of Chris Moermond) After a few texts and calls, friends arrived to help Chris get the buck out, and needless to say they were all overly impressed with the bucks size.
The 7x7 typical Ohio giant was green-scored by official Boone and Crockett scorer Bob Wood. The buck came in at a hefty 200 2/8-inch gross, and a 188 5/8-inch net. After the 60-day drying period, the Moermond buck will rank in the Top 10 all-time among archery typical kills in Ohio.
Not too bad for the first sit of the year!
