With impressive palmation and double drop tines, Joshua Hall’s Maine buck is a true trophy whitetail. Photo courtesy of Joshua Hall
January 30, 2024
By Clifford Neames
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A heavily palmated whitetail rack makes most hunters drool! In 2021, Joshua Hall was staring at trail camera photos and holding a shed of one that also had unusual double drop tines in Maine. The buck was far different from anything he, or any of the other hunters in his group, had ever seen. And the name “Moose Buck” seemed a perfect fit for the incredible deer.
“My first thought was, that doesn’t even look real,” Joshua states. “But trail cameras don’t lie!”
The group Joshua hunts with focuses on a piece of coastal ground that Joshua’s uncle, Stewart Hall, manages. The area is a series of peninsulas with rolling hills and lush thickets of alder. Moose Buck was making regular appearances on camera, and each new picture presented a different view of the awesome rack. Excitement was building as they shared them. By summer of 2022, Joshua felt that someone in his family, or a friend, would tag the monster soon!
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On the day Joshua killed the “Moose Buck,” temperatures were in the 70s. Photo courtesy of Joshua Hall Joshua’s job at the power company doesn’t allow much time off to hunt, and there is no Sunday hunting in Maine, so he was going to need some luck to get this done. He was convinced that the buck was living in a small area, and that would be its downfall. But he knew it was far from a sure thing!
The target buck was nowhere to be found during early October. The trail cameras went dead, and no one had seen Moose Buck during the whole month. Rifle season opened on Halloween, and Joshua had an interesting encounter with a charged-up young buck that day.
“He came through acting like the rut was on, even though it was still weeks away,” he recalls. “He was hooking everything in sight and tearing up the place like nothing I had ever seen!”
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Even this activity did not pull the big deer out of his hiding place, and Joshua spent the next four days at work. Then the temperature jumped into the 70s, which is extremely warm for Maine in November. Friday was Joshua’s next day to hunt and he considered skipping out. Ultimately, the lure of the giant rack pulled him into the woods.
Although Joshua knew the buck well, he wasn’t sure which deer he shot until after he’d recovered the animal. Photo courtesy of Joshua Hall “It was so warm I almost didn’t go,” Joshua claims. “I was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt. You won’t do that on many hunts here!”
Joshua chose a wooden shooting platform overlooking a long field for the hunt. The wind was gusting when he arrived, but as it began to calm down, he could hear something slowly moving his way in the drain across the field. He caught a glimpse of antlers through the thicket, and then the buck stepped out cautiously. The big deer glanced down the field toward a ground blind, then whipped his head around to stare at the platform!
“I had the crosshairs on him and pulled the trigger,” Joshua says. “But it all happened so fast. Even at 50 yards I wasn’t sure it was the Moose Buck. I just knew it was a really big deer!”
The big buck dropped out of sight after the shot. “So, I wasn’t sure which buck it was until I walked up to it. Then I knew it was him,” Joshua adds.
The incredible mass on the Moose Buck makes it a truly unique trophy. One that many hunters dream of!
The Moose Buck is a great example of a big, mature whitetail. Photo courtesy of Joshua Hall
