Nooe bags Rankin County ‘moose’

Palmated 10-point was ‘one that got away’ last year

On New Year’s Eve of 2017, Mason Nooe saw a big buck with heavy palmation chasing a doe. Despite windy conditions and a long shot in fading light, he took a chance.

It did not go well.

“I hit him in the throat and it must have bounced off the collar bone,” Nooe said. “They winded me and were about to bolt and I took a 230-yard shot in a 25-mile-per-hour crosswind.

“I called the Nose to the Ground tracking guys and two came out with different dogs and both told me I’d see this buck again. There just wasn’t a lot of blood. They didn’t think he was dead.”

They were right.

Fast forward to Dec. 22 2018 to the same stand overlooking the same gas pipeline. Nooe got another chance on the first day he could hunt this season.

Mason Nooe made the most of a second chance at this odd palmate buck in Rankin County, putting him down on Dec. 22.
Mason Nooe made the most of a second chance at this odd palmate buck in Rankin County, putting him down on Dec. 22.

“It was a morning hunt, about 8:15, on our family land near Pelahatchie in Rankin County,” said Nooe, a Mortgage Originator in Flowood. “I was in the exact same stand overlooking this long pipeline. I got in there before sunrise and I started seeing deer right away. They were chasing pretty hard, and I could see them running in the trees and the field.

“I even saw a nice young 8-point but I decided he needed at least another year and let him go. That was early about daylight.”

The action was steady and the hunter was ready, his head on a swivel.

“I was looking around and at about 8:15, a doe came trotting out of the trees into the pipeline,” Nooe said. “She was flicking her tail and looking back behind her. I knew immediately something was up so I got my gun ready and by the time I got the scope dialed down from 12 to about 5 or 6, he came barreling out.

“Same buck as last year, from the same stand on the same field, only this year he was a lot closer and came out from the opposite direction. They were about 65 yards away, which is why I had to dial back the scope.”

The doe took off and cleared the pipeline, but the buck never took his eyes off his prize.

“He turned and ran up the pipeline away from me, and I think he was trying to get an angle on her to cut her off in the woods,” Nooe said. “I had to stop him so I made a couple of grunts with my throat and it didn’t faze him. Then I whistled as loud as I could and he stopped, gave me a good quartering away shot at 80 yards.”

Mason Nooe's buck killed Dec. 22 in Rankin County had moose-line palmation on both sides of its rack.
Mason Nooe’s buck killed Dec. 22 in Rankin County had moose-line palmation on both sides of its rack.

Nooe sent one down-range from his Bonnelli R1 .30.06, the same gun that he had used nearly a year ago.

This time, it was on target and the big buck went down.

Nooe didn’t need the trailing dogs, but he felt the need to call the same guys.

“I wanted to tell them they were right about seeing that buck again,” he said.

The buck had a 10-point main frame, but one point on the right side had been broken off.

“I haven’t had him scored yet because of the holidays and trying to catch up with the scorer at Deviney’s for the Big Buck Bounty,” Nooe said. “I have no idea what he will score.”

Whatever that number is most of it will come from its incredible mass, which because of palmation will yield at least two measurements in the 10-inch neighborhood.

“Both sides are palmated like a moose,” Nooe said. “I killed a 10-point out there a few years ago but it wasn’t anywhere near this class of a buck.”

Not many are, at least not in Mississippi, where we only have whitetails and no moose.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.