Chris Jones' fantastic crossbow trophy netted 197 Boone and Crockett points even with 10 inches of deductions! Photo courtesy of Chris Jones

By his own words, 23-year-old Christian Jones of Norristown, Pennsylvania, lives and breathes deer hunting. He's been bowhunting since he was 12. Last year, he decided to try his luck with a crossbow. (In 2004, the area where he hunts in Montgomery County was designated as a Special Regulation Area, where crossbows could be legally used during the deer season.)

In 2001, Jones missed two shots at a 2 1/2-year-old, 140-class 10-pointer with his compound bow, and believes the buck he missed eventually grew into the huge non-typical that he would later arrow in 2004.

THE QUEST BEGINS
Jones lives in a small community typical of rural Pennsylvania, where farms and numerous wood lots dot the countryside. During the summer of 2001, Mike Maniscalco, one of Jones' closest hunting buddies, said that his brother had seen several nice bucks in his back yard on a regular basis. Maniscalco's brother had several apple and pear trees in his yard, and the fruit from these trees was popular with the local deer herd. Jones soon learned about a trophy 10-pointer that frequently was seen eating apples.

During bow season that fall, Jones caught up with the big 10-pointer on a nearby 15-acre wood lot. However, he missed two shots at the buck, shooting over the deer's back.

The following summer, Maniscalco's brother saw the buck in his back yard on several occasions. By now the deer had grown several distinct non-typical points on its right antler.

"I didn't see him at all that year, but we knew he was still around," Jones said. "I believe he was 3 1/2 years old that season (2002), and he was starting to become very reclusive."

In 2003, the non-typical points on the buck's left side grew even longer and the rack was bigger than ever.

"During the summer he was seen all the time, but when the season rolled around in October, he disappeared into thin air," Jones said. "It was a real mystery."

IT ALL COMES TOGETHER
Once again in summer 2004, Maniscalco's brother started seeing the buck at night in his back yard.

"He kept telling me I ought to come over and see the buck for myself," Jones said. "I must have gone over there 15 times without seeing him. Finally, one night, there he was! He was a giant. I put out several trail cameras, and throughout July and August I got pictures of him almost every night. He stopped coming at the end of August.

"By early October, I honestly thought the big non-typical might be dead," Jones said. "He hadn't been seen in a while, so I started hunting another pretty good buck I knew about. A week or so later my dad's boss got a picture of a giant buck on his camera phone from his truck. He owns some wooded property about three miles from where I live. The moment I saw the picture, I knew it was him!"

MOMENT OF TRUTH
"Soon the big buck was being sighted again all over the place," Jones said. "Then, one day in early November, as I was driving home, I saw him standing in a field not far from my house. I decided to draw a big map of the area and put an X wherever he had been spotted. I had just moved into a new house, and the second night I was there, I saw him standing in my back yard!

"Early the next morning, I happened to glance out the window as he was going back across the road into a three-acre wood lot," Jones recalled. "Between my own sightings and my map, I had a pretty good layout of the route he was running."

Jones' early-morning sighting had taken place on Friday, Nov. 5.

"I was fired up," Jones said, "but I couldn't hunt again until Monday morning, Nov. 8."

Jones planned to hunt for several hours before work that morning with Steve Gatlos, another good friend. As Gatlos approached Jones' house in the pre-dawn darkness to pick him up, he saw five does cross the road and enter the same wood lot that the big non-typical had entered Friday morning.

The two hunters entered the wood lot before daylight and set up in ground stands about 40 or 50 yards apart. Around 7:30 a.m., Jones saw a nice buck approaching his position. Just as he began to prepare for a possible shot, he looked over and saw Gatlos frantically motioning to him and making bleats with a can-type call. Eventually, the buck went the other way, and Jones remembers being annoyed that his friend had spooked a nice buck.