Some fine bucks come out of Florida each year and over the years there have been some good ones, but Marissa Ballard definitely has a head-turner!

Stan Kirkland, public information officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, related the info to The Archery Wire about Ballard’s bowhunting success. She and her husband, Dusty, of Grand Ridge, were hunting on their lease in Jackson County.

Marissa, a fourth grade teacher at Sneads Elementary School, arrowed this super buck with her Bear compound last October! Kirkland said she was shooting the bow at 45 pounds and only takes shots within 15 yards of her stand. It weighed 190 pounds and has 10 points that scored 130 2/8 typical with the Boone and Crockett scoring system.

Kirkland said the buck had only 2 6/8 inches deductions, “which in all my years of scoring is probably the fewest inches of deductions on a larger rack I’ve ever seen. She will almost certainly join a small list of only two dozen or so bowhunters from Florida who have taken Pope and Young deer – typical bucks must score 125 or above. I’ll check but she may be the only female on that list.”

Here’s a huge D&DH “salute!” to Marissa for her great buck!