Wagner Bags the ‘Moravia Monster’

Last Thursday Josh Wagner of Schulenburg bagged what may be the largest buck ever recorded in this part of Texas – with a shot through his laundry room window, no less.

Wagner harvested the buck at his place in Moravia, just across the county line in Lavaca County. He entered it in the Hallettsville Knights of Columbus Big Buck Contest, whose judges placed it atop the leaderboard with a score of 166 4/8 - the all-time record for Lavaca County. Wagner said a wildlife biologist is helping him to get it scored by national Boone and Crocket Club officials as well.

“Some people are telling me it could score 170,” he said.

Wagner said he has seen this buck around his property for the past two years.

“Last year he was a 12 (pointer),” Wagner said. “This year he was a 15.”

He rarely caught a glimpse of it in person. More often, he’d catch it on one of his game cameras.

“If I was in the back of the place, he’d come in from the front,” Wagner said. “Or if I was in the front, he’d come in from the back.”

Last Thursday, Wagner was on his way home from work when he checked his game camera app on his phone. He watched the buck enter his property.

“Yeah, I was probably a little bit fast that day going home,” Wagner said.

Wagner got home and grabbed his rifle. Based on where the deer was walking on the game camera, Wagner thought he might be just on the other side of his house. He ran to the laundry room, hoping he could see the buck through a window.

“It was just meant to be, all the stars lined up,” Wagner said. “He went straight to the deer block. All I did was ask him to lift his head and he did.”

Wagner pulled the trigger of his rifle, and the buck fell.

“I’m not saying it was because of this, but my wife has been out of the country for work,” he said. “I’ve had the whole week. It’s been real quiet around the house. I’m at work. So it’s made him so comfortable. Like I said, all the stars lined up. He was peaceful here. He just walked out, you know, gave me a shot. And it was a blessing.”

When he walked up to look at the buck, Wagner said he thought the antlers grew.

“I had to come back to the house and sit down for a second,” he said.

He called a friend to come see it and help him get it loaded.

“I told him, ‘I think I broke a record,’” Wagner said. “I mean, I knew it was definitely my personal record.”

His friend arrived and agreed that the buck was likely one for the record book.

“This is once in a lifetime,” Wagner said. “I’m ecstatic. You know, really, I owe it all to my wife. She’s put up with me. I’ve hunted him for three months.”

Wagner said he has a long list of honey-dos that he has put off since deer season started.

“It’s been since the beginning of bow season,” he said. “He just never gave me the perfect shot.”

Wagner burned a few days of vacation to hunt this deer. But every time he had time to hunt, the big buck seemed to be elsewhere. A few weeks ago, the buck disappeared.

“I was devastated,” Wagner said. “I thought for sure somebody else got him.”

But then he showed back up on the game camera about five days later. The buck is so well-known in Moravia that Wagner said locals often drive slow past his property in hopes of spotting him in the woods.

Some of them started calling it the “Moravia Monster.”

Wagner said he’s “been floating on Cloud 9” ever since. By the time he went back to work, just about all of his coworkers had seen the photos, which had been making the rounds on social media.

“I just keep on having people come up to me and ask about it,” he said. “They’re like, ‘I want to see those horns.’ ‘I can’t believe you got that there.’ Are you sure it didn’t come out of a high fence?’ ‘How long have you been watching it?’All of that. It’s truly awesome.”

“When you look at this deer, it’s like it should be up in the mountains of Colorado or something like that,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘I don’t deserve this.’

“But then I’m looking at all the deer blocks and all the feeders around my house, and I’m like, yeah, no, maybe you do deserve this.” he joked.

Wagner offered one piece of advice for attracting big bucks like the one he’s been after for the past two years: plant a food plot. He planted radishes, winter peas, clover, oats and turnips around his property.

“If you want the good ones to come in, grow it like me,” he said.