Dustin Huff caught this 13-point buck Thursday near Letts in Decatur County.
Submitted photo
Dustin Huff has spent the past eight years in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, hoping for a record deal in the music industry.
Last week, Huff came back to Indiana, and he landed a record that had nothing to do with those 33 and 45 RPM discs that people used to play on turntables.
The 2013 South Decatur graduate caught a 12-point buck, with a 13-point kicker, on a farm near near his parents’ home near Letts. He figures he set a state and possibly world record for crossbow.
“From people I’ve been talking to, it’s going to not only be the state record, but the world record crossbow kill and No. 2 buck all-time,” Huff said.
Larry Walsman with Hoosier Record Book gave him a green score of 208 net and 212 gross. Buckmasters is coming Friday. The buck eventually will be scored by Boone & Crockett after the mandatory 60-day drying period before it can be scored as a state record.
Huff regularly returns home from Nashville during hunting seasons for deer, turkey, squirrel and rabbit. He spent all of last week back in Decatur County.
On Thursday, Huff arrived at the farm around and got into his climer treestand around 3 p.m. Sunset was at 6:35 p.m., and hunters legally are permitted to hunt until a half-hour after that. At 6:38 p.m., he located the buck about 40 yards away.
“I didn’t have enough time to get my range and range finder, so I put my 30-yard pin on him,” Huff said.
Three minutes later, he made the kill. It easily outscored his previous best of 134 from a year and two days earlier.
“I was thinking 180 class,” Huff said. “I thought it would be a wall-hanger for sure. I don’t check records. It wasn’t until later that night, I Googled, and I told my dad we might have an Indiana state record. I had no idea.”
Huff lives in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and works as a country music singer and songwriter. He has a new song, “Redneck of the Woods” that he could release this weekend or next weekend.
“I’ve been sitting on this song for about a year-and-a-half now, waiting for the perfect time,” Huff said. “We’re just building the fan base, just getting people listening.”
Over the past eight years, Huff has put out 15 to 20 songs with himself on vocals. One of the songs he wrote, “Give Me Back the ’90s,” was performed by John Berry and Joan Martina.
“I just remember hearing (Berry) back on the radio in the 90s, so that was cool to have him sing a song that I wrote,” Huff said.
Huff played golf and basketball at South Decatur, and his mother Lisa is softball coach and assistant girls basketball coach for the Cougars. Dustin was a regional qualifier in golf his senior year and still plays the sport — just not as much as he hunts.
“I still can’t even believe it,” Huff said. “It’s pretty unreal. I never even thought I would see a deer that big, let alone have an opportunity to shoot it. It’s truly amazing.”
