14-year-old bags biggest buck of all
BY BRYAN HENDRICKS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

For the first time in its 16-year history, a youth hunter has won the Arkansas Big Buck Classic.
   Coty Bones, 14, of Holly Grove won the overall title and youth title with a set of white-tailed deer antlers that scored 172 1/8 typical. The buck also qualified for the Boone & Crockett All-Time Awards book, which requires a net score of 170 for a buck with a typical rack.
   In addition, Bones also won a Yamaha Kodiak all-terrain vehicle, a silver cup and numerous other prizes. Tom Murchison, promoter of the Big Buck Classic, said Bones is an inspiration for other young hunters across the state and gave him a lifetime hunting and fishing license.
   “You’re an ambassador for youth hunters across the state,” Murchison said. “I hope you’ll use your ambassadorship to promote hunting and encourage other young people like yourself to take up the great sport of hunting.”
   Bones said his father, Aaron Grayson, shot at the buck and missed it on opening day of the 2005 modern gun season. That night, Bones told his mother he was going to “bring that buck home.” The next morning, Bones’ brother and mentor, Roy Lee Grayson, shot at the buck. Minutes later, it emerged from a slough, and Bones killed it with a 20-gauge slug from his Remington Model 1100.
   “It felt great,” Bones said. “The first thing that went through my mind was me telling Mama I was going to bring that big buck home. I started hollering, ‘We got him, Daddy, we got him!’ ”
   Bones began hunting two years ago at the invitation of Roy Lee Grayson, who killed a buck that scored about 155 B&C.
   “He’d gotten to where he was running the streets in the evening time, and hunting gave him something else to do. It’s a pretty neat deal,” Aaron Grayson said. “He loves going hunting, and now that’s all he talks about. His mama says she can’t get him to do nothin’ because he spends all his time hunting.”
   Roy Lee Grayson said Bones is a fine hunter and a great hunting partner.
   “He’s a fast learner and a safe hunter,” Grayson said. “He has excellent eyesight. He sees deer that I don’t see. I’m glad for him.”
   Like all winners at the Big Buck Classic, Bones had to pass a polygraph before his buck could be officially recognized. Murchison said he passed with “flying colors.”
   Hunters entered a total of 368 racks in this year’s event, which was held for the first time at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds. Of those, 313 were typical racks, and 55 were non-typical.
   Rod Alexander won the nontypical division with a buck that scored 196 /8. Alexander’s buck also qualified for the Boone & Crockett book, which requires a net score of 195 for non-typicals. Bones’ buck was the overall winner because it beat the minimum requirements to make the B&C book in its respective category by a larger margin than Alexander’s buck. Alexander also won first place in the shed antler category with a non-typical antler shed the previous year that scored 94 /8.
   In the Ladies category, Peggy Kelley of Hot Springs Village won the non-typical division with a buck that scored 159 /8. Debra Smith of Helena won the typical division with a score of 153 /8.