However, the buck made a mistake when it stopped and offered Bennett a shot. "His schedule was very sporadic, and he showed up on one of my cameras on November 20 while I was at church," Gatlin says. All Rights Reserved. That Sunday morning was the only time I had a picture of him in daylight.". The first day of the season, Masoner noted the vehicles in the parking lot of the public property near the Roanoke exit typically is about 10, but this year it was more than 50. Ive hunted this piece of property for years and Ive never seen him and its not like he got that wide over the course of one year. Any guess on what this thing scores? Haynie was awestruck and wondered how that buck could have avoided so much hunting pressure. The Georgia native makes his living behind a camera filming hunts. A buck he shot in Wyoming County was scored by three official scorers Wednesday and came out at 191 2/8 inches, McDaniel said. All Game & Fish subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content. The buck ran off into a thick patch of brush. This was her first archery buck, and she was hunting alongside her hunting mentor, Paul Baker. When West Virginia biologists examined the buck, they suggested the deer's age to be between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 . As the afternoon turned into the evening he heard a twig snap close to him. I cant even begin to imagine how this buck managed to walk through the woods with a rack this wide. "I tried to let out a 'meh' to get him to stop, but I was shaking so bad, I couldn't get it to come out." Gatlin decided that if he saw the buck, he would take advantage of the encounter. Rodes was hunting on private property he was given permission to hunt just last year. At that point the buck carried a 10-point rack with several kickers. It's a spot that holds good deer, but it's very difficult to hunt due to minimal shooting lanes. Staying undetected by deer while hunting in a ground blind takes a few easy steps. This monstrous whitetail from Virginia definitely grabbed our attention when it began circulating on social media and hunting sites recently, and the mystery behind its validity was quite the topic for a while. Sutphin mentally kicked himself for not hunting that morning. Sutphin was awestruck for a moment but then quickly fetched his old .50-caliber Knight muzzleloader that he had fortunately sighted in just a week before. "Brandon Butler. Among the accomplishments includes the recently concluded Save the Habitat, Save the Hunt initiative, which in 10 years conserved or enhanced 5.3 million acres of critical wildlife habitat, recruited 1.5 million new or lapsed hunters, and opened new access to 750,000 acres for hunting and recreation. As Wayne's brothers headed to the rear of the property, Wayne made his way into his son's stand for the evening hunt. In the above video, NWTF's Jason Burckhalter talks about the group's accomplishments and future plans with Game & Fish Editorial Director Adam Heggenstaller at SHOT Show 2023 in Las Vegas. Eric Lundgren of Ruger, which now owns Marlin, highlights the features of both rifles with Game & Fish Editorial Director Adam Heggenstaller at SHOT Show 2023 in Las Vegas. Smith might have to wait for a while for his trophy to officially take the top spot in the Long Hunter Society record books. Ball leaned up against a tree, settled in and took the 75-yard shot. All kinds of thoughts entered Peters mind at this point, but most were of disappointment and discouragement that Willie had again escaped. "I decided to leave my muzzleloader in the box stand because I had no intentions of shooting another deer," says Ball. Gun Stocks; Gun Trigger Guards; . ELD-X Precision Hunter). He began investigating the sound through his binocular and saw what appeared to be a nice rack moving through the brush. ", The buck is a main-frame 10 with a kicker, and the bruiser weighed 200 pounds dressed. "The weather has been so dry that no food plots were planted," Develle says. Marc Alberto He wasn't disappointed. Stephen Bennett killed this 201-pound, 11-point whitetail with his 7mm-08 on Oct. 29, in Lincoln, Maine. A 31-point buck killed opening day of the muzzleloading season last year by James Smith of Front Royal is headed toward the Virginia record book as the state's all-time champion deer. It's the biggest deer I've ever been up and close to. I mean, we are a high-fence operation, I want to be clear about that, but this is a real buck. Four years ago, Justin Gibson decided it was time for a new challenge. After two weeks of hunting without any sign of Willie, Sutphin decided to take a break and sleep in. Haynie was born and raised in Richmond County, Virginia. "I put my scope on it to see if it was a doe or buck, and all I saw was antlers.". The 2021-22 deer season is a wrap, and some big whitetails fell between the opening and closing bells. Dustin Prievo. Then he pretty much disappeared until the 2021 firearms season, when Rodes gave him a pass. At 7:05 a.m., he watched the buck enter one of his food plots about 90 yards away from his stand and start chasing a doe. He said there was no one in the hunting group that had history with this deer either. In the last 10 years, 733,868 white-tailed bucks have been harvested in the Bluegrass State. According to Masoner, it was no ordinary buck for this part of the state. Regarding the harvest of a piebald deer December 11, 2019 On December 3, 2019, my 17-year-old son was hunting alone on our vacant property on Spring Hill Mountain in West Virginia during a legal hunting season when he shot and harvested a piebald deer. At 6:30, with about a half hour left of light, Garries hadn't seen any deer, so he decided he should try grunting. Then my buck showed up, and we knew he was big. Scott opted to hunt across the street from the property while Stephen made his way up the beaten tote road roughly a quarter of a mile to his stand. The current record for the largest typical rack belongs to a deer shot in Saskatchewan, Canada by Milo N. Hanson in 1993. He arrowed the 158 7/8-inch buck on Oct. 28 from a treestand on the edge of a standing bean field. Another pair of does showed up around 30 minutes later. YEAR NAME COUNTY POINTS SCORE; CLASSES I and II: 1987: Edison Holcomb: Wise: 20: 272 10/16: 1962: Peter F. Crocker: Isle of Wight . "The weather wasn't going too good, with temps in the 70s and a bad wind direction for my stand, but there was no choice. "This is a way of life. "This deer is something I have dreamed of since I was introduced to hunting around the age of 4," Rotarius says. 2023 Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Marlin is back in the game with the re-introduction of the classic 336 and 1894 lever-action hunting rifles. And those qualities endure, even in death. The deer was shot on a property in Elk County that is managed by Baker, who is a Whitetail Properties Real Estate Agent/Land Specialist. This year, the rifle will be chambered in 7mm PRC, the hot new load that was a hit at SHOT Show 2023 in Las Vegas. ''. His initial thought was the buck was probably a shooter, but he was hesitant because they had no trail-camera photos and no observations of this deer. Wayne and his brothers joined together over the deer, shared some hugs and backslaps, took a few photos and proceeded to drag the deer up to the trucks. The massive Maine monarch made it 50 yards before going down.Dustin Prievo. The bucks existence became known in the summer of 2014 by way of trail camera images. Fishing tournament organizers take issue with new DNR rules. Check out Cochrans full report on the big buck here! He'd be in the woods every day if could, but as it is, whenever he's able to get off work, he hunts. It's bigger than anything my dad has shot.". Haynie has also hunted this piece over the years, but usually prefers to spend time on the properties that he and good friend Brandon Dillistin own and lease. The National Wild Turkey Federation's mission to conserve wild turkey and preserve hunting heritage is still going strong after a half-century. Soon after settling in, several does stepped out, and Ashley shot one of them. The wind continued to blow. All of these characteristics apply to the above-displayed photographs of a claimed 412-lb. There have been a few bucks over the past few years out of Virginia with super wide racks, but none to our knowledge have surpassed the 30-inch mark. November 26, 2022 - 4:18 pm. In the video above, Matt Willson of Ruger highlights the features with Game & Fish's John Taranto. He did say, however, that scrapes and rubs are abundant in his area, and young bucks are visibly sparring frequently. 9 talking about this. There are a lot of big deer pictures floating around the Internet these days. ''I didn't know what I had until I walked over to it. On the morning of Nov. 7, RJ Booth finally laid eyes on a buck he had previously only seen in nighttime trail-cam photos during the early part of the season. Road kill along I-79 or U.S. Route 19 were the most prominent threats, but also illegal hunting from the roadway was also a concern. As the smoke dissipated Joshua could see the beast moving fast into another thicket not too far away, and then he heard what he believed to be a crash. The buck's antlers totaled 1964/8 inches on the Boone and Crockett Club's measuring system. State Big Game Trophy Show Record Deer. Haynie was watching the woods behind her and caught a glimpse of movement. This federally-owned property provides about 28,000 acres of hunting land and few basic rules. Joshua felt that his shot was a quality one, but with all the sudden action and the deer running out of sight into the thicket he couldnt be sure. As it turns out, Wilderness Whitetails specializes in abnormally-large whitetail deer and . Unfortunately, he quickly realized he'd forgotten his call in the truck. When the smoke cleared the legendary Halifax County buck lay motionless. Masoner also knew the buck was an interloper. This buck was seen over the past several years on trail cameras, and Amanda and her family havehad a long history with the deer. That buck was killed in Logan County in 1998 by Mark Lester. He was kind of a local rock star there with people who hunt and people going to and from the resort, Masoner said in an interview for West Virginia Outdoors. If you've been on Facebook in the last few years, I bet this image has come across your Newsfeed at one time or another. Field Dressed Weight: 431-Lbs. Hunting is not. Getting to see or harvest a deer is a plus." ", Hayden credits the first good cold snap for the action he experienced. John Armfield (1797-1871), Virginia co-founder of "the largest slave trading firm" in the United States, and a rapist.