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This was the first time that I have actually been able to sit down and do a face to face interview with one of the winners of our Big Buck Contest. I invited Collin Tucker over to the house for some lunch and big buck talk since he was going to be in town visiting his girlfriends family in Salem Virginia.
Collin hails from Madison County Virginia and at age 22 is a very ambitious young man. Collin is a graduate of Bridgewater College and is currently a Health and P.E. teacher in Culpeper Virginia, whenever he has a extra moment to himself you can often find him on the creek or river bank trout fishing.
Since his first deer harvest at age 8 with his Winchester 30/30 alongside his uncle Lucky Graves, Collin has been heavily involved in the outdoors. He loves deer hunting, bird hunting and as I mentioned before he likes to wet a line!
Collin has hunted an 1800 acre piece of property on Graves Mountain which is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Syria Virginia his entire life. Over the years Collin has taken some decent bucks including a 158 class B&C 10 point buck during the 2015 muzzleloading season.
Collin is a member of a hunt club known as the "Misfits" which is made up of good hunting buddies from the area. The group will often gather to hunt the Graves Mountain property once the dog season begins in December.
On Saturday December 10, 2016 the Misfits took a half dozen reliable deer chasing beagles along and hunted the lower half of the property in the morning. Although the dogs worked hard alongside the hunters the morning hunt only turned up a few does.
After some lunch the group sat out to hunt the more mountainous half of the property and the action was similar to the morning hunt, when one of the Misfit members came over the radio and hollered "I just missed a giant buck". That certainly peaked Collin's interest, but by that time most of the hunters and dogs were strewn across the mountain and the action had slowed to a crawl.
Collin and another member of the club were standing on the mountainside talking and passing time when Collin heard the sound of rustling leaves just over the ridge. He decided to investigate and as he crested the ridge to his dismay it was a lone beagle messing around.
Well the beagle was messing around for the right reasons, moments later the biggest buck that Collin had ever seen on this property in over two decades jumped to it's feet and bounded up the mountain. Without hesitation Collin shouldered his Savage 308, found the big buck in his scope and fired the fatal shot. The Graves Mountain Giant slowed his motion, fell to the ground and tumbled a few yards back down the hillside.
Collin quickly went to where his buck of a lifetime laid and once he saw just how big this buck really was he let out a yell that the other members say echoed througout the entire mountain.
As the years go by and I have had the fortune of speaking to some truly successful Va Big Buck hunters, there is that common theme of being at the right place at the right time. This is what should keep all of us believing that our buck of a lifetime is still out there waiting on us.
The Collin Tucker buck has 14 scoreable points and we are awaiting an official score in weeks to come.
Congratulations Collin on winning 1st place in our 5th Annual Big Buck Contest for 2016, you represent our Va Hunting Community very well and we are all grateful for that!
*Collin's buck took 1st place in the General Firearms 12 or more points-Typical category at the Richmond 2017 Virginia Deer Classic scoring 173 6/8 B&C-putting Collin and his buck into the record book*
Jeff Phillips 1/23/17
This was the first time that I have actually been able to sit down and do a face to face interview with one of the winners of our Big Buck Contest. I invited Collin Tucker over to the house for some lunch and big buck talk since he was going to be in town visiting his girlfriends family in Salem Virginia.
Collin hails from Madison County Virginia and at age 22 is a very ambitious young man. Collin is a graduate of Bridgewater College and is currently a Health and P.E. teacher in Culpeper Virginia, whenever he has a extra moment to himself you can often find him on the creek or river bank trout fishing.
Since his first deer harvest at age 8 with his Winchester 30/30 alongside his uncle Lucky Graves, Collin has been heavily involved in the outdoors. He loves deer hunting, bird hunting and as I mentioned before he likes to wet a line!
Collin has hunted an 1800 acre piece of property on Graves Mountain which is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Syria Virginia his entire life. Over the years Collin has taken some decent bucks including a 158 class B&C 10 point buck during the 2015 muzzleloading season.
Collin is a member of a hunt club known as the "Misfits" which is made up of good hunting buddies from the area. The group will often gather to hunt the Graves Mountain property once the dog season begins in December.
On Saturday December 10, 2016 the Misfits took a half dozen reliable deer chasing beagles along and hunted the lower half of the property in the morning. Although the dogs worked hard alongside the hunters the morning hunt only turned up a few does.
After some lunch the group sat out to hunt the more mountainous half of the property and the action was similar to the morning hunt, when one of the Misfit members came over the radio and hollered "I just missed a giant buck". That certainly peaked Collin's interest, but by that time most of the hunters and dogs were strewn across the mountain and the action had slowed to a crawl.
Collin and another member of the club were standing on the mountainside talking and passing time when Collin heard the sound of rustling leaves just over the ridge. He decided to investigate and as he crested the ridge to his dismay it was a lone beagle messing around.
Well the beagle was messing around for the right reasons, moments later the biggest buck that Collin had ever seen on this property in over two decades jumped to it's feet and bounded up the mountain. Without hesitation Collin shouldered his Savage 308, found the big buck in his scope and fired the fatal shot. The Graves Mountain Giant slowed his motion, fell to the ground and tumbled a few yards back down the hillside.
Collin quickly went to where his buck of a lifetime laid and once he saw just how big this buck really was he let out a yell that the other members say echoed througout the entire mountain.
As the years go by and I have had the fortune of speaking to some truly successful Va Big Buck hunters, there is that common theme of being at the right place at the right time. This is what should keep all of us believing that our buck of a lifetime is still out there waiting on us.
The Collin Tucker buck has 14 scoreable points and we are awaiting an official score in weeks to come.
Congratulations Collin on winning 1st place in our 5th Annual Big Buck Contest for 2016, you represent our Va Hunting Community very well and we are all grateful for that!
*Collin's buck took 1st place in the General Firearms 12 or more points-Typical category at the Richmond 2017 Virginia Deer Classic scoring 173 6/8 B&C-putting Collin and his buck into the record book*
Jeff Phillips 1/23/17
This was the first time that I have actually been able to sit down and do a face to face interview with one of the winners of our Big Buck Contest. I invited Collin Tucker over to the house for some lunch and big buck talk since he was going to be in town visiting his girlfriends family in Salem Virginia.
Collin hails from Madison County Virginia and at age 22 is a very ambitious young man. Collin is a graduate of Bridgewater College and is currently a Health and P.E. teacher in Culpeper Virginia, whenever he has a extra moment to himself you can often find him on the creek or river bank trout fishing.
Since his first deer harvest at age 8 with his Winchester 30/30 alongside his uncle Lucky Graves, Collin has been heavily involved in the outdoors. He loves deer hunting, bird hunting and as I mentioned before he likes to wet a line!
Collin has hunted an 1800 acre piece of property on Graves Mountain which is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Syria Virginia his entire life. Over the years Collin has taken some decent bucks including a 158 class B&C 10 point buck during the 2015 muzzleloading season.
Collin is a member of a hunt club known as the "Misfits" which is made up of good hunting buddies from the area. The group will often gather to hunt the Graves Mountain property once the dog season begins in December.
On Saturday December 10, 2016 the Misfits took a half dozen reliable deer chasing beagles along and hunted the lower half of the property in the morning. Although the dogs worked hard alongside the hunters the morning hunt only turned up a few does.
After some lunch the group sat out to hunt the more mountainous half of the property and the action was similar to the morning hunt, when one of the Misfit members came over the radio and hollered "I just missed a giant buck". That certainly peaked Collin's interest, but by that time most of the hunters and dogs were strewn across the mountain and the action had slowed to a crawl.
Collin and another member of the club were standing on the mountainside talking and passing time when Collin heard the sound of rustling leaves just over the ridge. He decided to investigate and as he crested the ridge to his dismay it was a lone beagle messing around.
Well the beagle was messing around for the right reasons, moments later the biggest buck that Collin had ever seen on this property in over two decades jumped to it's feet and bounded up the mountain. Without hesitation Collin shouldered his Savage 308, found the big buck in his scope and fired the fatal shot. The Graves Mountain Giant slowed his motion, fell to the ground and tumbled a few yards back down the hillside.
Collin quickly went to where his buck of a lifetime laid and once he saw just how big this buck really was he let out a yell that the other members say echoed througout the entire mountain.
As the years go by and I have had the fortune of speaking to some truly successful Va Big Buck hunters, there is that common theme of being at the right place at the right time. This is what should keep all of us believing that our buck of a lifetime is still out there waiting on us.
The Collin Tucker buck has 14 scoreable points and we are awaiting an official score in weeks to come.
Congratulations Collin on winning 1st place in our 5th Annual Big Buck Contest for 2016, you represent our Va Hunting Community very well and we are all grateful for that!
*Collin's buck took 1st place in the General Firearms 12 or more points-Typical category at the Richmond 2017 Virginia Deer Classic scoring 173 6/8 B&C-putting Collin and his buck into the record book*
Jeff Phillips 1/23/17
