4 Photos
~Gary Gilbert of Axton Virginia had the hunt of his lifetime on November 20,2015 and the following story is about Gary and his hunt as written by a family member~
THE BUCK OF A LIFETIME: WHERE PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE PAID OFF
By ASHLEY JACKSON
Gary Gilbert’s hunt had it all. There was adrenaline, there was panic, and there was a buck of a lifetime harvested.
Gilbert, 55, of the Axton/Mountain Valley area, harvested a 15-pointer with a 25 7/8-inch spread on November 20. The trophy scored 230 9/16 under the Virginia Scoring System. The brow tines were spectacular, one being almost 13 inches and other was over 11 inches tall. Gilbert considers the deer “a buck of a lifetime…. And the highlight of my hunting career,” he said.
The details of the hunt were quite interesting and it was a roller coaster ride for Gilbert and his cousin, Darrell Jackson, who was hunting near Gilbert on the same farm in the Mountain Valley/Axton area.
“It was kind of a slow morning” a 4-pointer walked by, but that was it, Gilbert said. The wind was getting up and he could hear some deer in the woods about 100 yards behind him. The next thing he knew, the trophy buck, a smaller buck and a doe were coming off the ridge, and went down the hill in front of him.
The two bucks were chasing the doe and the bucks were trying to outrun the other to get to the doe. Gilbert said the other buck was decent, maybe an 8-pointer, but he was only focused on the big one. His thoughts were racing at this point, and thought, “Don’t let him get away,” he said.
He was hollering at the deer, but they wouldn’t stop. The three went up in the thicket and out of sight. When it went out of sight, Gilbert said his thoughts at that point: “Oh man, he’s gone.”
However, in a matter of seconds, the three had made a circle and were coming back straight in front of Gilbert. The three were still running as fast as before. But that time, there wasn’t anything “to do but start shooting,” and he shot the trophy on the run, Gilbert said. He shot three times: the first shot knocked the trophy buck down, and Gilbert’s instinct was to keep shooting until it quit moving because he wanted “to make sure it didn’t get away,” he said.
After the three shots, the deer had stopped and Gilbert knew he had just harvested the buck of a lifetime. “I just looked at it for a minute (lying there in the woods)” and was thinking, “is it really that big?,” he said of his fears of “ground shrinkage.” “I couldn’t believe how big it was” sitting from the stand looking at it, he added.
With the trophy of his life, the “adrenaline shakes” that every hunter has experienced were definitely in full force. Gilbert said he just sat there a while just trying to calm down from shaking before he got down out of the stand.
Once down out of the stand, he couldn’t believe what he had just killed. “I knew it was a good deer, but didn’t realize the true size of it” even once he was down and looking at it, “I just couldn’t believe it. I never thought I would have a chance at a deer like that,” Gilbert said humbly.
“It really meant a whole lot” to kill such a deer and to be “out there with Darrell” to share in his excitement, Gilbert said.
“When we got out of the truck that morning, who would have thought that 3 hours later” that one of the biggest bucks in Virginia would be killed, Jackson said.
“Mountain Valley mule is what I call it,” Jackson said.
Jackson let a 10-pointer walk that morning, which he was glad he did so it wouldn’t spook any other deer that morning…. Which allowed the “Mountain Valley mule” to come running by later that morning.
The pair of bucks and the doe actually came by Jackson first, but they were running so fast and the woods were too thick for him to be able to get a shot on the trophy buck. Jackson could only see glimpses of the deer through the thick woods and as the deer got closer, as close as 90 yards away, he could see that it was a huge deer. As the deer went past him, he knew it was running towards where Gilbert was and hoped Gilbert would be able to get a shot at it.
After a few minutes past, he heard Gilbert shoot three times at 8:59 a.m. They had agreed when walking into the woods that morning that if either of them shot something, they would wait until 9:30 a.m. before meeting back up. Jackson mentioned that that was the longest 30 minutes of his life waiting to go find out if his cousin had killed the monster buck.
Jackson said he was shaking so bad that the clips on the stand were rattling. When Jackson got down and saw Gilbert standing at the edge of the field, and he asked, “‘You get the big one?’” And Gilbert’s reply, “‘Yeah I believe I did get the big one,’” Gilbert recalled.
In sharing in Gilbert’s disbelief in what he had killed, Jackson said he told his cousin when looking at the trophy lying there in the woods, “You just hit the Mega Millions jackpot” with this deer, Jackson said. When any hunter heads out, “that’s the deer we’re wishing to get.” “We had no idea of doing that that morning” when we got out of the truck, Jackson said.
“It choked me up” that his cousin had killed such a deer because the two cousins have been hunting together since they were kids, Jackson said. He had put in the time hunting and “he deserved the buck of a lifetime,” Jackson said of his cousin.
Gilbert feels lucky to have been at the right place at the right time and it was by the grace of God that he got a chance to harvest such a beautiful creature that God created.
Gilbert’s luck as a hunter changed in a hurry that November morning. Gilbert has been hunting for over 40 years. In those years, he had killed some bucks, but had not put a deer on the wall since an 8-pointer around 1993. He had missed opportunities at big bucks, like having a mountable deer come under the stand several years ago, shot, the bullet hit a limb, and the deer got away.
Due to the kind of luck he was having as a hunter, he admits that he was getting kind of discouraged and “this year wasn’t going well either … up to that point anyway,” Gilbert said.
Despite being discouraged, he kept hunting. He said he kept going over the years because he loved being out in the woods and enjoyed taking his now 26-year-old daughter, Amber Wirt, and son-in-law, Alex Wirt, hunting, and hunting with his cousin, Darrell Jackson, and brother, Randy Gilbert. He wanted to go hunting because he had somebody to hunt with. “They kind of kept me going,” Gilbert said.
That persistence and perseverance certainly paid off. Now that he’s killed the buck of a lifetime, he has thought, “now where do I go from here? Don’t really expect to have a chance like that again,” Gilbert said. However, he is still hunting and went hunting the next day after killing the trophy. His thought process now is to hope that other people get something like that and he can be a part of it, Gilbert said.
What was even more unbelievable about the trophy was neither Gilbert or Jackson had ever seen the deer. Prior to the start of hunting season, when hanging their deer stands, the two saw where a deer had been horning trees 4 inches in diameter. Last year, they had seen the same sized trees being hit as well. Jackson told Gilbert then “We’re gonna have something” if we kill the one hitting these trees, Jackson recalled.
Since killing the trophy, community members have shown Gilbert and Jackson trail camera photos that had been captured of the trophy on neighboring farms from the past few years and it was an estimated 175-inch buck three years ago. Jackson estimates that it was a 5 to 6-year-old deer due to the progression of the trail camera photos.
Jackson is a tobacco farmer and rents several farms in the Axton/Mountain Valley area, and he cannot believe that in all the hours he has spent around that deer at those farms, that he never laid eyes on it. He and Gilbert believe in planting food plots every year for the game and Jackson feels that those food plots helped to grow those big horns, Jackson said.
Gilbert is hoping the deer wins state this year and plans to enter it into the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh, N.C.
Henry County has been turning out some big deer. Fisher Whitlock of Henry County killed a trophy whitetail last season, which scored 227 under the Virginia Scoring System and won Best In Show at the 2015 Dixie Deer Classic in the VA Muzzleloader by Youth - Non-Typical division, according to the Dixie Deer Classic website. That deer won the Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville’s contest last season.
Gilbert’s deer is currently leading Southeastern Outdoor Supplies contest.
It would certainly be ironic to have two award-winning whitetails killed in Henry County two years in a row, Jackson said.
Johnny Hundley, owner of Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville, said as far as the caliber of deer and caliber of score, “it’s excellent.” He said that he’s been running his business for 49 years and been checking deer for 35 years and “it’s at least the third biggest ever checked” here, Hundley said. Hundley recalls checking a bow kill 10 years ago that scored 245, which is the biggest he’s ever scored, so Gilbert’s deer is right up there with the biggest he’s seen and scored.
Gilbert plans to obtain the Boone and Crockett score soon for his trophy to see if it makes the all-time record books.
*Star City Whitetails wants to thank Ashley Jackson (who is Gary's cousin), for a great story about a great Virginia buck and an even greater hunter*
Below I have included some trail cam pics that surrounding property owners sent in. This buck was known by other hunters, but Gary took advantage of one of the few live sightings.
~Gary Gilbert of Axton Virginia had the hunt of his lifetime on November 20,2015 and the following story is about Gary and his hunt as written by a family member~
THE BUCK OF A LIFETIME: WHERE PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE PAID OFF
By ASHLEY JACKSON
Gary Gilbert’s hunt had it all. There was adrenaline, there was panic, and there was a buck of a lifetime harvested.
Gilbert, 55, of the Axton/Mountain Valley area, harvested a 15-pointer with a 25 7/8-inch spread on November 20. The trophy scored 230 9/16 under the Virginia Scoring System. The brow tines were spectacular, one being almost 13 inches and other was over 11 inches tall. Gilbert considers the deer “a buck of a lifetime…. And the highlight of my hunting career,” he said.
The details of the hunt were quite interesting and it was a roller coaster ride for Gilbert and his cousin, Darrell Jackson, who was hunting near Gilbert on the same farm in the Mountain Valley/Axton area.
“It was kind of a slow morning” a 4-pointer walked by, but that was it, Gilbert said. The wind was getting up and he could hear some deer in the woods about 100 yards behind him. The next thing he knew, the trophy buck, a smaller buck and a doe were coming off the ridge, and went down the hill in front of him.
The two bucks were chasing the doe and the bucks were trying to outrun the other to get to the doe. Gilbert said the other buck was decent, maybe an 8-pointer, but he was only focused on the big one. His thoughts were racing at this point, and thought, “Don’t let him get away,” he said.
He was hollering at the deer, but they wouldn’t stop. The three went up in the thicket and out of sight. When it went out of sight, Gilbert said his thoughts at that point: “Oh man, he’s gone.”
However, in a matter of seconds, the three had made a circle and were coming back straight in front of Gilbert. The three were still running as fast as before. But that time, there wasn’t anything “to do but start shooting,” and he shot the trophy on the run, Gilbert said. He shot three times: the first shot knocked the trophy buck down, and Gilbert’s instinct was to keep shooting until it quit moving because he wanted “to make sure it didn’t get away,” he said.
After the three shots, the deer had stopped and Gilbert knew he had just harvested the buck of a lifetime. “I just looked at it for a minute (lying there in the woods)” and was thinking, “is it really that big?,” he said of his fears of “ground shrinkage.” “I couldn’t believe how big it was” sitting from the stand looking at it, he added.
With the trophy of his life, the “adrenaline shakes” that every hunter has experienced were definitely in full force. Gilbert said he just sat there a while just trying to calm down from shaking before he got down out of the stand.
Once down out of the stand, he couldn’t believe what he had just killed. “I knew it was a good deer, but didn’t realize the true size of it” even once he was down and looking at it, “I just couldn’t believe it. I never thought I would have a chance at a deer like that,” Gilbert said humbly.
“It really meant a whole lot” to kill such a deer and to be “out there with Darrell” to share in his excitement, Gilbert said.
“When we got out of the truck that morning, who would have thought that 3 hours later” that one of the biggest bucks in Virginia would be killed, Jackson said.
“Mountain Valley mule is what I call it,” Jackson said.
Jackson let a 10-pointer walk that morning, which he was glad he did so it wouldn’t spook any other deer that morning…. Which allowed the “Mountain Valley mule” to come running by later that morning.
The pair of bucks and the doe actually came by Jackson first, but they were running so fast and the woods were too thick for him to be able to get a shot on the trophy buck. Jackson could only see glimpses of the deer through the thick woods and as the deer got closer, as close as 90 yards away, he could see that it was a huge deer. As the deer went past him, he knew it was running towards where Gilbert was and hoped Gilbert would be able to get a shot at it.
After a few minutes past, he heard Gilbert shoot three times at 8:59 a.m. They had agreed when walking into the woods that morning that if either of them shot something, they would wait until 9:30 a.m. before meeting back up. Jackson mentioned that that was the longest 30 minutes of his life waiting to go find out if his cousin had killed the monster buck.
Jackson said he was shaking so bad that the clips on the stand were rattling. When Jackson got down and saw Gilbert standing at the edge of the field, and he asked, “‘You get the big one?’” And Gilbert’s reply, “‘Yeah I believe I did get the big one,’” Gilbert recalled.
In sharing in Gilbert’s disbelief in what he had killed, Jackson said he told his cousin when looking at the trophy lying there in the woods, “You just hit the Mega Millions jackpot” with this deer, Jackson said. When any hunter heads out, “that’s the deer we’re wishing to get.” “We had no idea of doing that that morning” when we got out of the truck, Jackson said.
“It choked me up” that his cousin had killed such a deer because the two cousins have been hunting together since they were kids, Jackson said. He had put in the time hunting and “he deserved the buck of a lifetime,” Jackson said of his cousin.
Gilbert feels lucky to have been at the right place at the right time and it was by the grace of God that he got a chance to harvest such a beautiful creature that God created.
Gilbert’s luck as a hunter changed in a hurry that November morning. Gilbert has been hunting for over 40 years. In those years, he had killed some bucks, but had not put a deer on the wall since an 8-pointer around 1993. He had missed opportunities at big bucks, like having a mountable deer come under the stand several years ago, shot, the bullet hit a limb, and the deer got away.
Due to the kind of luck he was having as a hunter, he admits that he was getting kind of discouraged and “this year wasn’t going well either … up to that point anyway,” Gilbert said.
Despite being discouraged, he kept hunting. He said he kept going over the years because he loved being out in the woods and enjoyed taking his now 26-year-old daughter, Amber Wirt, and son-in-law, Alex Wirt, hunting, and hunting with his cousin, Darrell Jackson, and brother, Randy Gilbert. He wanted to go hunting because he had somebody to hunt with. “They kind of kept me going,” Gilbert said.
That persistence and perseverance certainly paid off. Now that he’s killed the buck of a lifetime, he has thought, “now where do I go from here? Don’t really expect to have a chance like that again,” Gilbert said. However, he is still hunting and went hunting the next day after killing the trophy. His thought process now is to hope that other people get something like that and he can be a part of it, Gilbert said.
What was even more unbelievable about the trophy was neither Gilbert or Jackson had ever seen the deer. Prior to the start of hunting season, when hanging their deer stands, the two saw where a deer had been horning trees 4 inches in diameter. Last year, they had seen the same sized trees being hit as well. Jackson told Gilbert then “We’re gonna have something” if we kill the one hitting these trees, Jackson recalled.
Since killing the trophy, community members have shown Gilbert and Jackson trail camera photos that had been captured of the trophy on neighboring farms from the past few years and it was an estimated 175-inch buck three years ago. Jackson estimates that it was a 5 to 6-year-old deer due to the progression of the trail camera photos.
Jackson is a tobacco farmer and rents several farms in the Axton/Mountain Valley area, and he cannot believe that in all the hours he has spent around that deer at those farms, that he never laid eyes on it. He and Gilbert believe in planting food plots every year for the game and Jackson feels that those food plots helped to grow those big horns, Jackson said.
Gilbert is hoping the deer wins state this year and plans to enter it into the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh, N.C.
Henry County has been turning out some big deer. Fisher Whitlock of Henry County killed a trophy whitetail last season, which scored 227 under the Virginia Scoring System and won Best In Show at the 2015 Dixie Deer Classic in the VA Muzzleloader by Youth - Non-Typical division, according to the Dixie Deer Classic website. That deer won the Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville’s contest last season.
Gilbert’s deer is currently leading Southeastern Outdoor Supplies contest.
It would certainly be ironic to have two award-winning whitetails killed in Henry County two years in a row, Jackson said.
Johnny Hundley, owner of Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville, said as far as the caliber of deer and caliber of score, “it’s excellent.” He said that he’s been running his business for 49 years and been checking deer for 35 years and “it’s at least the third biggest ever checked” here, Hundley said. Hundley recalls checking a bow kill 10 years ago that scored 245, which is the biggest he’s ever scored, so Gilbert’s deer is right up there with the biggest he’s seen and scored.
Gilbert plans to obtain the Boone and Crockett score soon for his trophy to see if it makes the all-time record books.
*Star City Whitetails wants to thank Ashley Jackson (who is Gary's cousin), for a great story about a great Virginia buck and an even greater hunter*
Below I have included some trail cam pics that surrounding property owners sent in. This buck was known by other hunters, but Gary took advantage of one of the few live sightings.
~Gary Gilbert of Axton Virginia had the hunt of his lifetime on November 20,2015 and the following story is about Gary and his hunt as written by a family member~
THE BUCK OF A LIFETIME: WHERE PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE PAID OFF
By ASHLEY JACKSON
Gary Gilbert’s hunt had it all. There was adrenaline, there was panic, and there was a buck of a lifetime harvested.
Gilbert, 55, of the Axton/Mountain Valley area, harvested a 15-pointer with a 25 7/8-inch spread on November 20. The trophy scored 230 9/16 under the Virginia Scoring System. The brow tines were spectacular, one being almost 13 inches and other was over 11 inches tall. Gilbert considers the deer “a buck of a lifetime…. And the highlight of my hunting career,” he said.
The details of the hunt were quite interesting and it was a roller coaster ride for Gilbert and his cousin, Darrell Jackson, who was hunting near Gilbert on the same farm in the Mountain Valley/Axton area.
“It was kind of a slow morning” a 4-pointer walked by, but that was it, Gilbert said. The wind was getting up and he could hear some deer in the woods about 100 yards behind him. The next thing he knew, the trophy buck, a smaller buck and a doe were coming off the ridge, and went down the hill in front of him.
The two bucks were chasing the doe and the bucks were trying to outrun the other to get to the doe. Gilbert said the other buck was decent, maybe an 8-pointer, but he was only focused on the big one. His thoughts were racing at this point, and thought, “Don’t let him get away,” he said.
He was hollering at the deer, but they wouldn’t stop. The three went up in the thicket and out of sight. When it went out of sight, Gilbert said his thoughts at that point: “Oh man, he’s gone.”
However, in a matter of seconds, the three had made a circle and were coming back straight in front of Gilbert. The three were still running as fast as before. But that time, there wasn’t anything “to do but start shooting,” and he shot the trophy on the run, Gilbert said. He shot three times: the first shot knocked the trophy buck down, and Gilbert’s instinct was to keep shooting until it quit moving because he wanted “to make sure it didn’t get away,” he said.
After the three shots, the deer had stopped and Gilbert knew he had just harvested the buck of a lifetime. “I just looked at it for a minute (lying there in the woods)” and was thinking, “is it really that big?,” he said of his fears of “ground shrinkage.” “I couldn’t believe how big it was” sitting from the stand looking at it, he added.
With the trophy of his life, the “adrenaline shakes” that every hunter has experienced were definitely in full force. Gilbert said he just sat there a while just trying to calm down from shaking before he got down out of the stand.
Once down out of the stand, he couldn’t believe what he had just killed. “I knew it was a good deer, but didn’t realize the true size of it” even once he was down and looking at it, “I just couldn’t believe it. I never thought I would have a chance at a deer like that,” Gilbert said humbly.
“It really meant a whole lot” to kill such a deer and to be “out there with Darrell” to share in his excitement, Gilbert said.
“When we got out of the truck that morning, who would have thought that 3 hours later” that one of the biggest bucks in Virginia would be killed, Jackson said.
“Mountain Valley mule is what I call it,” Jackson said.
Jackson let a 10-pointer walk that morning, which he was glad he did so it wouldn’t spook any other deer that morning…. Which allowed the “Mountain Valley mule” to come running by later that morning.
The pair of bucks and the doe actually came by Jackson first, but they were running so fast and the woods were too thick for him to be able to get a shot on the trophy buck. Jackson could only see glimpses of the deer through the thick woods and as the deer got closer, as close as 90 yards away, he could see that it was a huge deer. As the deer went past him, he knew it was running towards where Gilbert was and hoped Gilbert would be able to get a shot at it.
After a few minutes past, he heard Gilbert shoot three times at 8:59 a.m. They had agreed when walking into the woods that morning that if either of them shot something, they would wait until 9:30 a.m. before meeting back up. Jackson mentioned that that was the longest 30 minutes of his life waiting to go find out if his cousin had killed the monster buck.
Jackson said he was shaking so bad that the clips on the stand were rattling. When Jackson got down and saw Gilbert standing at the edge of the field, and he asked, “‘You get the big one?’” And Gilbert’s reply, “‘Yeah I believe I did get the big one,’” Gilbert recalled.
In sharing in Gilbert’s disbelief in what he had killed, Jackson said he told his cousin when looking at the trophy lying there in the woods, “You just hit the Mega Millions jackpot” with this deer, Jackson said. When any hunter heads out, “that’s the deer we’re wishing to get.” “We had no idea of doing that that morning” when we got out of the truck, Jackson said.
“It choked me up” that his cousin had killed such a deer because the two cousins have been hunting together since they were kids, Jackson said. He had put in the time hunting and “he deserved the buck of a lifetime,” Jackson said of his cousin.
Gilbert feels lucky to have been at the right place at the right time and it was by the grace of God that he got a chance to harvest such a beautiful creature that God created.
Gilbert’s luck as a hunter changed in a hurry that November morning. Gilbert has been hunting for over 40 years. In those years, he had killed some bucks, but had not put a deer on the wall since an 8-pointer around 1993. He had missed opportunities at big bucks, like having a mountable deer come under the stand several years ago, shot, the bullet hit a limb, and the deer got away.
Due to the kind of luck he was having as a hunter, he admits that he was getting kind of discouraged and “this year wasn’t going well either … up to that point anyway,” Gilbert said.
Despite being discouraged, he kept hunting. He said he kept going over the years because he loved being out in the woods and enjoyed taking his now 26-year-old daughter, Amber Wirt, and son-in-law, Alex Wirt, hunting, and hunting with his cousin, Darrell Jackson, and brother, Randy Gilbert. He wanted to go hunting because he had somebody to hunt with. “They kind of kept me going,” Gilbert said.
That persistence and perseverance certainly paid off. Now that he’s killed the buck of a lifetime, he has thought, “now where do I go from here? Don’t really expect to have a chance like that again,” Gilbert said. However, he is still hunting and went hunting the next day after killing the trophy. His thought process now is to hope that other people get something like that and he can be a part of it, Gilbert said.
What was even more unbelievable about the trophy was neither Gilbert or Jackson had ever seen the deer. Prior to the start of hunting season, when hanging their deer stands, the two saw where a deer had been horning trees 4 inches in diameter. Last year, they had seen the same sized trees being hit as well. Jackson told Gilbert then “We’re gonna have something” if we kill the one hitting these trees, Jackson recalled.
Since killing the trophy, community members have shown Gilbert and Jackson trail camera photos that had been captured of the trophy on neighboring farms from the past few years and it was an estimated 175-inch buck three years ago. Jackson estimates that it was a 5 to 6-year-old deer due to the progression of the trail camera photos.
Jackson is a tobacco farmer and rents several farms in the Axton/Mountain Valley area, and he cannot believe that in all the hours he has spent around that deer at those farms, that he never laid eyes on it. He and Gilbert believe in planting food plots every year for the game and Jackson feels that those food plots helped to grow those big horns, Jackson said.
Gilbert is hoping the deer wins state this year and plans to enter it into the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh, N.C.
Henry County has been turning out some big deer. Fisher Whitlock of Henry County killed a trophy whitetail last season, which scored 227 under the Virginia Scoring System and won Best In Show at the 2015 Dixie Deer Classic in the VA Muzzleloader by Youth - Non-Typical division, according to the Dixie Deer Classic website. That deer won the Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville’s contest last season.
Gilbert’s deer is currently leading Southeastern Outdoor Supplies contest.
It would certainly be ironic to have two award-winning whitetails killed in Henry County two years in a row, Jackson said.
Johnny Hundley, owner of Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville, said as far as the caliber of deer and caliber of score, “it’s excellent.” He said that he’s been running his business for 49 years and been checking deer for 35 years and “it’s at least the third biggest ever checked” here, Hundley said. Hundley recalls checking a bow kill 10 years ago that scored 245, which is the biggest he’s ever scored, so Gilbert’s deer is right up there with the biggest he’s seen and scored.
Gilbert plans to obtain the Boone and Crockett score soon for his trophy to see if it makes the all-time record books.
*Star City Whitetails wants to thank Ashley Jackson (who is Gary's cousin), for a great story about a great Virginia buck and an even greater hunter*
Below I have included some trail cam pics that surrounding property owners sent in. This buck was known by other hunters, but Gary took advantage of one of the few live sightings.
~Gary Gilbert of Axton Virginia had the hunt of his lifetime on November 20,2015 and the following story is about Gary and his hunt as written by a family member~
THE BUCK OF A LIFETIME: WHERE PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE PAID OFF
By ASHLEY JACKSON
Gary Gilbert’s hunt had it all. There was adrenaline, there was panic, and there was a buck of a lifetime harvested.
Gilbert, 55, of the Axton/Mountain Valley area, harvested a 15-pointer with a 25 7/8-inch spread on November 20. The trophy scored 230 9/16 under the Virginia Scoring System. The brow tines were spectacular, one being almost 13 inches and other was over 11 inches tall. Gilbert considers the deer “a buck of a lifetime…. And the highlight of my hunting career,” he said.
The details of the hunt were quite interesting and it was a roller coaster ride for Gilbert and his cousin, Darrell Jackson, who was hunting near Gilbert on the same farm in the Mountain Valley/Axton area.
“It was kind of a slow morning” a 4-pointer walked by, but that was it, Gilbert said. The wind was getting up and he could hear some deer in the woods about 100 yards behind him. The next thing he knew, the trophy buck, a smaller buck and a doe were coming off the ridge, and went down the hill in front of him.
The two bucks were chasing the doe and the bucks were trying to outrun the other to get to the doe. Gilbert said the other buck was decent, maybe an 8-pointer, but he was only focused on the big one. His thoughts were racing at this point, and thought, “Don’t let him get away,” he said.
He was hollering at the deer, but they wouldn’t stop. The three went up in the thicket and out of sight. When it went out of sight, Gilbert said his thoughts at that point: “Oh man, he’s gone.”
However, in a matter of seconds, the three had made a circle and were coming back straight in front of Gilbert. The three were still running as fast as before. But that time, there wasn’t anything “to do but start shooting,” and he shot the trophy on the run, Gilbert said. He shot three times: the first shot knocked the trophy buck down, and Gilbert’s instinct was to keep shooting until it quit moving because he wanted “to make sure it didn’t get away,” he said.
After the three shots, the deer had stopped and Gilbert knew he had just harvested the buck of a lifetime. “I just looked at it for a minute (lying there in the woods)” and was thinking, “is it really that big?,” he said of his fears of “ground shrinkage.” “I couldn’t believe how big it was” sitting from the stand looking at it, he added.
With the trophy of his life, the “adrenaline shakes” that every hunter has experienced were definitely in full force. Gilbert said he just sat there a while just trying to calm down from shaking before he got down out of the stand.
Once down out of the stand, he couldn’t believe what he had just killed. “I knew it was a good deer, but didn’t realize the true size of it” even once he was down and looking at it, “I just couldn’t believe it. I never thought I would have a chance at a deer like that,” Gilbert said humbly.
“It really meant a whole lot” to kill such a deer and to be “out there with Darrell” to share in his excitement, Gilbert said.
“When we got out of the truck that morning, who would have thought that 3 hours later” that one of the biggest bucks in Virginia would be killed, Jackson said.
“Mountain Valley mule is what I call it,” Jackson said.
Jackson let a 10-pointer walk that morning, which he was glad he did so it wouldn’t spook any other deer that morning…. Which allowed the “Mountain Valley mule” to come running by later that morning.
The pair of bucks and the doe actually came by Jackson first, but they were running so fast and the woods were too thick for him to be able to get a shot on the trophy buck. Jackson could only see glimpses of the deer through the thick woods and as the deer got closer, as close as 90 yards away, he could see that it was a huge deer. As the deer went past him, he knew it was running towards where Gilbert was and hoped Gilbert would be able to get a shot at it.
After a few minutes past, he heard Gilbert shoot three times at 8:59 a.m. They had agreed when walking into the woods that morning that if either of them shot something, they would wait until 9:30 a.m. before meeting back up. Jackson mentioned that that was the longest 30 minutes of his life waiting to go find out if his cousin had killed the monster buck.
Jackson said he was shaking so bad that the clips on the stand were rattling. When Jackson got down and saw Gilbert standing at the edge of the field, and he asked, “‘You get the big one?’” And Gilbert’s reply, “‘Yeah I believe I did get the big one,’” Gilbert recalled.
In sharing in Gilbert’s disbelief in what he had killed, Jackson said he told his cousin when looking at the trophy lying there in the woods, “You just hit the Mega Millions jackpot” with this deer, Jackson said. When any hunter heads out, “that’s the deer we’re wishing to get.” “We had no idea of doing that that morning” when we got out of the truck, Jackson said.
“It choked me up” that his cousin had killed such a deer because the two cousins have been hunting together since they were kids, Jackson said. He had put in the time hunting and “he deserved the buck of a lifetime,” Jackson said of his cousin.
Gilbert feels lucky to have been at the right place at the right time and it was by the grace of God that he got a chance to harvest such a beautiful creature that God created.
Gilbert’s luck as a hunter changed in a hurry that November morning. Gilbert has been hunting for over 40 years. In those years, he had killed some bucks, but had not put a deer on the wall since an 8-pointer around 1993. He had missed opportunities at big bucks, like having a mountable deer come under the stand several years ago, shot, the bullet hit a limb, and the deer got away.
Due to the kind of luck he was having as a hunter, he admits that he was getting kind of discouraged and “this year wasn’t going well either … up to that point anyway,” Gilbert said.
Despite being discouraged, he kept hunting. He said he kept going over the years because he loved being out in the woods and enjoyed taking his now 26-year-old daughter, Amber Wirt, and son-in-law, Alex Wirt, hunting, and hunting with his cousin, Darrell Jackson, and brother, Randy Gilbert. He wanted to go hunting because he had somebody to hunt with. “They kind of kept me going,” Gilbert said.
That persistence and perseverance certainly paid off. Now that he’s killed the buck of a lifetime, he has thought, “now where do I go from here? Don’t really expect to have a chance like that again,” Gilbert said. However, he is still hunting and went hunting the next day after killing the trophy. His thought process now is to hope that other people get something like that and he can be a part of it, Gilbert said.
What was even more unbelievable about the trophy was neither Gilbert or Jackson had ever seen the deer. Prior to the start of hunting season, when hanging their deer stands, the two saw where a deer had been horning trees 4 inches in diameter. Last year, they had seen the same sized trees being hit as well. Jackson told Gilbert then “We’re gonna have something” if we kill the one hitting these trees, Jackson recalled.
Since killing the trophy, community members have shown Gilbert and Jackson trail camera photos that had been captured of the trophy on neighboring farms from the past few years and it was an estimated 175-inch buck three years ago. Jackson estimates that it was a 5 to 6-year-old deer due to the progression of the trail camera photos.
Jackson is a tobacco farmer and rents several farms in the Axton/Mountain Valley area, and he cannot believe that in all the hours he has spent around that deer at those farms, that he never laid eyes on it. He and Gilbert believe in planting food plots every year for the game and Jackson feels that those food plots helped to grow those big horns, Jackson said.
Gilbert is hoping the deer wins state this year and plans to enter it into the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh, N.C.
Henry County has been turning out some big deer. Fisher Whitlock of Henry County killed a trophy whitetail last season, which scored 227 under the Virginia Scoring System and won Best In Show at the 2015 Dixie Deer Classic in the VA Muzzleloader by Youth - Non-Typical division, according to the Dixie Deer Classic website. That deer won the Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville’s contest last season.
Gilbert’s deer is currently leading Southeastern Outdoor Supplies contest.
It would certainly be ironic to have two award-winning whitetails killed in Henry County two years in a row, Jackson said.
Johnny Hundley, owner of Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville, said as far as the caliber of deer and caliber of score, “it’s excellent.” He said that he’s been running his business for 49 years and been checking deer for 35 years and “it’s at least the third biggest ever checked” here, Hundley said. Hundley recalls checking a bow kill 10 years ago that scored 245, which is the biggest he’s ever scored, so Gilbert’s deer is right up there with the biggest he’s seen and scored.
Gilbert plans to obtain the Boone and Crockett score soon for his trophy to see if it makes the all-time record books.
*Star City Whitetails wants to thank Ashley Jackson (who is Gary's cousin), for a great story about a great Virginia buck and an even greater hunter*
Below I have included some trail cam pics that surrounding property owners sent in. This buck was known by other hunters, but Gary took advantage of one of the few live sightings.
~Gary Gilbert of Axton Virginia had the hunt of his lifetime on November 20,2015 and the following story is about Gary and his hunt as written by a family member~
THE BUCK OF A LIFETIME: WHERE PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE PAID OFF
By ASHLEY JACKSON
Gary Gilbert’s hunt had it all. There was adrenaline, there was panic, and there was a buck of a lifetime harvested.
Gilbert, 55, of the Axton/Mountain Valley area, harvested a 15-pointer with a 25 7/8-inch spread on November 20. The trophy scored 230 9/16 under the Virginia Scoring System. The brow tines were spectacular, one being almost 13 inches and other was over 11 inches tall. Gilbert considers the deer “a buck of a lifetime…. And the highlight of my hunting career,” he said.
The details of the hunt were quite interesting and it was a roller coaster ride for Gilbert and his cousin, Darrell Jackson, who was hunting near Gilbert on the same farm in the Mountain Valley/Axton area.
“It was kind of a slow morning” a 4-pointer walked by, but that was it, Gilbert said. The wind was getting up and he could hear some deer in the woods about 100 yards behind him. The next thing he knew, the trophy buck, a smaller buck and a doe were coming off the ridge, and went down the hill in front of him.
The two bucks were chasing the doe and the bucks were trying to outrun the other to get to the doe. Gilbert said the other buck was decent, maybe an 8-pointer, but he was only focused on the big one. His thoughts were racing at this point, and thought, “Don’t let him get away,” he said.
He was hollering at the deer, but they wouldn’t stop. The three went up in the thicket and out of sight. When it went out of sight, Gilbert said his thoughts at that point: “Oh man, he’s gone.”
However, in a matter of seconds, the three had made a circle and were coming back straight in front of Gilbert. The three were still running as fast as before. But that time, there wasn’t anything “to do but start shooting,” and he shot the trophy on the run, Gilbert said. He shot three times: the first shot knocked the trophy buck down, and Gilbert’s instinct was to keep shooting until it quit moving because he wanted “to make sure it didn’t get away,” he said.
After the three shots, the deer had stopped and Gilbert knew he had just harvested the buck of a lifetime. “I just looked at it for a minute (lying there in the woods)” and was thinking, “is it really that big?,” he said of his fears of “ground shrinkage.” “I couldn’t believe how big it was” sitting from the stand looking at it, he added.
With the trophy of his life, the “adrenaline shakes” that every hunter has experienced were definitely in full force. Gilbert said he just sat there a while just trying to calm down from shaking before he got down out of the stand.
Once down out of the stand, he couldn’t believe what he had just killed. “I knew it was a good deer, but didn’t realize the true size of it” even once he was down and looking at it, “I just couldn’t believe it. I never thought I would have a chance at a deer like that,” Gilbert said humbly.
“It really meant a whole lot” to kill such a deer and to be “out there with Darrell” to share in his excitement, Gilbert said.
“When we got out of the truck that morning, who would have thought that 3 hours later” that one of the biggest bucks in Virginia would be killed, Jackson said.
“Mountain Valley mule is what I call it,” Jackson said.
Jackson let a 10-pointer walk that morning, which he was glad he did so it wouldn’t spook any other deer that morning…. Which allowed the “Mountain Valley mule” to come running by later that morning.
The pair of bucks and the doe actually came by Jackson first, but they were running so fast and the woods were too thick for him to be able to get a shot on the trophy buck. Jackson could only see glimpses of the deer through the thick woods and as the deer got closer, as close as 90 yards away, he could see that it was a huge deer. As the deer went past him, he knew it was running towards where Gilbert was and hoped Gilbert would be able to get a shot at it.
After a few minutes past, he heard Gilbert shoot three times at 8:59 a.m. They had agreed when walking into the woods that morning that if either of them shot something, they would wait until 9:30 a.m. before meeting back up. Jackson mentioned that that was the longest 30 minutes of his life waiting to go find out if his cousin had killed the monster buck.
Jackson said he was shaking so bad that the clips on the stand were rattling. When Jackson got down and saw Gilbert standing at the edge of the field, and he asked, “‘You get the big one?’” And Gilbert’s reply, “‘Yeah I believe I did get the big one,’” Gilbert recalled.
In sharing in Gilbert’s disbelief in what he had killed, Jackson said he told his cousin when looking at the trophy lying there in the woods, “You just hit the Mega Millions jackpot” with this deer, Jackson said. When any hunter heads out, “that’s the deer we’re wishing to get.” “We had no idea of doing that that morning” when we got out of the truck, Jackson said.
“It choked me up” that his cousin had killed such a deer because the two cousins have been hunting together since they were kids, Jackson said. He had put in the time hunting and “he deserved the buck of a lifetime,” Jackson said of his cousin.
Gilbert feels lucky to have been at the right place at the right time and it was by the grace of God that he got a chance to harvest such a beautiful creature that God created.
Gilbert’s luck as a hunter changed in a hurry that November morning. Gilbert has been hunting for over 40 years. In those years, he had killed some bucks, but had not put a deer on the wall since an 8-pointer around 1993. He had missed opportunities at big bucks, like having a mountable deer come under the stand several years ago, shot, the bullet hit a limb, and the deer got away.
Due to the kind of luck he was having as a hunter, he admits that he was getting kind of discouraged and “this year wasn’t going well either … up to that point anyway,” Gilbert said.
Despite being discouraged, he kept hunting. He said he kept going over the years because he loved being out in the woods and enjoyed taking his now 26-year-old daughter, Amber Wirt, and son-in-law, Alex Wirt, hunting, and hunting with his cousin, Darrell Jackson, and brother, Randy Gilbert. He wanted to go hunting because he had somebody to hunt with. “They kind of kept me going,” Gilbert said.
That persistence and perseverance certainly paid off. Now that he’s killed the buck of a lifetime, he has thought, “now where do I go from here? Don’t really expect to have a chance like that again,” Gilbert said. However, he is still hunting and went hunting the next day after killing the trophy. His thought process now is to hope that other people get something like that and he can be a part of it, Gilbert said.
What was even more unbelievable about the trophy was neither Gilbert or Jackson had ever seen the deer. Prior to the start of hunting season, when hanging their deer stands, the two saw where a deer had been horning trees 4 inches in diameter. Last year, they had seen the same sized trees being hit as well. Jackson told Gilbert then “We’re gonna have something” if we kill the one hitting these trees, Jackson recalled.
Since killing the trophy, community members have shown Gilbert and Jackson trail camera photos that had been captured of the trophy on neighboring farms from the past few years and it was an estimated 175-inch buck three years ago. Jackson estimates that it was a 5 to 6-year-old deer due to the progression of the trail camera photos.
Jackson is a tobacco farmer and rents several farms in the Axton/Mountain Valley area, and he cannot believe that in all the hours he has spent around that deer at those farms, that he never laid eyes on it. He and Gilbert believe in planting food plots every year for the game and Jackson feels that those food plots helped to grow those big horns, Jackson said.
Gilbert is hoping the deer wins state this year and plans to enter it into the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh, N.C.
Henry County has been turning out some big deer. Fisher Whitlock of Henry County killed a trophy whitetail last season, which scored 227 under the Virginia Scoring System and won Best In Show at the 2015 Dixie Deer Classic in the VA Muzzleloader by Youth - Non-Typical division, according to the Dixie Deer Classic website. That deer won the Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville’s contest last season.
Gilbert’s deer is currently leading Southeastern Outdoor Supplies contest.
It would certainly be ironic to have two award-winning whitetails killed in Henry County two years in a row, Jackson said.
Johnny Hundley, owner of Southeastern Outdoor Supplies of Martinsville, said as far as the caliber of deer and caliber of score, “it’s excellent.” He said that he’s been running his business for 49 years and been checking deer for 35 years and “it’s at least the third biggest ever checked” here, Hundley said. Hundley recalls checking a bow kill 10 years ago that scored 245, which is the biggest he’s ever scored, so Gilbert’s deer is right up there with the biggest he’s seen and scored.
Gilbert plans to obtain the Boone and Crockett score soon for his trophy to see if it makes the all-time record books.
*Star City Whitetails wants to thank Ashley Jackson (who is Gary's cousin), for a great story about a great Virginia buck and an even greater hunter*
Below I have included some trail cam pics that surrounding property owners sent in. This buck was known by other hunters, but Gary took advantage of one of the few live sightings.
