Midwest, Schmidwest
By John E. Phillips
New Jersey deer hunter Leonard Gilbert never dreamed he’d see himself in a hunting publication.
“I watch most of the TV shows and read Rack and several other magazines,” says the 33-year-old. “I’ve always said, ‘I can’t take one of those big bucks unless I go to the Midwest or Canada. We don’t have 150-plus-inch deer.’”
Wrong.
Prior to the 2016 season, Leonard’s biggest whitetail was a 120-inch 9-pointer he got in New Jersey. His best now is a buck from Delaware, where his dad lives.
“Dad got permission for us to hunt a 300-acre farm during bow season. I’d hunted the property in 2015. Six others could hunt as well, but only on weekends during gun season,” he said.
“I hunt with a gun then, too, since the first and second weeks of November are the peak of the rut,” he added.
The temperature was between 60 and 70 degrees on opening day of the firearms season. Leonard saw one buck and seven does at an overgrown field next to a soybean field. None of the dozen bucks of which they’d collected trail camera photographs showed.
On Saturday, he went to where his father sat the previous day, a stand at the corner of the farm where one can see almost 200 yards in one direction and 400 in the other. The setup overlooks a 75-yard-wide road between property lines, along with a ditch.
“My dad had taken nice bucks out of that stand on opening day the last two rifle seasons,” Leonard said. “He hunted from it on Friday, but saw only a couple of small bucks.
“My brother, 18-year-old Brandon, wanted to hunt with us on the second day, so my dad went to another stand with him,” he continued.
Leonard was eager to put his new lever-action 20 gauge to the test.
“During Delaware’s gun season, we can hunt only with shotguns and slugs. I was carrying a Savage 220 that was dead-on at 100 yards,” he said. “I had a Simmons slug gun scope and was shooting 3-inch AccuTip slugs by Remington.”
He had seen YouTube videos of hunters shooting deer at up to 400 yards with the gun. He told his dad, “If we can buy some of these 20-gauge shotguns and get them dialed in at 200 yards, we can take any deer we see out to 300 yards.”
Leonard was in his stand about 5:30 a.m. Saturday. The mercury had fallen to 20 degrees.
As the sun rose, he saw two does and a spike cross the road about 150 yards distant. He also heard bucks chasing does in the thick cover to his left.
When a doe finally crossed the road, six bucks were chasing her, including a gnarly looking buck Leonard had seen in trail camera pictures.
“All six bucks crossed the road so fast, there was no way I could get my 20 gauge up and get them in the scope,” he said.
About 45 minutes later, Leonard heard bucks fighting. Then the woods went silent, until he heard two deep grunts.
“I picked up my call and softly blew two short grunts to sound like a younger buck that had come into their territory,” he said.
“I soon spotted a doe to my right and put my barrel on the stand’s shooting bar in case a buck was nearby. Next, a deer with a huge rack stepped out of the thick cover 50 yards away, quartering away from me.
“I aimed toward the last rib and squeezed the trigger. Later, I learned the bullet hit a little low, but had traveled forward into the buck’s vitals,” he said.
Leonard was comforted when he heard the deer thrashing around in the woods for a few seconds. Although he didn’t know exactly how big the buck was, he knew it was a wallhanger.
About 12 minutes after the shot, he received a text message from his dad: That was you who shot, wasn’t it?
Leonard texted back: I got a big one.
Fifteen minutes later, he spotted a big 8-pointer that would’ve scored about 125 inches. If he hadn’t shot the other deer, he would’ve shot this one.
When Leonard saw his dad and brother coming, he directed them to where he’d shot his buck.
“Two trails were available for the buck to take after I shot it,” he said. “One went straight to the adjacent landowner’s property. The other went off to the left.
“My dad walked about 10 yards, looking for a blood trail or my buck. Brandon and I were on our hands and knees when I spotted a big patch of white by a holly bush about 40 yards in front of us,” he said.
Because the animal’s head was propped against the holly bush, he whispered to his dad: “Is your gun still loaded?”
It was, so Leonard told him to bring his gun, since he thought his buck was still alive. It wasn’t.
Leonard heard his dad say, “Oh, my God!”
“As I looked at the deer, I thought, This big buck is unbelievable! Hunters in the Northeast talk about bucks this size, but most of us never see one this big,” he said.
Leonard’s dad was so excited that he was fighting back tears.