Technology and tactics had little to do with the harvest of the largest whitetail ever recorded from Greene County, Virginia. The 15-pointer’s demise had everything to do with bad and good timing — the buck’s choice of when to cold-trail a pair of does that might have been close to their second estrous cycle, and Brandon Barker’s decision to feed his animals between two and three hours apart.
Friday, Dec. 19, 2024, began as a typical day for the 40-year-old landscaper/farmer from Stanardsville. In addition to providing lawn care, he raises chickens, turkeys, hogs, goats and ducks on his 14 acres nestled against the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.
It was halfway into Virginia’s firearms season, a month past the peak of the rut there.
Between 2:30 and 3:00, Brandon was feeding some of the critters when he spotted a couple of does coming off the adjacent mountain. He watched with interest to see if they were alone, and then he mostly forgot about them.
About two hours later, however, he happened to glance up from his chores and saw a buck on the very same trail. With both the time and incentive, he retrieved his 12-gauge shotgun, which was stoked with 3 1/2-inch, double-ought buckshot — 18 brush- and tissue-chewing pellets.
“I love a shotgun,” he said. “It’s a good, all-around weapon, especially when you’re hunting thickets.
His first load hit the preoccupied deer, which picked up its pace considerably.
Brandon began tracking the buck through a patch of briars and honeysuckle. Thirty yards in, he jumped it. He continued following blood for another 200 yards toward a river.
Figuring a wounded animal would go to water, he began walking a creek bank until he saw the animal in the water and administered the coup de grace.
Brandon didn’t know the deer existed before that day, but he says another person claims to have seen a similarly large whitetail about 2 miles distant.
He’s enjoyed many venison meals while a taxidermist has the cape and antlers. This was one of three bucks he shot in 2024. The others were a scrub 11-pointer and a 4x4. Virginians hunting east of the Blue Ridge mountains are allowed three bucks and three does, and they can purchase additional “bonus” antlerless tags.
Brandon has hunted deer since he was 7 years old. He mostly carries a rifle, except when the season dictates otherwise or he plans to hunt thickets.
Anders Blixt scored the deer for Buckmasters, arriving at 204 1/8 inches. The 15-pointer — a mainframe 4x5 with four uprights towering between 11 and 15 5/8 inches high, is the largest ever recorded from Greene County. Among those felled by shotgun, it’s Virginia’s No. 3 (23rd overall for the state).
The antlers are thick, too, with mass measurements a half-inch shy of 40 inches.