Troy Wilson’s 48-point Velvet Buck
It’s been more than 20 years since Kentucky’s biggest buck of all-time was harvested by Mount Sterling resident Troy Wilson. The velvet monster, with its 48 scorable points and over 300 total inches, was a sight to behold back in 2001, and I believe it deserves a reintroduction into the deer hunting community two decades later.
I spoke with Wilson about this monumental achievement and the memory of a lifetime, and I believe it could not have happened to a better man. Wilson is as humble as they come and says it was just a lucky occurrence that allowed him the chance to kill the state’s largest trophy buck.
It was the opening day of Kentucky’s muzzleloader season, and Wilson, along with his father and brother-in-law were just getting back from a Colorado elk hunt, in which Wilson harvested a nice 5x5 bull elk.
The plans were simple - Wilson would go to his stand, but not hunt. His job that morning was to drive deer to his partners. But that wasn’t quite how it turned out. Wilson’s attempt to “drive” deer to them, became his opportunity of a lifetime.
“I told them I was going to go to my stand and sit 45-minutes to an hour, then I would get up and move around and try to drive deer to them,” said Wilson. “Well, I went up there and sat down and the deer came toward me. He came in about 80 yards and I thought, ‘Well, it’s now or never,’ and pure luck, I had a good shot. It didn’t go 30 or 40 yards. It was just about a perfect shot. Pure luck.”
Perhaps the most mind blowing part of this story is the fact that this was the first time Wilson’s eyes had ever seen this particular buck. He and his hunting buddies had hunted this farm for five years, and no one had seen it before that morning.
Keep in mind, this was 2001 - before social media, before cellular trail cameras, and before a picture of a big buck could circulate the Internet in a matter of minutes. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time and taking the right shot. All of that fell into Wilson’s favor, as he took Kentucky’s biggest buck down.
At the time of the harvest, the buck owned two world records, according to Buckmasters. One, it was the largest velvet buck to ever be killed, a record that still stands today. It was also the largest buck to ever be taken by a muzzleloader. That record stood for close to two years, before it was eclipsed by an Iowa buck with 16 more total inches.
But, it’s not the 48 scorable points, over 300-inches of antlers, the two world records, or the notoriety that brings joy to Wilson when he thinks back to the hunt. It’s the opportunity to hunt with his father, share the buck with strangers, and even the chance to touch peoples’ lives because of it.
Wilson’s favorite hunting memories involve his dad, who passed away just two years after Wilson bagged Kentucky’s biggest buck. Sitting around at deer camp, reminiscing and sharing memories is what comes to mind when Wilson thinks back on a life in the woods.
“When dad was alive, we talked deer hunting year ‘round, basically. Those are priceless memories to me, laughing and cutting up,” said Wilson. “Things we said and done around the camp are precious to me, to be honest. We’re a close family.”
There was also a moment when Wilson was traveling to trade shows, with the buck on display, that sticks out to him. While in Alabama, he was asked to sign portraits of the mounted buck for those who wanted one. One man came through the line twice, but declined to take a print. On his third pass through, he obliged, and was touched by the message that Wilson, who is a devout Christian, wrote on the photo.
“This man had come through the line two times, and I asked him each time if he wanted a portrait and the first two times he said no. The third day he said ‘Yeah, I want you to sign me one.’” said Wilson. “They gave me a gold pen and when I signed it, I always wrote ‘God bless. Happy hunting.’ When I signed it, he started to cry. He said, ‘That’s the best part of it.’ Maybe it hit home to somebody.”
While Wilson knows he’ll likely not top Kentucky’s biggest buck again, he still enjoys getting out and hunting when he can. He and his wife, Marsha, spend the first three months of the year in Florida, and when they aren’t down south, he is back in Mt. Sterling enjoying his grandkids.
As for the buck, it has come to its final resting place in Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife Museum in Springfield, Mo. The mount is presented as a world record trophy buck and remains Kentucky’s biggest buck of all-time.
Photos by Dale Weddle
Five Giant Bucks in Five Years
Kentucky hunter, Jonathon Stuart harvested a massive, tall-racked kicker buck that scored 163 4/8 inches on the evening of Sept. 7 of 2022 in Logan County, KY.
Stuart’s incredible passion for deer hunting motivates him to put countless hours into managing his property to grow big bucks. He loves deer management and even hopes to start a business that aims to improves deer habitat on properties so that other hunters benefit from bucks reaching their full potential. It takes dedication, hard work and a lot of time.
“Some people don’t understand the work and the time that goes into it,” Stuart said. “You can ask my wife how much I am home during the summer. I spend more time away from home during the summer than most people do during the hunting season.”
His land and deer management plans pay off. He’s harvested bucks that have scored over 140 inches in five consecutive seasons. Three of those bucks scored in the 160s. He runs trail cameras 365 days a year, and he starts putting out minerals immediately after deer season ends.
“A lot of people will say they are going out to the farm for the first time and it’s July,” Stuart said. “I’m on the farm putting minerals out in February. I have trail cameras rolling all year long, some of the cameras have never been taken off the tree they are on. I keep 10 mineral sites running from February to August, and then I switch to protein feed. It’s a constant.”
Stuart’s approach to the 2022 deer season was no different than his last five seasons. His work began in February and continued throughout the summer. In June a familiar buck showed back up on his trail cameras. It was a “kicker buck” that was a three-year-old last year, it was Stuart’s first pictures of the buck since October 2021.
As more pictures came in, it was clear to Stuart that the kicker buck’s growth was far superior to other bucks in the summer bachelor group. Stuart estimated that between year three and year four, the “kicker buck” grew about 35 more inches of bone. High main beams, good mass and long tines were further along than the other bucks. Stuart knew it was the buck he wanted to focus on once deer season opened.
The “kicker buck” had been hanging out on the lower end of the property earlier in the summer. As summer progressed, the buck’s pattern became spotty. The farm has two sections of timber on each end of a corn field. A bean field kicks off on the opposite side of the corn. Two weeks before opening day, Stuart decided to hang a camera on the upper end of the farm. Within a few days the “kicker buck” and his bachelor group of other bucks showed up on camera during daylight hours. As soon as he got the chance, Stuart snuck up to the area during the middle of the day to hang a stand.
On opening day Stuart decided to hunt on the lower end of the farm where he’d had prior success during early season. Torrential rain dropped about six inches of water on the area in just over three hours that afternoon. Stuart got caught in the storm but left his stand to head back to the house for safety purposes. Stuart’s spots had all flooded out. A farmer down the road lost three cows to lightening. It was time to regroup.
“I hunted that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on the lower end of this farm,” Stuart said. “I saw a few deer, a couple little bucks, mostly does. That rain really curtailed movement; I wasn’t getting very many pictures on either side of the farm.”
Wednesday, Sept. 7 Stuart got a picture of the big kicker buck at 6:45am on the upper end of the farm. He knew it was game on after work. He packed up his hunting stuff before leaving for work so that he’d be ready to go as soon as he clocked out. Stuart was anxious to get through the workday, at lunch he pulled up the weather channel on his computer. The wind was blowing out of the north, the barometric pressure was over 30 and the rising moon would hit at 5:30 later that evening. A hunter’s trifecta.
“That’s three strikes for a big deer hunt,” Stuart said. "I thought to myself, this might get interesting.”
Stuart got to the farm around 2:00pm, he put on his Drake Non-Typical camouflage grabbed his gear and headed to the stand. He got settled in around 2:30pm. As he was pulling his bow up the tree, two 130-inch bucks were walking right toward the stand. The bow was just dangling 10 feet in the air as the bucks made their way in to get a drink. The area was still flooded from the rain. When the bucks put their head down to drink, Stuart continued to pull his bow up the tree.
At 5:30pm, movement on the right at the edge of the corn field caught Stuart’s attention. It was the kicker buck. Several minutes went by, but the deer finally committed to coming into range. The big buck presented a 30-yard shot. Stuart drew back on his Mathew’s VXR bow, took aim and released an arrow. He watched the Rage Broadhead disappear into the deer’s side.
“I hit him a little far back,” Stuart said. "I don’t know, there are a lot of factors that go into that, it could have been my grip, resting point or maybe he moved. Could have been anything. I believed at the time that I hit him in the liver.”
Stuart called a few of his good buddies and told them about the hunt. He asked them to come and help with the recovery of the buck. His wife and young son came to help, too. When they started to look for blood, they found that it was sparse. They tracked blood for about 70 yards, but they weren’t seeing the amount of blood that Stuart was hoping to find. They decided to back out and call a local canine tracker. Five hours later they all got back on the trail with the dog leading the way.
“She kind of struggled at first,” Stuart said. “Once she picked up the trail, she ended up finding him quick. He went a long way. He went around 400 to 500 yards. We found him just a little after midnight.”
It was an awesome moment for Stuart when the flashlights hit the deer. The culmination of hard work and preparation was right in front of him. Tense moments had turned to celebration.
“It’s kind of hard to explain, when you put that much work into an animal like that and you get to reap the rewards of it, it’s a surreal feeling,” Stuart said. “I have some good hunting buddies, to see the looks and reactions, to see that they were happy, proud and congratulating me. It’s surreal.”
The “kicker buck” is Stuart’s second biggest buck ever. It scored an eighth of an inch more than his 2021 buck and is just four inches shy of his personal best. They are all special, but one thing is for certain, Stuart is laying the smackdown on big bucks.