Truck-Buck 2019-20: Week 16 Winner Mark Stanley

Week 16: Mark Stanley, 142 5/8 typical
County: Whitfield      Date: Dec. 28

Mark Stanley is 53 and lives in Dalton.

“I have hunted our family farm since I could hold a gun,” Mark said. “It was only small game up until the mid to late 90s, and then we started to get a decent number of deer. I then started managing the land primarily for whitetails and have taken several decent bucks for Whitfield County.

“I run about eight cameras on the farm and always would get pictures of a target buck before I would harvest it, and that’s typically mid to late December before the bigger ones seem to show up. I always said, ‘If it isn’t on film, it isn’t on the farm…’ Well, that didn’t hold true with this buck.

Week 16: Mark Stanley, of Dalton, with the No. 4 buck ever recorded from Whitfield County. The 13-pointer netted 142 5/8.

“On the morning of Dec. 28 around 11 a.m. I saw this buck for about three seconds from the stand through some tress, and I knew instantly he was a definite shooter. I sat in the stand for about an hour, and he never came by like I was hoping. I got down and slipped out to where I last saw him. I was feeling a little disappointed but still happy I got to see such a good deer on the farm.

“As I neared the spot I had last seen him, I was walking very slow looking for tracks in the mud. Unknowingly he had bedded in some privet bushes. The wind was right, so I got real close to him. He blew once and bumped out of his bed, ran a small half circle, stopping for a shot at about 10 yards.

“I’ve hunted Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas and was blessed to get my best buck just a golf-cart ride from my house.”

The 13-pointer netted 142 5/8 and is the No. 4 buck ever recorded from Whitfield County.

Mark will be shooting in the finals to win a new Silverado pickup truck from longtime Truck-Buck sponsor John Megel Chevrolet. He has already won a $1,140 Browning deer rifle and a prize package which includes Antler Addict Mineral and 4S Draw from 4S Advanced Wildlife Solutions, a safety harness from Hunter Safety System and a Shoot-Out shirt from Realtree.

GON’s Official All-Time Whitfield County Buck Rankings