162-Inch Greene County Buck

Willie Manville, of Greene County, shot a huge, tall-tined 11-point buck in his home county on Oct. 31, 2016 after seeing the deer three days prior on a trail camera.

“I had gotten on a powerline about an hour before dark, and the deer had come across at about 7 o’clock,” said Willie. “I knew it was a good deer, and it was just about too dark to see, but I knew it was a good buck.”

“I thought I saw the deer dart back to the right in the direction it was going, so I went home and got a bite to eat and came back with a flashlight to search for any signs of blood,” Willie said.

He said he went walking down the hill to where he thought he hit the deer and couldn’t find any signs of blood. He continued walking a little beyond that spot and still saw no signs.

“I heard something off to my left on the other side of the powerline. I looked over there, and I saw a deer standing about 20 feet in the woods,” said Willie. “I kept on searching for the blood from the deer I shot at, and I went about 10 feet and spotted blood, which would have been 15 feet from where I shot the deer.”

Willie said he thinks the deer ran into the woods and came back out across the powerline.

“I followed the blood trail across the powerline, and I looked up, and the deer was still standing there on the left,” said Willie. “I thought oh my goodness, that might be the deer I shot at on its feet, so I decided to pull out until the next morning and let it rest overnight instead of spooking it to run off.”

Willie returned to his stand the next morning and was going to hunt again until daylight. As it started getting lighter, he kept noticing what began to look like a deer laying in the roadbed on the opposite side of the powerline.

“The lighter it got I confirmed it was a deer, then I confirmed it was a buck, then I confirmed it was a bigger buck, and that’s why I went ahead and jumped on my 4-wheeler and shot over there and realized I killed the big one I saw on camera three nights before,” said Willie.

He found the buck within 20 yards from where the deer was standing in the woods the previous night.

Willie said he has rough scored it himself and has also gotten it measured by a friend. They came up with a gross score of of about 162 total inches. Willie says he doesn’t think there will be too many inches of deductions on the symmetrical rack. The buck’s inside spread was 18 1/2 inches, and it had 9- and 10-inch G2s, 10 1/2-inch G3s and 25-inch main beams.

According to GON’s official County-by-County Rankings, the all-time county record for Greene County is a buck killed in 1975 by Robert Brown that had a net score of 164 5/8. The No. 10 buck of all-time from Greene County scored 152 2/8, so based on rough scores, it looks like Willie Manville may have a chance to join that exclusive list. There hasn’t been a new addition to Greene County’s Top-10 since the 2001 season.

If you have a picture of a deer you killed, GON would like to see it. E-mail your picture and full caption info (name and hometown, county, and details on the buck) to [email protected].