New No. 1 Buck For Gordon County

Ronnie Wilbanks with the 10-pointer he killed on Dec. 2 in Gordon County.

On Dec. 2, Ronnie Wilbanks, of Fairmont, decided to head to his Gordon County hunting club for an afternoon hunt. Little did he know that he was about to make history by taking the biggest buck ever to come from Gordon County.

Ronnie was walking to his spot, a high hill that overlooks a grown-up field and a powerline, when he jumped something from a small thicket on the hill. The thicket was about the size of a car, Ronnie said, and at first he thought it might have been a rabbit that he scared. From the hill, Ronnie could see out over the grown-up field and a thick powerline right-of-way, which consisted of briars and honeysuckle. The hunter had barely settled in when he saw a huge buck stand up 75 yards away in the powerline thicket. It was 3;30 p.m. Ronnie now thinks it was this buck that he had jumped out of the thicket.

The buck was facing toward the hunter but was looking in the other direction. Ronnie’s first shot was a clean miss, but the buck just stood there. The second shot caught the buck’s shoulder, dropping it on the spot.

The buck was green scored at GON’s office and tallied 162 3/8 B&C inches. That score ranks Ronnie’s buck as the best ever from Gordon County according to GON’s Georgia Deer Rankings. The buck had a gross score of 164 6/8 inches and had just 2 3/8 inches in deductions. Measurements on the huge rack included a 16 3/8-inch inside spread and the right antler had a 24 1/8-inch main beam, and points of 4 3/8, 11 1/8, 10 5/8 and 8 inches in length.

Ronnie’s buck could have earned the hunter a spot in the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out as a weekly winner, but Ronnie let his subscription to GON expire in October.

Gordon County Best Bucks Of All-Time