Social media is ballyhooing it as a North American record, besting the famous Milo Hanson typical record taken in 1993 in Canada by a Saskatchewan farmer hunting his own land. It scored 213 5/8 Boone and Crockett and changed Hanson’s life.
It is a stretch to say Kestner’s buck will top that, but there is no argument about it having an exceptional rack.
“People are going crazy over it out here,” said Tim Blevins, who is Kestner’s father-in-law. “We believe it will score over 200.”
Sgt. Jamie Davis, a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries conservation police officer assigned to the region, isn’t so sure.
“It’s a very nice deer, especially for this area, but I don’t think it’s a record of any kind. I would estimate a score of approximately 180 or so.”
The antlers must cure 60 days before they can officially be scored, and then only by a certified person. The rack has tremendous mass, but also has some abnormal points that will be deductions.
There is a chance it will top the current leading Virginia buck in the typical category of the national Boone and Crockett Club. That one was taken in 1999 by Jerry James in Buchanan County. It scored 189 2/8 and ranks 166 all-time in the North American record book.
Virginia measures its bucks differently from Boone and Crockett, and Kestner’s deer should score well with in-state competition, thanks to its massive tines and basket shape.
The Virginia system does not distinguish between typical (even number of points) and nontypical.
The state record is a 31-point buck taken by Jim Smith in Warren County during the 1992 muzzleloading season. It scored 259 7/8 Boone and Crockett and 296 Virginia style.
Kestner’s buck should easily place in the top 10 of Virginia all-time records, but it must first beat out a 13-point Bedford County buck killed by Cotton Witt the first day of the 2014 muzzleloading season. That one has been rough scored at 165 Boone and Crockett.
“It was a gift from the Lord,” is how Kestner described his buck.
So many people have come by his home to see it, that he stashed it away in another location with the idea of making a full-body mount.
Kestner, who is 35 and has been hunting since age 6, said he first laid eyes on the big buck from atop his ladder stand, 7:30 a.m. on “a frosty, clear as a bell, sun-shiny morning.
“I had looked to my left and said, ‘What in the world?’ ”
The buck was leisurely moving toward Kestner’s stand, which is placed in a saddle of a ridge where white oak acorns are plentiful. Not far away is an 80-acre spread of soybeans.
When Kestner’s 7 mm boomed, the majestic animal dropped in its tracks at 65 yards.
“I just killed a monster buck,” he called to tell his wife. “Let the kids out of school if you want to, this one is big.”
As he approached the deer, he put his phone on video mode to record the scene, all the while saying, “Don’t move. Don’t move.”
Kestner is NFL-size, 6-foot-7 and 381 pounds, yet he couldn’t budge the buck, which weighed 245 pounds. He called his father-in-law, Blevins, who was home after killing a 9-pointer.
“You’ve got to get over here. I’ve killed the biggest deer in my life,” he told him.
“We don’t think there could be a better person to kill this deer,” said Blevins.
Kestner works in the coalfields delivering uniforms and is active in the Outdoorsmen in Christ program based in Chilhowie. The buck will be a great resource to draw attention to that ministry, he said.
