Buena Vista's John Cole poses with his 148 7/8 B&C buck, which was taken in Rockbridge County. Cole shot the buck on the third day of the early muzzleloader season. Photo by Bruce Ingram.

For those Virginians whose sporting hearts thrill to the challenge of killing a big buck, the annual Western Virginia Sport Show in Fishersville at Expoland fills the bill. Every year in February, this Augusta County extravaganza displays some of the best bow- and gun-killed bucks from around the Old Dominion, plus features a number of hunting and fishing outfitters, vendors and celebrities from Virginia, the United States and Canada.

Taxidermist Dale Wenger, who is the official scorer for the show, described the racks displayed at the 2008 show as "average." Of course, at least from my experience in attending the show this decade, the average rack in recent years seems to be more impressive than the typical rack in years past. That may be because of an increased interest in trophy hunting in the Old Dominion.

Bob Rawley, co-owner of the sport show with Mark Hanger, agrees.

"These days in Virginia, there seems to be a tremendous interest in hunting for big bucks," he told me. "I think a lot more hunters are concentrating on going after a trophy. I also think that a lot more individuals and clubs are putting more emphasis on controlling doe numbers and improving wildlife habitat. Those are certainly two favorable factors for having better quality bucks."

Here, then from the 2008 show, are some of the most intriguing trophy bucks and the individuals who killed them.

BRIAN PUFFENBARGER AND HIS RECURVE BROADBEAM
Brian Puffenbarger works for Target Corporation and has killed about 50 deer in the 25 years or so he has been hunting. Interestingly, the 41-year-old Staunton resident has hunted exclusively with a recurve for the past two decades and has tagged some 20 whitetails with this primitive weapon, including a fine 9-pointer in 1999. In fact, during the 2007 season, Puffenbarger downed four whitetails with a recurve, but one of them will always stand out well above the rest.

The story of that deer actually begins in 2005. Puffenbarger's regular hunting buddy is Eddie Craig, a fence contractor from Waynesboro, and the two men are part of a five-person club that leases a 200-or-so-acre property in Augusta County. In 2005, Craig was afield with his 14-year-old nephew when they spotted a typical 8-pointer that would have scored approximately 120 Pope and Young. Knowing the potential of that still relatively young buck, Craig himself did not want to arrow a whitetail with so much upside, but he encouraged his nephew to do so. However, the buck never came within range of the young man. Throughout the course of the 2005 season, Craig observed the deer eight more times; one time the animal even bedded near him.

In 2006, on the last weekend in September, club members held a meeting on the Augusta County property and, ironically, the buck made an appearance, along with a nice 8-pointer, about 150 yards from where the men were making their plans for the season. Even more ironically, the two bucks watched the club members watching them. And as fate would have things, Brian didn't see the buck again during the 2006 season.