Overwhelmed with excitement, Gibson immediately began climbing the stand down the tree. When he got within 10 feet of the ground, he was so filled with adrenaline that he just jumped down the rest of the way! “I wound up calling my college buddy Shawn,” he recalled. “He called me after he killed his big buck, and I had to repay the favor. We both killed our biggest bucks to date just about one week apart.”

At press time, Gibson didn’t have the score sheet back from Pope & Young, but the big 16-pointer netted 163 4/8 inches as a non-typical.

CALLAWAY COUNTY
You don’t have to be a veteran deer hunter to kill a trophy-book buck in Missouri; New Bloomfield’s Timmy Wallis II (a.k.a. “T.J.”) is proof of that.

Timmy, 13, and his stepfather, Donnie Rice, were hunting on a 10-acre tract of private land in Callaway County, almost all of it a dense cedar thicket, during the two-day Youth Firearms Deer Season.

On Sunday afternoon, the dynamic duo got back out to the woods at about 2:30 in the afternoon. After they got their blind set up again, Donnie crawled out of the blind to break off a few limbs for a shooting lane. After he’d climbed back inside, five turkeys passed by the blind at 15 yards and never spooked. Their decision to hide the blind better apparently worked.

At about 5:20 p.m., Timmy nudged his stepdad to say that he’d seen a buck at the edge of the trees but couldn’t tell how big it was inside the trees at 60 yards out. Donnie told him to go ahead and shoot it if he had a clear shot. Timmy brought the rifle up, placed the cross hairs on the deer’s neck and pulled the trigger. The buck went down in a heap.

When they approached the fallen whitetail they couldn’t believe their eyes: The buck was a genuine Boone and Crockett trophy! “I didn’t know how huge it was, or how many points it had -- I just knew it was a deer, and that it was a buck,” Wallis said. “If I’d have know how big it was, it probably would not be dead.”

Here’s how Timothy Wallis II’s Callaway County 11-pointer measured up.

• Inside spread: 24 inches.

• Main beams: right, 27 inches; left, 27 3/8 inches.

• Gross score: 178 4/8 inches.

• Net typical score: 172 1/8 inches.

“Deer hunting is the fun of the sport, and getting out there and enjoying the outdoors,” Wallis said. “I also really enjoy eating the meat -- especially jerky.”

The young hunter hasn’t let his good fortune go to his head; he remains very humble. Full of plans for the future, he dreams of one day owning his own feed store.

“My first buck was a record buck, and I hope I will kill another one,” Wallis said. “I know I probably won’t, but I’ve got a couple of years ahead of me, and if luck’s on my side, I might.”

Find more about Missouri fishing and hunting at: MissouriGameandFish.com.