Logan County, W.Va. hunter Ryan Linville shows off the enormous rack of a buck he harvested. The buck ranks as the second largest white-tail deer ever taken in the state with a bow.

Over the years I’ve covered the four county bowhunting-only area in southern West Virginia, where bucks of record book caliber help fill rewrite the pages each season.

The West Virginia Division of Wildlife recently released the results of its annual Big Buck Certification Program, where 95 bucks from across the state met the program’s requirements. Many were from bowhunting-only regions of Logan, Mingo, Wyoming and McDowell counties. Ryan Linville’s was one of them

For the past 18 years, Ryan Linville has pursued whitetails, nearly exclusively with a bow in his home county of Logan. In 2012, Linville’s trail camera captured an image of a big buck, one with an unusual black growth on one of its hind legs. Five years would pass before it would succumb to his arrow, placing him second all-time among the ranks of typical whitetails with a bow, and first last season.

Armed with the knowledge of the buck’s presence, Ryan hunted the area during the fall of 2012, but had no encounters, other than nighttime photos from the trail cam. His 2012 season concluded with the taking of a nice eight-pointer.

In 2013, the buck twice found its way in front of his camera during the daytime, both on Saturday’s while he was hunting, but he was in a different location with his son Seth, trying to help him get his first deer.

Prior to the 2014 season, Linville’s trail camera was stolen. Frustrated by this, he decided to hunt a different area.

“I love looking at the pictures,” Linville noted. “For me, half the fun of it is seeing what you have in your area.”

Ryan continued to hunt a different area in 2014 and ’15. Ironically, though, it was another stolen trail camera that motivated him to return to his original area.

“Two seasons had come and gone, and I never dreamed that he’d still be there,” he recalled. “But in late October a nighttime picture of him turned up. I was excited. I couldn’t believe he was still there.”

Come late November, Ryan had taken a week off work to concentrate on the big buck, to help pacify his need to hunt, an activity his wife Danielle and son fully support.

Three different times prior to the fateful day, one of his trail cameras recorded the buck during the daylight hours. Once Linville saw that, he felt he had a chance.

Monday, Nov. 21 was West Virginia’s opening day of rifle season. For Linville, whose hunting areas was in the bowhunting-only region, it was the first day of the week he’d dedicated to hunting a massive-antlered buck. He was understandably excited.

“I climbed in my stand that Monday morning, and he was the first deer I saw,” he remembered. “I was set up alongside of a point. I heard a noise, and thought it was probably a squirrel, as there are a lot of squirrels in the area.

“I glanced over my left shoulder but didn’t see anything. A few minutes later I hear something again. Again, I glanced, but this time the buck was there, standing still, looking out over the point. I couldn’t see all the deer, but I could see the rack and knew it was him. I figured he’d survey the area before moving any farther.”

At ease that things were OK, the 15-point buck started a slow walk, providing the opportunity for Ryan to retrieve his bow off its hook.

“When he was about 35 yards away he looked my way, and it seemed our eyes met, and I thought I was busted,” Ryan noted. “But he didn’t hold contact. He just continued on the direction I needed him to.”

The buck passed a small tree, and Linville drew back his compound bow. It stopped broadside at 17 yards, presenting a great shot opportunity. Linville’s shot was good, the mechanical broadhead piercing both lungs. The buck was dead on its feet, running only around 40 yards. Linville heard the deer go down, but could not see it, and spent a contemplative 15 minutes before vacating the hang-on stand to look for it.

Ryan’s incredible buck has 15 scoreable points with an inside spread of 19 3/8 inches. Some of the tines are over 11 inches in length. It’s most exceptional feature, in Linville’s mind, are its main beams which measure 29 5/8 and 29 7/8 inches.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle