Post by cambygsp on Oct 11, 2005 5:26:41 GMT -5
www.roanoke.com/outdoors/wb/35778
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Archer's 8-point buck a rarity
The Roanoke Times
Donald Arrington usually utters a brief prayer before his hunting trips.
Saturday afternoon he switched things up a bit.
"I usually say, 'Lord, let me kill a big old deer,' " said Arrington, 43, who lives in Hardy. "Saturday, I just said, 'Lord, let what happens happen.' "
Arrington didn't want to ask for too much because he was just happy to be able to get in the woods after several days of rainy weather.
As he has hundreds of times since his teens, Arrington headed for a section of national forest land in Botetourt County near Oriskany. Along for the hunt was his older brother, Randy.
The brothers had hunted the area a week earlier, on opening day of Virginia's early archery season. That day Donald Arrington didn't see any deer, so he decided to hike deeper into the forest, to a favorite stand.
"I killed my first deer with a bow, a spike, out of that stand 20 years ago," Arrington said.
Arrington, an assistant manager at the Kroger at the Westlake shopping area in Moneta, lives and works in prime deer country. But he is still drawn to hunting on public land.
"It's not easy hunting, to hike way back in the woods like that," he said. "But it's fun."
Deer were moving in the cool, misty woods. Between the time he got set up about 4 p.m. until 6 that evening, Arrington saw six deer.
"At 6:05, I turned to my left and saw that a big buck had just come out of the hollow and was standing there about 25 yards away," said Arrington, whose most recent trophy buck was a 10-pointer killed a dozen years ago. "He looked like a horse."
The buck was looking right at Arrington, so the hunter didn't dare move.
"When he started walking, he went behind some trees and I was able to grab my bow," Arrington said.
With the deer still shielded, Arrington drew back on his Mathews FX bow. He had to wait about 45 seconds for the buck to emerge broadside, just 14 yards away.
"I put the best shot on him I've ever made in my life," Arrington said.
Hit through both lungs with a heavy, Satellite broadhead-tipped Easton XX75 aluminum arrow, the deer went 75 yards.
In the thick cover, and with the wet ground, the tracking job wasn't particularly easy. But Arrington quickly found the buck, which carried a nearly perfect eight-point rack with tall tines and stout main beams, the tips of which sweep back in toward each other.
Arrington let out a hoot for the ages.
"You'd have thought I won the lottery," said Arrington, who took extra pleasure knowing the buck was bigger than any of his brother's bow kills.
Lottery winners aren't out until 1:30 a.m. dealing with getting a big buck out of the woods -- a job made a little easier by the big-game cart the brothers keep stashed in the woods near the hunting area -- and to a check station.
Big bucks like Arrington's pretty eight-pointer have been relatively scarce so far this bow season, but plenty of hunters are scoring on smaller bucks and does.
Not that you'd know it by asking around at check stations.
"We haven't seen the first deer," said Sam Williams at Southern States in Bedford. "Normally, by this time of year we'd have checked in about 30."
The difference is the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' phone-in game-checking program, which is in its sophomore season.
Last year 45 percent of the total kill was checked in through the system. This year it appears the percentage will be even higher. On opening day nearly 1,400 hunters used the system to report bow or crossbow kills, a jump of nearly 50 percent over last year's opening-day phone reports.
Crossbow kills made up a big chunk of those opening-day kills. Crossbow hunters phoned in 321 deer on Oct. 1, while archery hunters called in an additional 1,058 deer. Crossbow kills dropped to about 15 percent of the reported 137 deer calls the first Monday.
At Southeastern Outdoor Supplies, Donna Hundley said only two of 20 deer checked in at the store were killed with a crossbow.
"One of those was by a young boy," she said.
The store had checked in one turkey, and it was a crossbow kill.
Even so, the folks at Southeastern have been seeing a good number of crossbow hunters since the season started.
Hundley said the day after the opener a half-dozen crossbow shooters showed up with broken weapons. The problem was the hunters fired them without a bolt when they were finished hunting.
OK all you veteran bowhunters, I can hear you laughing.
At least these folks knew it wasn't a good idea to lower a cocked (or, heaven forbid, loaded) crossbow from a treestand, or to carry around such a weapon in a truck.
Unlike a conventional bow, a cocked crossbow is pretty difficult to "unload" without shooting it. Dry-firing the weapon is not the answer.
The easy solution is to carry at least one bolt tipped with a field point or, better yet, a judo point. Shoot the thing into the dirt when you're done hunting.
Knox to talk deer
Matt Knox, the biologist who heads Virginia's deer program, will be the featured speaker at next Monday's meeting of the Tri-County Forestry and Wildlife Association, a group of landowners and land managers in Roanoke, Botetourt and Craig counties.
The meeting will be at the Salem Moose Lodge, across from the Orange Market at Hanging Rock. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. The cost is $10, and guests are welcome. Dinner spots must be reserved by Wednesday by calling Ellen Horn at 864-6701.
Knox has spoken to the group previously, and his presentations are among the association's most popular -- for good reason. Not only is Knox a whitetail expert, he's among the more entertaining public speakers you'll find.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Archer's 8-point buck a rarity
The Roanoke Times
Donald Arrington usually utters a brief prayer before his hunting trips.
Saturday afternoon he switched things up a bit.
"I usually say, 'Lord, let me kill a big old deer,' " said Arrington, 43, who lives in Hardy. "Saturday, I just said, 'Lord, let what happens happen.' "
Arrington didn't want to ask for too much because he was just happy to be able to get in the woods after several days of rainy weather.
As he has hundreds of times since his teens, Arrington headed for a section of national forest land in Botetourt County near Oriskany. Along for the hunt was his older brother, Randy.
The brothers had hunted the area a week earlier, on opening day of Virginia's early archery season. That day Donald Arrington didn't see any deer, so he decided to hike deeper into the forest, to a favorite stand.
"I killed my first deer with a bow, a spike, out of that stand 20 years ago," Arrington said.
Arrington, an assistant manager at the Kroger at the Westlake shopping area in Moneta, lives and works in prime deer country. But he is still drawn to hunting on public land.
"It's not easy hunting, to hike way back in the woods like that," he said. "But it's fun."
Deer were moving in the cool, misty woods. Between the time he got set up about 4 p.m. until 6 that evening, Arrington saw six deer.
"At 6:05, I turned to my left and saw that a big buck had just come out of the hollow and was standing there about 25 yards away," said Arrington, whose most recent trophy buck was a 10-pointer killed a dozen years ago. "He looked like a horse."
The buck was looking right at Arrington, so the hunter didn't dare move.
"When he started walking, he went behind some trees and I was able to grab my bow," Arrington said.
With the deer still shielded, Arrington drew back on his Mathews FX bow. He had to wait about 45 seconds for the buck to emerge broadside, just 14 yards away.
"I put the best shot on him I've ever made in my life," Arrington said.
Hit through both lungs with a heavy, Satellite broadhead-tipped Easton XX75 aluminum arrow, the deer went 75 yards.
In the thick cover, and with the wet ground, the tracking job wasn't particularly easy. But Arrington quickly found the buck, which carried a nearly perfect eight-point rack with tall tines and stout main beams, the tips of which sweep back in toward each other.
Arrington let out a hoot for the ages.
"You'd have thought I won the lottery," said Arrington, who took extra pleasure knowing the buck was bigger than any of his brother's bow kills.
Lottery winners aren't out until 1:30 a.m. dealing with getting a big buck out of the woods -- a job made a little easier by the big-game cart the brothers keep stashed in the woods near the hunting area -- and to a check station.
Big bucks like Arrington's pretty eight-pointer have been relatively scarce so far this bow season, but plenty of hunters are scoring on smaller bucks and does.
Not that you'd know it by asking around at check stations.
"We haven't seen the first deer," said Sam Williams at Southern States in Bedford. "Normally, by this time of year we'd have checked in about 30."
The difference is the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' phone-in game-checking program, which is in its sophomore season.
Last year 45 percent of the total kill was checked in through the system. This year it appears the percentage will be even higher. On opening day nearly 1,400 hunters used the system to report bow or crossbow kills, a jump of nearly 50 percent over last year's opening-day phone reports.
Crossbow kills made up a big chunk of those opening-day kills. Crossbow hunters phoned in 321 deer on Oct. 1, while archery hunters called in an additional 1,058 deer. Crossbow kills dropped to about 15 percent of the reported 137 deer calls the first Monday.
At Southeastern Outdoor Supplies, Donna Hundley said only two of 20 deer checked in at the store were killed with a crossbow.
"One of those was by a young boy," she said.
The store had checked in one turkey, and it was a crossbow kill.
Even so, the folks at Southeastern have been seeing a good number of crossbow hunters since the season started.
Hundley said the day after the opener a half-dozen crossbow shooters showed up with broken weapons. The problem was the hunters fired them without a bolt when they were finished hunting.
OK all you veteran bowhunters, I can hear you laughing.
At least these folks knew it wasn't a good idea to lower a cocked (or, heaven forbid, loaded) crossbow from a treestand, or to carry around such a weapon in a truck.
Unlike a conventional bow, a cocked crossbow is pretty difficult to "unload" without shooting it. Dry-firing the weapon is not the answer.
The easy solution is to carry at least one bolt tipped with a field point or, better yet, a judo point. Shoot the thing into the dirt when you're done hunting.
Knox to talk deer
Matt Knox, the biologist who heads Virginia's deer program, will be the featured speaker at next Monday's meeting of the Tri-County Forestry and Wildlife Association, a group of landowners and land managers in Roanoke, Botetourt and Craig counties.
The meeting will be at the Salem Moose Lodge, across from the Orange Market at Hanging Rock. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. The cost is $10, and guests are welcome. Dinner spots must be reserved by Wednesday by calling Ellen Horn at 864-6701.
Knox has spoken to the group previously, and his presentations are among the association's most popular -- for good reason. Not only is Knox a whitetail expert, he's among the more entertaining public speakers you'll find.
