Oh man, It's been so long since I've even seen a mature buck on my property I almost forgot what they look like! I thought this year was going to be the same but on Saturday, November 4th, I decided to move my blind to the creek boundary of my 5 acre property adjacent to the State park that doesn't allow hunting. The goal was to be able to see them on the park side and call them back to my side with scent and sound. On Saturday around 5:15 P.M. I was just able to make out a deer running fast in the woods across the creek bottom and so my attention was away from my land and I was getting my call and rattling horns ready when i hear commotion behind me! I turn slowly around getting my muzzleloader ready but i must have made noise because a couple does had me pegged. I just kept moving slowly until i could see all the deer. One was this buck and I couldn't tell anything about his horns but he was obviously big so I shouldered the gun and the does took off. The buck just had to stop and look one last time and i let him have it. It was a perfect shot and he didn't even get far enough to run off my land.
I took him to Foxfire taxidermy the next day and Aaron said, after looking at his teeth, he was probably 4 years old. He certainly was big enough in the body but didn't have much in the way of antlers. I'm not fussed about it though cause any mature buck is a trophy and he will give us lots of venison after he chills out in the cooler for a week or so.

Here is a sequence of a doe sensing danger, blowing the alarm and her snot and breath spraying into the air and hanging like a cloud from a steam engine. I think it's a pretty cool montage of something we all hate to hear :).

The only thing this deer is missing is duck lips for this selfie!

This guy hasn't shown his mug in weeks and i was getting nervous that he might have died, but here he is, bold as brass out in the daylight again. Let's just hope he does it again on September 12th!

Here's a trailcam video of the only big buck in my trail cam this year. He's a dandy, tho and i plan to see him sometime in September, if he'll come out in the daylight. First video i have of him is at 7:30 A.M., but since then he's strictly nocturnal. I guess we'll see...

This one has been a long time coming. I have only seen this deer on the hoof once and that was at about 7:35 A.M. today. I have, as many of you have seen before several pics of him on trail cam, and only one other time during the day. I got up with the alarm at zero dark thirty and had a rough time getting out of bed. I knew it was a windy day and that the deer should be hunkered down but i also knew the rut was right around the corner and that maybe, if I slept in, there would be a repeat of last time i decided to stay home and go to church with my family (see my last post) :). So I was sitting in my ground blind half asleep thinking that it had been light for 30 minutes and i had seen nothing and that i should just go home and catch up on some sleep when in from the left i see (he hardly made any sound) the nose and then the body of a heavy, mature deer. He was walking on eggshells and twitching with every step. He was not going to let me get away with any mistakes at only 20 yards even with the wind. I drew back when his head was behind a large pine tree and there was a gust of wind. When he stepped from behind the tree and his shoulder and chest was in view, i aimed for his heart and let fly from the Matthews 'ovation'. He jumped the string as i expected and the rage broadhead hit him in the center of his chest right behind the shoulder! He kicked high (isn't that the best) ran in a big circle of about 40 yards and wobbled and fell.
Sorry to write such a long story, but i just had to share with everyone.
Good luck out there and get ready for the rut!

I finally got some daylight pics of the big drop-tine 6 i've been after. What day did he finally show himself? Why, on the only day i stay home and go to church with my family of course!!!! So here he is, bold as brass, at 7:45 and he hung out for about 15 minutes and had a bite to eat. Ah well, maybe he'll be back tomorrow and i'll get to say 'hi'.

Hi everyone. Haven't posted much this year so far, but i'm honing in on this big 6 point with a drop tine. How old do you guys think he is?
Judging by his neck size where it meets his chest, i think he is a mature deer that just has bad genes or didn't get enough nutrition for good antler growth. Post your thoughts...

I believe this was about the biggest bass i have caught thus far and i have only just started getting into the local fishing scene here in Chatham county. I love to fish small ponds where the bass are less pressured and therefore dumber!

Dean and I were fishing a small pond in a sub-division and i was on one side and he was on the other. I had what felt like a big bump on my spinner bait where i suspected there might be a bass bed (the water was too murky to see anything). It was march and i hoped to get Dean into a large bass on its bed. I called him over had him cast his perch pattern Rapala right down the bank parallel to the weeds and his pole bent over double on the first cast and he fought it for what seemed forever. He had on 8 pound test so he had to finesse it in. I couldn't have been prouder as he took his pictures quickly and set her back on her nest!

I caught 2 bass bigger than this one this year, but i kept this one because i haven't tasted bass in at least 5 years and wanted to have fish for dinner. It fed our family of 5 for two dinners!
I don't like to go to big reservoirs and battle through all the other boats to get to the really well-educated bass. I like to get online and look at google maps and compare to the GIS website and find small ponds to fish that are either on easements or call the owner and ask permission. All 3 of my biggest bass of the year were on a small pond in a sub-division that nobody fishes, so the bass are DUMB (well not so much now that i have caught so many!!!).

We have a great story on this one:
The Deer with THREE LIVES!
First life- i was hunting by myself on our property by the Haw river and saw this beautiful 3 yr-old 9 point walk out about 25 yard in front of my ground blind. The only problem is i didn't hear a thing and was not ready. So when i got my bow in hand and drew back he was already headed for Tennessee.
Second life- i brought my son out a few days later to see if he would come by following the does checking for an early hot doe (was a couple weeks ago). He did. My son had his crossbow up and ready and got a sever case of buck fever and missed at about 20 yards. We couldn't see the bolt because it went so fast, but found it clean (with a few hairs attached) in a tree behind the buck.
Third life- last Friday we go out again to try for him and my son was asleep in the blind when he came out yet again. I had promised not to shoot this buck so my son could get another crack at him, but he was so sleepy that by the time he was up and ready to shoot the deer was walking away.
However, Tuesday evening he ran out of lives as my son put the 100-grain broadhead right in the boiler room and he went less that 50 yards before piling up and i am the proudest dad in the world tonight!

This was my first whitetail deer harvest with horns (2011) and i couldn't be happier! I had seen this deer the year prior (2010) for about 45 seconds but could not pull it together to get a shot. So when i saw him walk out behind a hot doe on Nov. 10th 2011, i made darn sure i was ready for him. He walked right up behind the hot doe who had her tail out and was squatting a little and he looked ready to get to work, but fell victim to the worst c@&k-block ever!!!! a 100 grain muzzy through both lungs.

Hello everyone,
this is my first post and i have lots of successful and unsuccessful hunting and fishing to share. I have been reading posts on this site for a couple years now and though i should join in the discussions. More posts to come with my first buck and just yesterday my son's first buck!