Moose Droppings

What a hoss of a buck and I’m afraid I have none of the details. These images were posted up on NC Hunt & Fish and I’m pretty sure this is an actual NC Deer and not an internet rumor. One of the regular posters over there has posted his own game camera shots of this buck and it was taken within a 1/2 a mile of where he hunts. I hope this deer shows up at the Dixie Deer Classic this year and I’m sure we’ll hear more about it and who the lucky hunter is.

Seems like we are seeing more and more big bucks in North Carolina these days and I attributed it to the two buck limit as well as more and more hunters willing to let small bucks walk.

Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

This Field & Stream Video took the net by storm this past summer it now appears this buck has been tagged by Bob Decker.

Then, at 9:30 a.m., Decker heard it, the telltale “snap” of a whitetail stepping on a twig as it walked nearby.

Startled, he looked down from his tree stand and saw a large buck just 40 yards away. Decker eyed the animal’s large antlers and immediately decided it was a “shooter buck.” A few seconds later, adrenaline surging through his veins, he grabbed his bow and zeroed in on the animal’s body.

Thwap! The arrow struck its mark just 6 or 7 yards below Decker. The buck bolted for about 50 yards through the woods, then collapsed. It struggled to its feet after a few seconds, then staggered another 50 yards or so to its death.

“I knew it was a nice deer. I figured I’d shot a good-sized 10-pointer,” Decker said.

Decker climbed down from his tree stand and went to meet Olson before going to find his deer. As his friend approached, Olson noticed Decker’s hands shaking with excitement.

“I shot a monster, but it wasn’t the Field and Stream buck,” Decker told Olson, referencing the huge buck that has caused a craze among deer hunters this fall after a video filmed about a half mile from Decker’s hunting spot was posted on the Web site of the outdoor magazine.

The video prompted deer experts to speculate that the animal, with its stunningly large 16-point rack, could challenge Milo Hansen’s 1993 world-record buck. The much-discussed buck is pictured on the cover of the November edition of the magazine.

Olson and Decker approached the buck, which had died on a bed of grass and leaves and was lying on its side. At first glance, Decker figured the animal was smaller than he had thought. He soon discovered otherwise.

Olson reached the buck first and yelled in disbelief to Decker.

“It’s the Field and Stream buck!” Olson shouted to his friend. “This is unbelievable! It’s the Field and Stream buck!”

Twin Cities

This is one awesome buck but where will it fall in the record books? I’m not sure we’ll have to wait and see. I’m sure more info will be coming out on this story soon.

Today’s edition of the News & Observer had a great story about the success some young folks are having in the North Carolina Woods.

Ean Karpinski with his buck

Ean’s 150-grain Remington Cor-Lokt bullet found its mark, and the pair celebrated. The buck was rough-scored using the Boone & Crockett method by David Clark of Clark’s Taxidermy in Garner. It tallied 140 6/8 B & C, an impressive buck by any standard.

Tyler Hickman with his buck

The two waited 10 minutes for the buck to turn broadside. When the buck turned, Tyler squeezed the trigger on his Marlin 336 .30-30, and 65 yards away, the deer fell.

“He stood up and started hollerin’, ” said David Hickman of Tyler’s reaction. “I told him to take it easy. He was running top speed across the soybean field. I walked up to it and made sure it was dead. I counted 23 points.”

the Hickmans took it to Russell Avery of Avery’s Taxidermy in Clayton. Hickman said the rack had been rough-scored by two different people and they had gotten 185 and 187.

Avery, is Pope & Young Club’s certified scorer.

What a couple of nice bucks Congratulations to these young hunters. Do go and read the full story out at the N&O. Also a tip of the hat to the N&O to the commitment of reporting outdoor news and stories like these about young folks in a day and age when many newspapers have long ago abandoned the outdoors.

Michael Burkley downed the potential state-record archery buck in Mississippi during early October with a 56-yard shot in a harvested bean field.

I saw this story on the NC Sportsman website.

“I got a game-cam shot of him (on Sept. 18), and also saw him several times with a spotting scope from about a thousand yards away,” he said.

As Burkley would soon discover, the behemoth sported a tangle of antlers that would greenscore 193 2/8.

The deer was about 56 yards away, but Burkley had painstakingly prepared himself for this situation.

“I had ranged several spots in the field, so I had a good idea of the distance he was away from me,” he said. “I had one of my pins set for 40 yards, so I held it about 10 inches over his back, and let the arrow go.”

When it connected, Burkley could tell he had made a good shot.

“I knew I had whacked him, but I was a little unsure of the penetration at that distance,” he said.

Unbelievable Go read the whole story at NC Sportsman.

I’ve known the Dorsett’s now for a number of years and knew they are deadly on big bucks in the Old North State. How deadly I didn’t realize until I laid my eyes on the old barn in Orange County.

Mason, Harold, and Clay have been hunting family land in Orange County for a number of decades and it’s obvious they have killed some nice bucks over the year. All of these deer have been killed within about a mile of this old barn.

They are not sure how many bucks are represented in this photo shoot they had a number of racks that were in a couple of large boxes. I would estimate that it was about 80 bucks. Believe it or not they had even more racks at one time but they were hanging inside a skinning shack they had that got flattened a number of years ago by a hurricane and a tree.

Mason has started a company called RacPlaques making plaques for displaying your European Mount. I can attest that he has a very quality made product that really helps show off your trophy.

Anyone who tells you North Carolina doesn’t have some nice deer needs to check these photos out. After the photo shoot we returned to the house for some grilled deer tender loin…. What else would you’ve expected us to eat?

Story and Photos by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Photo Courtesy of Mike Noles

Back in April Mike Noles from Conman’s Guide Service shared with me some photos of a monster bruin he had on one of his places in the Eastern part of North Carolina. They are calling this bruin Maximus and he will likely tip the scales at over 800lbs.
This past weekend I was down at Conman’s for our annual fishing trip and our wild game cookout. Almost as soon as I saw Mike he told me he had something I just had to see.

Saturday morning a few of us piled in Mike’s truck and he drove us into Maximus territory, some of the thickest overgrown swamp land that was ideal cover for bears. What I saw next was jaw dropping when I saw the first tree that had been marked by Maximus.

This is a bite on a tree and given the size and the height there is little doubt this was done by a very large bear. There was a number of these bites throughout the area, Mike believes that there is at least one if not two other sizeable bears using this same area and probably why we saw so much bear markings.

Here is a video that I ran across that explains a little bit about bear tree bites.

Although we never saw Maximus I did see a 200-250 lb bear early on Saturday morning. My attempts to get close enough to him to get some photos did not work so you’ll have to settle for a photo of his track on the dirt road.

The wildfire is having a lot of impact on everyone and everything in the area. The good news is that the fire never spread in this area to this land although the impact is still being felt with many critters being forced on to new land, crowding of the species, heavy smoke, and drought conditions. The roadblock for the fire line is right at the end of Conman’s Guide Service driveway.

With the long term prospect of the Pocosin fuel burning for a long time till the land is soaked or flooded to extinguish it. Food and cover will be an issue for the foreseeable future until the fire is out and life can return to normal in the burn area.

I did not ask Mike if they have any bear hunts open for this year but I’m sure you can give him a call and find out.

Story & Photos (unless otherwise credited) by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

N&O

Joe Fuller from Holly Springs may have killed a new world record gobbler or at least a new North Carolina state record. The bird had 8 beards and scored a whopping 195.5 and is just waiting to be certified. The Thursday Outdoor section of the N&O had the story;

At first glance, Fuller thought the bird had two beards but when he got it back to his truck and laid it out on the tailgate, he and his hunting partner, Russ Zaft from Fuquay Varina, were amazed to find this bird had eight beards.
Each beard contributes to the total score along with weight and spur length by the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) scoring method. The total score of 195.5 points, when certified and registered with the NWTF would best the previous world record by one and a half points.

Turkeys have really taken off in North Carolina and this is great to have a potential new world record coming out of our state. Go check out the rest of the story and find out what part of the state this big boy came out of.

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

If you wanted to kill a bear that tipped the scale in access of 600 lbs where would you head? Now I’m talking about a black bear not a brown or a grizzly so that narrows your choices downs a bit. North Carolina should be at the top of your list and eastern North Carolina to be more specific. The North Carolina Wildlife Commission has done a phenomenal job at managing the black bear. The eastern part of the state of North Carolina has some of the best bear habitat anywhere and the bear population is booming there and the photos I have to show you will prove we have some monsters walking around.

This bear is being called “Maximus” and rightly so when you look at these photos. I acquired these photos from Mike Noles owner of Conman’s Guide Service. I’ll admit that judging the size of bears can be difficult but this bear is huge. This bear will easily go over 600 lbs and Mike believes it is in the 800+ neighborhood and he sees a lot more bears then I do. I wonder if we might not be looking at a new state record if not possible one of the largest black bears ever. Heavens know how big Maximus will be by the time the hunting season rolls around.

Bear hunting in North Carolina is either done by two methods; stand hunting like Mike does, or hunting them with hounds. Baiting is not a legal practice in this state. When I talked with Mike this past Friday he still had a couple of openings for this November’s bear hunt. If you think this bear is some kind of a fluke check this photo of another bear that was photographed last summer.

This is obviously a different bear because of the scarring on the face and none of their hunters took this bear last year.

Two years ago a couple of 600 plus bears were taken just a day apart at Conman’s so he certainly has the habitat to grow’em big.

Jim Delpapa - 11/13/06 - 663 lbs

Charles Miller - 11/14/06 - 616 lbs

If you want to bust a big bruin head for eastern North Carolina and if you want someone with a proven record for putting folks on some nice ones give Mike Noles a call.

Story by Dan McLaughlin (AKA Moose) Photos courtesy of Conman’s Guide Service Creswell, NC

Killing a gobbler with multiple beards is a rare feat but taking one with 7 beards is unbelievable.

Jerrell Keele knew his turkey had a pretty good beard on him when he shot him last month. He could see the black hairs hanging from the gobbler’s neck when he shot him from 37 yards away.

But the 67-year-old Burnsville resident didn’t realize that the 17.28-pound turkey actually had seven beards and scored enough points to make it a state record in the nontypical division.

There were so many beards that the registration form had to be altered.

“The form only has room to write in six beards for each turkey,” said Keele, whose turkey scored 151.155 points. “Jerry Hazlewood (the Northeast Region wildlife biologist) wrote in the seventh beard on the side of the form.”

NE Mississippi Daily Journal

Congratulations Jerrell that is a once in a lifetime trophy.

Rumors on the net fly and right now many of our email boxes are being filled with a “Rare Black Buck from Michigan.” This buck is not from Michigan but rather Texas hill country in January 2004. Gordon Gouldin was the hunter who took this rare deer and this famous photo is Gordon’s wife with the black buck. NA Whitetail has the story so check it out.

Some other Black Buck stories I’ve seen are;

Andrew Hargrove shot this rare melanistic buck in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 2002. The only white on the deer is the underside of the tail.

Bobbie Fain took this “black” buck in Dimmit County, Texas. Most melanistic deer live in Texas, with the highest number being around 150 miles northeast of this ranch. Photo by Gordon Whittington.

NA Whitetail

Brendan Pearson poses with the black whitetail deer he shot in Idaho state hunting Unit 8A, in potlatch, Idaho, in October 2007. The whitetail buck is exceptionally dark with a black head, black tongue and dark underbelly. Its legs also are dark and, aside from the white tip, its tail is all black. The first recorded report of a black deer came from New York in 1929.

Magic Valley

Bert Buegeler III black buck he took in Texas Hill Country

Hunting Lease Magazine

Donnie Rodriguez took this Texas Buck in 2005

Rising Sun Outdoors

Well these are the photos I often see and I suspect some of you do as well. I think there is little doubt that Texas is about your best chance to bag one of these rare deer. So next time you get a black buck photo maybe you’ll know the real story.

Ashley Gilliam’s Harnett County Buck Photo Courtesy of N&O

The thoughts of killing a huge buck one day is the dream of many of us that hunt but have you thought any about the downside? I’ve heard a number of stories through the years that may make you think twice. I know that with in the state of North Carolina that there have been some deer taken that would be record book racks but they are never submitted.

If you kill a big buck the property you hunt will most likely become heavily pressured by both “legal” & “illegal” means. If you own the land the surrounding land will see a increase in hunting if they can find ways to access it. If you don’t own the land but lease it there will be attempts by others to lease it out from under you. Although these are legal means I’m not sure they are the most ethical. There will also be some that will take the illegal means an trespass or even drive the area at night looking for an opportunity to poach a deer.

The other very common thing to have done is to have your reputation questioned by rumors that you illegally took your trophy. Why some people feel the need to do that is beyond me but Alex Webb of the N&O had such a story just the other day.

When Ashley Gilliam pulled the trigger on a huge buck with a trophy-sized rack on Nov. 1, his emotions ran high, but that high did not last long.
He learned success doesn’t always guarantee happiness, especially in the outdoors.
As news of Gilliam’s buck spread, rumors began to circulate that the buck may have not been a legal kill, perhaps shot after legal hunting hours.
“I think there may have been some jealousy on some people’s part, and they started the rumors. This was the lowest point I had ever felt because I knew it was legal,” Gilliam, from Angier, said.

The entire story that Alex has laid out is fascinating and you should read it but I’ll focus on the ending to make my point. The rumors got so bad that Mr. Gilliam ended up getting up with the local game warden and taking him out to the area he killed the buck and walking him through what happened. Mr. Gilliam provided the game warden with a print out of his cell phone bill from that day where he called to get help loading his trophy deer and a receipt from a store he stopped at shortly after dark. Now none of this was required by the NCWRC but I’m certain that Mr. Gilliam didn’t want the local Harnett County Wildlife Enforcement Officer thinking he had done something wrong.

If the day ever comes that you cross paths with a trophy you may face some of the same unwarranted scrutiny and pressure so what will you do? Show that trophy off or not? Me I’ll show it off but I guess I’ll keep the receipt from my celebratory RC Cola & Moon Pie.

There is another Email going around the net of a huge Alberta Buck taken recently and Brad posted it up on his site. Well I believe I’ve run down the story or the basics, it was actually taken last season and the photo is legit for the most part just the way it is positioned it does make it appear to be much bigger then it is. The buck was killed with the Diamond Willow outfitters out of Alberta.

Scott Yetman, from Newfoundland took this tremendous Alberta buck the third week in November of ‘06. He scores 212 gross

So once again you know the rest of the story.

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