Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 15, 1993 TAG: 9311160264
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He had worked hard to put together a black-powder hunt in a remote area of Rockbridge County last week only to let a last-minute blooper appear to rob him of success. For certain, it left him with a feeling of despair.
A year ago, he discovered a rugged section in the George Washington National Forest where a big buck had pawed the ground and shredded hemlock trees. It was reached from the nearest access road via a three-mile hike through a rocky gorge.
``I took up hunting a long time ago, and have killed several deer on farmland, so I told my brother I had gotten that out of my system and I was going to start trophy hunting in the mountains.''
Shifflett, who lives in Glasgow, hiked to his hunting area on a Sunday to do some scouting with a buddy, Kevin Staton, of Natural Bridge.
``We found like 14 scrapes and great big rubs the size of your leg.''
They set up tree stands, then hiked back out and rested the area for a day, returning last week, the final week of the muzzleloading season.
``I had all kinds of intentions to get back there early, before daylight,'' said Shifflett. ``We left well before daylight, but it is just so dangerous to walk back in there, rocks 20 feet tall that you have to climb up on. You could break a leg''
When Shifflett reached his stand the first thing he spotted was a buck beneath it bearing a massive rack bathed in the light of a new day. The deer crashed off through the cover and stopped 60 yards away, but Shifflett was so unnerved that he missed, even through he'd been honing his skills with his .50 caliber Thompson-Center all year.
``I said, `Darn!' I should have been here 15 minutes ago and I would have been up in my stand.''
With little left to do, Shifflett ambled into his stand, with the feeling gnawing inside him that you just don't get a second crack at a cagey buck.
``About 8:30 I heard something coming down the ridge. I heard it for about two minutes and it stopped.
Maybe five minutes passed by and I though the deer might have gone somewhere else. Then I looked up and there he was in front of me about 30 yards. He came out of a laurel thicket.''
As Shifflett pulled the trigger, he could see an impressive number of points catching the morning sun, but he had no idea how big the trophy was until he walked up to it. He counted 17 points, most of them long and thick.
Staton went for help, bringing back three buddies to drag the deer, a task that took three hours.
``I told them, `Don't break a leg and don't break my horns,''' said Shifflett. ``We had to grab his horns and drop him over rocks that were 8-feet tall.''
Shifflett has had two taxidermists measure the rack under Virginia's big-game system. One came up with a 260 score; the other, 232. Anything over 252 would put it in the top 10 of Virginia's all-time records.
Last year, a buck killed by Jim Smith during the muzzleloading season established an all-time record, with a score of 296.
Shifflett doesn't believe the buck he killed was the same one he missed earlier in the day. In fact, when he returned to the area last week some of the scrapes he had spotted earlier had been freshened.
That left no question as to where Shifflett would hunt when the firearm's season opened today.
``I bet the buck's granddaddy will be back in there,'' he said.
by CNB