Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 27, 1995                   TAG: 9511280053
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRST WEEK

Last week, the first week of the modern firearms deer season, the pile was taller and wider than any time in Mitchell's memory.

``In all of my 47 years I've been doing deer heads, I've never seen nothing like this before,'' he said. ``It is just about mind-boggling.''

Big is the word that best describes opening week of the gun season: Big racks, big bodies, big numbers.

``There are some exceptionally good racks,'' Mitchell said.

It was the same story at Dewayne Linkous' taxidermy shop in Blacksburg. One of the best trophies, Linkous said, was a 20-point buck killed by Aaron Lafon of Blacksburg.

``It is a very heavy-antlered deer,'' Linkous said.

The same could be said of a 10-point buck killed by Darren Whitlock of Christiansburg. ``It has a 26-inch spread and 7-inch base,'' Linkous said. Both bucks were killed in Montgomery County.

There have been some big bodies to go with the big racks. Bucks that field dress 150 pounds have been common, and some deer have plunged the scales past the 200-pound mark.

Reginald Altizer of Christiansburg killed an eight-pointer in Floyd County that field dressed more than 230 pounds. Darren Epperly of Christiansburg killed a 16-point buck in Montgomery County that dressed 226 pounds.

``In all honesty, if I'd been hunting by myself, I'd never have gotten him out,'' said Epperly, who received help from his three hunting buddies.

Epperly had positioned his tree stand in an area where a rutting buck had ripped apart the woods.

``He had cut trees in half that were bigger around than a golf ball,'' Epperly said.

Epperly had watched for the buck all morning, then climbed out of his tree stand about 10:30 a.m. Five minutes later, the buck appeared. He was more interested in a doe than in danger, Epperly said.

Gun hunters may have hit the peak of the rut, a time when deer are sexually active, said Bob Ellis, assistant chief of the wildlife division of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

``The rut may be a little later this year,'' Ellis said.

Often, the rut appears to favor the muzzleloading season, which opens two weeks before the gun season. Some gun hunters have been concerned that muzzleloading hunters have too much of an advantage, but that hasn't been the case this time, Ellis said.

``It looks like there are plenty of deer to go around,'' he said.

Trophy bucks didn't start showing up with regularity at Mitchell's taxidermist shop until the second week of the muzzleloading season. That's when Paul Hudson of Big Island toted in a ``perfect'' 10-pointer that Mitchell said ``would score right at 200.''

For taxidermist Linkous, the big-buck-boom came when the gun season opened.

``I was beginning to think there wouldn't be any big deer, then gun season came in, and they kept getting bigger,'' he said.

Wildlife biologists judge the quality of the deer herd by the well-being of yearling bucks, and there have been some outstanding ones. Biologists weighed a 137-pound field dressed yearling in Bedford County.

``For Virginia, that is kind of hard to believe,'' said Matt Knox, a deer research biologist. A yearling checked in Pittsylvania County had a 11-point rack. ``It is amazing the quality that some of the yearlings are reaching,'' Knox said.

Abundant food crops are making a difference, and so are more liberal hunting regulations that have brought the deer herd into better balance with its habitat, Knox said.