ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512060001
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
BEST TROPHY OF THE SEASON: ``It was just a doe, but it was a start,'' is how Barry Arrington of Bedford County described the deer he killed on opening day of the gun season. In reality, it was an immense victory for Arrington, whose determination put him back into the deer woods following a tree-stand accident the previous season that left him paralyzed from the chest down. A veteran hunter, Arrington has been a champion for hunter safety during his rehabilitation.
WORST-DRESSED AWARD: When Marilyn Bowles and her hunting partners began the task of field-dressing the six-point deer she killed in Craig County, it was discovered the animal didn't have any ... well, it had female sexual organs. The animal was displayed at a big-game checking station in Paint Bank where the word was, ``It had external female organs, but internal male organs.''
BEST TIP: Maybe you've been driving over big bucks this season. In a new book, ``Learn How to Take Monster Bucks,'' guide Larry Norton says, ``One of the first places I look for trophy bucks is under major highway bridges. Big bucks often will walk under bridges from one wood lot to another without being seen. When I find the deer's trail, I can follow the deer and hunt him.''
If you have a hunter in the house, the book makes a dandy Christmas gift. Send a check for $15.50 to Night Hawk Publications, P.O. Drawer 375, Fairfield, Ala., 35064, or use your credit card by calling 800-627-4295.
WORST TIP: The one game wardens received that somebody was selling live deer in Henrico County. When wardens arrived at the reported scene of the crime, they found a sign, ``Deer For Sale - $35.''
An enclosure behind the sign held deer, all right. Four-pointers, six-pointers, even a 12-pointer. Some had red noses. The painted plywood cutouts were worth every bit of $35 for anyone into Christmas decorating.
BEST SUCCESS RATIO: Smith Mountain Lake residents Stan and Nancy Carey were driving to a meeting in Bedford when a deer bounded out of the woods, colliding with their Cadillac. A headlight on the car was broken and the grille damaged. Determined to reach their meeting, they returned home and got a second vehicle. Back on the highway, another deer jumped in front of them, breaking a headlight and damaging the grille of their Geo Tracker.
WORST ACT OF JEALOUSY: Mac Grisso uses one of those life-size, 3-D buck deer targets to practice bow and arrow shooting at his Roanoke County home. Grisso noticed real deer tracks nearby, so he decided to have some fun. He sprinkled both buck scent and doe scent on the fake buck.
``When I came back, there were horn marks all over the target,'' Grisso said. Not only that, a real - not to mention angry - buck had ripped the target off its stand and torn it into three pieces.
BEST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: Tom Hornby of Roanoke County killed a nine-point, 170-pound buck in Bedford County during the muzzleloading season. Three seasons ago, Hornby killed a trophy deer in Bedford County with his bow. Both bucks were killed on his birthday.
BEST BUCK: The one you sent to the Hunters for the Hungry program, which processes venison for the needy.
WORST WAY TO GO COLD TURKEY: A hunter arrived at a Botetourt County big-game checking station proudly carrying a turkey, only to discover the hard way that you no longer can hunt turkeys during the deer season - not even during Thanksgiving week - following a recent change in hunting regulations.
BEST ``ONE THAT GOT AWAY'' STORY: Paul Pedersen Jr. picked up the mounted head of his eight-point buck from a Goochland taxidermist and began driving home on Interstate 64 when his car overheated. He left his vehicle beside the interstate and walked to get help. When he returned less than an hour later, he found someone had smashed the window of his car. The nearly $2,000 worth of electronic equipment in his back seat was there, but the deer mount he'd had only about 20 minutes was gone.
BEST GUY TO BE NEXT TO IN DEER CAMP: Nelson Moore gets the ``Clean Guy in Camp'' honors.
``I used to have a lot of problems with deer scenting me,'' said the Roanoke County hunter. ``I don't have it anymore.''
When deer hunting, Moore washes with scent-free soap. He washes his hunting clothes in scent-free detergent, then rinses them in baking soda to remove any left-over body odors.
Does it work?
``I have had deer walk up at point-blank range and not know I was there,'' he said.
This season, Moore killed his 45th deer with a bow and arrow.
By the way, there is a new mouthwash on the market for deer hunters, called Ben Lee's Ol' Timer's Breath Camo.
WORST AGRICULTURAL TREND FOR HUNTERS: Quick now: What state led the nation in average dryland cotton yield for 1994?
It was Virginia. The growing trend in Eastern Virginia of replacing soy beans and corn crops with cotton is destined to cut into Virginia's deer population, predicts Matt Knox, deer research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Cotton crops aren't the food producers for deer that many other crops are, Knox said.
BEST TWO-FOR-ONE: A Lynchburg hunter, who asked not to be identified, killed two deer in Bedford County with one shot. He kept one and gave the other to Hunters for the Hungry.
WORST JOB OF KEEPING INSIDE THE LINES: Members of the Roanoke Rifle and Revolver Club won't have Duane Guyer to kick around any longer. He is stepping down as president of the 300-member organization.
``I have had all the fun of being president that I can stand,'' said Guyer, ticking off a list of what he calls ``no-brainers'' and ``stupid acts'' that take place on the club's range in Franklin County.
Among them, shooting up the target frames.
``Remember kindergarten?'' he asked members. ``I guess some of you don't remember coloring in your coloring books and having to stay within the lines, do you?''
BEST DESCRIPTION OF A DEER CAMP: Written by John Madson:
Nowhere on earth is fire so warm
Nor coffee so infernal
Nor whiskers so stiff, jokes so rich
Nor hope blooming so eternal.
A man can live for a solid week
In the same old underbritches,
And walk like a man and spit where he wants,
And scratch where it itches.
I tell you, boys, there's no place else
Where I'd rather be in fall.
Madson didn't make it to camp this fall. The popular outdoor writer died earlier in the year.
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Stinson. color.by CNB