Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 14, 1994 TAG: 9411170065
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN/OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
With the trophy deer looking in the opposite direction, Conner took his time and counted 10 towering antler points.
"My dad has two big 10-pointers on the wall and they didn't come close to this one," said Conner, who lives in Christiansburg. "I would say the antlers were two and one-half to three inches beyond each side of the ears. And they were high and even."
It was the kind of buck with tremendous proportions - big body, sweeping antlers, thick neck - that hunters associate with the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, where the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries manages the herd for quality deer.
But Conner and about 40 other bowhunters out on this sun-splashed November day were learning that the program is far from a canned hunt; indeed, it can be downright tough to score even in a hunter's heaven, even when everything appears to be going your way.
It was about 11:30 a.m. when the big buck approached Conner's stand. The hunter had seen five deer since climbing into his elevated perch well before daylight. Three were does, the other two a six-point buck and a spike. Both those bucks were too small to shoot, under a new rule at the arsenal that prohibits killing any buck with antlers inside its ears.
An animal with antlers beyond its ears is going to have a 16-inch or better spread, said Betsy Stinson, the biologist who manages the hunt.
The management objective is to keep the herd balanced, 50-50 bucks and does, and to give the younger bucks time to capitalize on the genetic potential they have for growing thick-beamed antlers. Does are pursued during several hunts, but antlered deer are legal only two days. That is one reason biologists say there are nearly 50 deer on the 2,800-acre holding with a spread of 15 inches or more.
When Conner began to draw down on the 10-pointer his compound bow suddenly ... well:
"It just popped," he said. "The buck heard it and turned around and looked at me. I stood real still. He didn't run off, he just trotted off."
Conner's bow string had broken. When it went limp, so did his dream of killing a wall-hanging buck.
It was that kind of day for arsenal bowhunters who had earned their right to take a buck by their willingness to hunt does during a previous season. They also were there because they had gotten lucky in a drawing that had attracted more than 1,400 applicants.
By noon, no one had killed a buck. Stinson was wondering if it would be the first deerless hunt since the beginning of the program in the mid-'80s.
Hunters began posting red flagging at their stands, a signal that they were restless and wanted to move.
"They come in here with high expectations because they know they have the chance to kill a big buck. But there is no guarantee," said Matt Knox, the state deer research biologist.
The hunt puts pressure on participants, because it is considered a "hunt of a lifetime," said Larry Crane, a wildlife biologist who is considered the hunt master.
"Unless they leave here carrying a deer, their friends will say, 'What happened to you?'''
"I thought sure this morning there would be one come busting out into the open," said Buck Warner of Saltville. Two years ago, Warner killed a doe on an antlerless hunt.
"That time, after counting about 60 deer, I just quit counting."
Now, with the opportunity to kill a buck, he'd spotted only two deer, well out of range. So he asked to be moved
So did James Marsh of Bristol.
"The irony of it, I'd drawn the same stand that I did three years ago, so I was disgusted because I didn't see anything there three years ago that was shootable."
This time, Marsh got the chance to move from his assigned stand about noon. At the new location, he chose to set up his own portable tree stand rather than hunt from the permanent one provided by the game department.
This is the first season hunters have been allowed to bring their own stands, with the option of erecting them within 50 yards of the permanent one, said Stinson. The idea is to give the success ratio a modest boost, she said.
"We need to harvest enough deer for the rest of them to get through the winter and to keep their weight up," she said.
In addition to controlling the herd, wildlife officials have been planting food patches and fruit bearing shrubs and trees for deer and other wildlife through a cooperative agreement the game department has with the arsenal.
"I think we can achieve a lot more with this herd," said Stinson. "We can improve the habitat. I see us putting more weight on these deer and more antler development."
After marking off 50 yards, Marsh climbed a tree, fastened his safety harness and turned to see a 10-point buck about 20 yards from him.
"He saw me and kind of went up the hill. I tried to grunt him back in, and he stopped a couple of times, but still circled out of range."
With that one gone, Marsh settled in for what he thought would be a long wait, but minutes later he spotted a doe striding through the broomsage.
"She was about eight yards from me. I let her pass and here came a buck right behind her. He came in grunting and he grunted the whole time. He went past me grunting. I think he was trailing that doe.
"I had an eight-yard shot at one time and kind of got a little excited and my arrow kind of slipped off my rest a little bit."
Marsh relaxed his bow, then drew again, striking the deer at 18 yards.
It was an eight-pointer, with an outside spread right at 15 inches. The animal was 81/2 years old, a ripe age for a deer in Virginia. It was the only one killed that day.
by CNB