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Chris Blankenship killed this great piebald buck on opening morning of the general firearms season in Bedford County.

The trailcam shot was taken the night before, about 800 yards from where Blankenship encountered the deer. He made a long shot with a Savage 25-06.

The buck's rack had a 22-inch outside spread and 20-inch inside spread, according to Blankenship, who plans to get a full-body mount of the unique deer.

Last week when that heavy rain hit, I and a couple other guys in our Botetourt County deer camp took a break, came back to the real world and tried to catch up on some work.

But James Quarles stuck it out. He went out with his muzzleloader in that horrible rain on Wednesday evening -- granted he was in a covered blind, but it was still nasty -- and this big boy showed.

James will put the hammer down on does. But when it comes to bucks he is selective. I can't recall him shooting more than a couple of bucks in the 10 years I've been hunting with him. I was glad he didn't pass up this one, which has some of the best brow tines I've seen on a deer from this property.

Twelve-year-old Noah Perdue was hunting with his dad, Bryan, on family property on Bent Mountain when he killed his first deer. He shot the great eight-pointer with a youth model .243.

For hunters, this is the positive side of the sport that most of us enjoy. Today I've been dealing with the not-so-positive side as I've been called upon to help with our follow-up coverage of the accidental shooting in Ferrum yesterday afternoon.

For those who might not have heard, one Ferrum student was shot and killed and another wounded (by the same bullet) by a hunter who said he mistook them for deer. He has been charged with reckless handling of a firearm, trespassing and manslaughter.

To answer a question posed by Michelle in a comment below, there are legal safety requirements -- hunter education -- for hunters. Most importantly, it's just common sense to properly identify the target -- and what's beyond the target -- before pulling the trigger. Unfortunately a tiny fraction of hunters don't do that, and it reflects poorly on the hundreds of thousands of us who do.

My story, which will go into more details about accident rates and hunter education, will be in tomorrow's paper.

When he sent in this shot, Nino Ripepi joked that he should consider starting a guiding business.

On Nov. 13, a  few days after putting his brother on a great public land whitetail, Ripepi was hunting with his friend Royce Day of Roanoke, who promptly killed this hog.

"I still haven't seen a deer," reported Ripepi, who is actually quite happy to help his hunting partners score.

I'm starting to know the feeling. I haven't put other guys on bucks this season, but they're getting them in the same areas where I'm not seeing much when I hunt.

I hunted for a couple of hours this morning over a greenfield in Botetourt County. It was slow. A little bit ago my buddy called and said he saw a really nice buck this afternoon in the field.  He would have shot it, but he already has killed a great buck this year on the property, a DMAP-enrolled place at which we have a self-imposed one-buck rule. In fact, I'm about the only guy who hunts there who hasn't killed a good buck this season.

Why do I have a feeling if I go back there tomorrow afternoon the deer will have been there in the morning?

I'm doing a story for Friday's Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times on the phenomenon of so-called buck fever. If you hunt, you know what it is: That rush that comes when something like the deer pictured here (details on that deer to come in a later post) approaches.

One question is why some people can handle it better than others. Some guys get the job done. Others, well, choke.

Many of us have done both.

I've already talked to a sports psychologist about this, but really need to talk to a few hunters from The Roanoke Times' circulation area about their experiences. If you've got a good buck fever story, or a great way to deal with it, send me an e-mail and I'll call you in the next day or so.

Thanks in advance.

Matt Daniels said he is is still in disbelief that he managed to kill this incredible buck on Nov. 14 in Floyd County. He said the 12-pointer was trailing two does as it passed his stand about 7:30 a.m. at a range of about 100 yards. I think I'd be in disbelief, too.

Billy Basham has had a good year hunting his land in Bedford County. The write-up he included when he sent these shots on Nov. 13 was good, too -- he even pokes fun at a couple of his buddies -- so I'll post it in its entirety here:

"So far, this has been a good year for harvesting whitetail. I bought 30 acres in Bedford 3 years ago.  I would watch 15-20 antlerless deer  walk within 15 yards of my stand each morning, and believed there were no harvestable bucks on the property.

After 3 years of management, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I took the eight pointer (which I have named MYKE, after a small animal control officer I know - the deer is small as well) on Halloween day.

The nine pointer appeared today. I have named him DONNIE (after another diminutive animal control officer I know - the deer is small too).

Ultimately, the end is the culmination of only three years of doe management. The rule on my farm is take all the does you want, but if you take a buck you should be prepared to pay for professional taxidermy."

Virginia produces plenty of great whitetail bucks every fall, but not many that really qualify as monsters. You know, bucks that would drop jaws in Iowa or Alberta, too.

Well, this is one of those bucks. John Feazell of Clifton Forge killed it on Nov. 7 while hunting on Tinker Mountain in Botetourt County. Feazell was hunting with his bow because he'd loaned his muzzleloader to his dad, Mike, that morning.

A couple of people have done rough Boone and Crockett scoring and have come up with figures in the 220 range. That's well above the buck that's currently Virginia's highest ranked in the Pope and Young record book.

My story about Feazell's hunt ran Friday on the Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times. I hope those of you who live in our circulation area already saw the story in the paper. (Hey, selling actual papers is still the key part of the business we're in.) If you didn't, you can read it online here.

I did get a call from a reader who wondered why he hadn't seen a story on another big buck from Smith Mountain Lake. I haven't heard of that deer. The caller didn't leave his name but I called him -- gotta love caller i.d. -- and left a message asking for more information. Has anybody heard of another bow-killed Booner from around this area this year?

Mike Brown killed this beautiful 15-pointer on the opening day of muzzleloader season in Carroll County.

Brown said he spotted the buck chasing a doe, and made a good shot at a range of 100 yards.

His friend Kendall Webb had found the deer's sheds last winter.

Those of you who read the comments on this blog may have already seen the one from Ralph Barton saying this his 8-year-old son, Chris, finally got his first deer. Well, here it is.

And here's Ralph's story about how the hunt went down:

"It was a great hunt and a special moment for us. We had been trying for the last two seasons to get him a shot and it has been tough. Chris is a little fellow, of course, and it's hard for him to shoot accurately in field conditions.  He has to have a good gun rest and that's not always easy to do when a deer shows up. Also 8-year-olds don't have a lot of patience so sitting in a stand can be hard for them.  Finally yesterday it all came together.

My good friend Kevin Heath was kind enough to let me bring Chris down to his Bedford county property and hunt from one of his blinds. We got in there about 3:30 p.m. and with the nasty weather conditions I wasn't sure if we would see anything or not.

Just before 5 p.m. looked up at the edge of a thicket and spotted a VERY NICE BUCK. He was looking nervously in our direction. He may have gotten a slight whiff of our scent.  I whispered to Chris that the buck was there but he couldn't see him!!!! I was frantic! He just couldn't pick the motionless deer out of the cover.

After a couple minutes the buck stepped back into the honeysuckle and we couldn't see him anymore.  However not more than a minute or two later two does stepped out of the thicket and started heading our way! The first one got within 50 yards and Chris had the gun steadied on a solid rest ready to shoot.  It was a very tense moment.... Chris whispered he was on the deer and I said shoot!

He fired and I knew instantly that it was a good hit! The deer bolted about 30 yards and collapsed!  Chris was so excited he jumped out of the blind and ran right over to the deer without waiting for me!!! He was very excited and very proud of his first deer and of course he wanted to pose for about a hundred photos! "

Congrats to Chris and Ralph for a great hunt.