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Danny Crockett sent in this shot of his 8-year-old son Brody with Brody's first deer -- a great eight pointer.

The Crocketts, who live near Fort Chiswell, were hunting on private land in Wythe County on Oct. 18 when Brody got his chance. It sounds like it was an exciting hunt.

They were using a decoy while hunting in a gound blind made of sticks and limbs. According to Danny Crockett, this buck appeared at 80 yard and after Danny made a few grunt calls the buck came right in to the decoy. Brody hammered him perfectly with his Parker Buck Buster crossbow.

Fifteen-year-old Justin Ferguson shot this beautiful eight-pointer on national forest land in Pulaski County on Nov. 29, final day of the general firearms season. He was using a Marlin 30-30.

Justin was hunting with his brother, Jordan, and their cousin, Jeff Garwood, who sent in this shot. Garwood said he and Jordan were together on one ridge when they saw a doe about 8:50 a.m. Jordan couldn't get a shot but the deer was headed toward Justin. A few minutes later they heard Justin shoot.

Soon they got a text message from Justin saying he'd killed a buck. "We walked over to him and couldn't believe the size of the buck he had taken. It was 16 1/2-inch inside and had 21-inch main beams," according to Garwood. 

Travis McCrosky killed this 10-pointer on Nov. 25 in Monroe County, W. Va.

When he sent in the shots of this buck, his eight-pointer and his archery bear, he said he figured at least three good things came out of his being laid off from work before the hunting season. I guess that's looking on the bright side.

Travis McCrosky killed this eight-point buck in Monroe County, W. Va., on Nov. 24, opening day of the state's general firearms deer season. Apparently one of his boys was not to happy that the other kid got to be the star of the picture.

Travis McCrosky shot this 140-pound bear with his bow on Oct. 20 in Monroe County, W. Va.

Damon  Perdue of Glade Hill has a reason to smile. This great buck had 12 points and rough scored about 197 using the Virginia scoring system according to Perdue's fiance', Tammy Horn, who submitted the picture.

Perdue killed the buckwith a muzzleloader on Nov. 13 near Union Hall.  

Stacy Robeson of Fincastle used a cool lever-action Remington .35 to drop this nice eight-pointer while hunting in Botetourt County.

This has been the best year ever for getting pictures of female hunters. I know some of these hunters are veterans, but I can't help wondering if the new apprentice hunting license is making it easier for more women to give hunting a try. Whatever it is, I think it's great.

Mark Jenkins has been passing up bucks all season hoping for a big one, and his patience was rewarded on November 29.

This guy is a mainframe 10 with three big stickers. Jenkins shot the trophy near Rustburg.

Sam Sword, 13, shot this great buck on Nov. 13 while hunting on his family's land in Montgomery County. This is Sam's first year hunting.

According to Sam's proud mother, Bertha Sword, Sam was hunting with family friend David Crowder. She said Crowder has been a great friend to Sam since Sam's dad died three years ago.

During the warm spell in early November, Lacy Burnette took a break from deer hunting to connect with his buddy Gordon Culler of Stokesdale, N.C., and do some striper fishing at Smith Mountain Lake.

Good call. Burnette connected with this 23-pounder on his second cast with a homemade jig. The fish was just over 40 inches long.