Golfers: What are your favorite holes in the area? See if our Timesland Dream 18 is up to par and nominate your favorite.
In the post of Tommy Huffman’s picture of the Roanoke County giant, I mentioned I was familiar with the buck. Well, I was able to get my hands on the picture I had seen. Here it is.
As my brother and I like to say, “Yeah, that’s a good ‘un.”
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While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures.
Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism.
After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters.
your killing me with these pics…now I will never be able to get him outta my head..Oct wont come quick enough ….
That is a magnificent animal!
If you look closely you can see the rack isn’t exactly the same. This picture was taken in the summer of 2011. I can’t decide if the rack is better in this picture or the one from this past summer. What do you all think?
Iv’e got pics of this big boy on my phone that don’t do it justice. I know how you feel DB,Iv’e been seeing him for over two seasons now,I too have lost sleep over him!!
i liked what I saw out of velvet better…all i know it was unreal seeing it at the end of nov and early december…when he was standing in the wooded area I didnt believe what i was seeing at first had to look through scope and said ohh my lord at about 90 yards then when I saw him less than 10 yards away it was truly a sight to see…anyone know how long he has been limping for? his injury didnt seeem to bother his mating habits nor his eating habits(he had a decent belly on him and his neck was swollen pretty good) he is truly an awesome deer…i have lived over in that area for many years there are some good Genes running around there that have produced a bunch of good deer over the years…
Mark,
I always read your blog but have never posted before. However, I can add a little info to this one. I too saw this buck cross in front of me on Merriman in late November. Did not notice a limp as he was moving pretty quickly. Secondly, I am 99% sure I saw him again on Penn Forest Blvd. Saturday Dec 15. Now, having grown up in the SW County area, I know for a fact there are some big urban bucks in the Merriman/Penn Forest Blvd./North Cross area. My grandparents and great-grandparents lived on Merriman all their lives until they passed. I remember back as far as the late 90′s seeing 1 or 2 very large bucks in that area every year. I actually bow hunted many mornings hoping to see one but never did.
Another point to add. Mark, Look back at your post on 2/19/2009 titled, “Sheds tell the tale: The monters made it” I firmly believe the deer in the pictures you posted back in 2009 were probably the father of the buck on this post. The place where those boys found the sheds (I narrowed the area down based on the HV wrestling sweatshirt and searching their last name) is not very far from Merriman.
If I had taken the picture myself,that would have been enough for me. Beautiful deer!
That’s a monster rack for such a young deer. He will be a stud next season.
That animal would look magnificent on my wall!
Ray Lewis must be drooling over this picture!!
HokieDawg — Interesting comment, and thanks for your first post! We are on the same wavelength! I went back and checked out that “Sheds tell the tale…” post a couple days ago, wondering if it might be the same buck. I was hoping to find my first post of the bucks in velvet, which I did but the picture is no longer connected. (Guessing it got ditched when he were doing a blog upgrade.) Anyway, that giant non-typical was obviously not the same deer. It was relatively narrow, like this one, but had a bunch of drop tines rather than stickers. But, yes, the area was fairly close to here (within a couple miles). The bottom line is this confirms the adage that the most important factor for growing truly large bucks is age. While there is some hunting in the county, obviously, hunting these suburban areas is difficult. And, we have to put up with some things that we typically try to get away from, like traffic, noise, etc. Still, it’s worth it.
Kevin in #10 — Now THAT is funny!