Chuck Sharp sent me this shot of his good buddy, Matt Dewhirst, with a great 10-pointer he killed with a crossbow.

Matt is Chuck’s captain in the Roanoke Fire Department and it’s my understanding that Chuck turned Matt on to the SWAT style of hunting smallish suburban plots with a crossbow. I suspect Matt is hooked!

Chuck Sharp is part of a small group of us who call ourselves the Suburban Whitetail Assault Team, or SWAT for short. Last year in December we started hunting some small tracts around Roanoke with our crossbows mainly to help out landowners who were frustrated by deer damage.

Because we didn’t start until December we ended up seeing very few bucks, which was fine as we were more focused on does anyway. Still, we were looking forward to getting back to some of those areas during the rut, which is what Chuck did when he knocked down this toad last week. Obviously this thing has great mass. It’s 22 inches wide and has 10-inch G2s.

We usually hunt these spots with crossbows even during gun seasons because we want to keep a low profile, and shooting a high-powered rifle or muzzleloader doesn’t exactly help that goal.

Now, don’t go thinking that small tract hunting is easy. Chuck shot this deer at 2 p.m. and it was only the second deer he saw that day. We hunted one our spots yesterday morning and saw three distant does and a three-pointer. I was back at another suburban spot yesterday afternoon with fellow SWAT member Alfie Hammerstrom and we saw nothing.

Richard Martin killed this great buck on Nov. 3 with a bow while hunting at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, aka the Arsenal.

Martin got on the stand at 6 a.m. He saw a shooter 8-pointer at 10:30 a.m. but let it walk. This buck, only the second deer he saw all day, showed up at 2:30 p.m.

Martin was using a Martin (of course!) firecat bow, Carbon Express arrow and Thunderhead broadhead.

My friend Pat Paterson hunted most of last week, and reported seeing a big uptick in buck activity about midweek, with more bucks grunting and trailing.

He passed on eight small bucks during the week,  then this heavy-antlered buck walked by on Friday afternoon.

Pat is one of those CrossFit junkies so I bet he actually like hauling this big boy out of the woods!

As I reported earlier this season, I decided to hunt with my recurve bow this year. I didn’t hunt much, and when I did I had no deer come close enough for a shot — even if I had been using my compound.

I could have taken the muzzleloader Saturday morning but was hunting a stand that is well-suited for bowhunting. The best trails are within 25 yards.

Well, this deer walked down one of the trails. As I wrote in my column in Sunday’s Roanoke Times, I actually thought I missed this deer, which was 25 yards away when I shot. I sometimes shoot to the right with my recurve. This deer was facing to the left and I didn’t want to shoot back, so I compensated slightly. I ended up shooting high and to the left. Again, I thought I missed until I retrieved my arrow and found it covered from broadhead to feathers in blood. Good blood.

The blood trail was so massive I didn’t have to rely on my well-documented Cherokee tracking skills to find the deer, which went only about 60 yards. (Unfortunately that was 60 HORIZONTAL yards. It was also 50 VERTICAL yards, down. I actually opted to haul the deer a quarter mile down the mountain because it was an easier option than hauling it back up the hill!)

Anyway, I hit the deer in the jugular. As I wrote in the column, I’d rather be good than lucky, but I’ll take lucky.

So, gear details. I was shooting a Samick Deer Master takedown recurve, which pulls 50 pounds at my draw length. I bought the bow used, for something like $130. My arrow was a Gold Tip carbon and the broadhead was a Magnus Stinger.

No hunting for me today but hope to get back out there soon. Buck movement really seems to be taking off. I will be hunting most of next week (but will have my laptop with me so I can post hero shots) and will be using a muzzleloader. I think I may stick with the recurve this week.

So, it’s no secret who sent in this top shot. Ralph Barton included this funny line; ” The local trophy judging gurus would probably say “This one needs to live another year.’  Guess what….. if he wants to live he better not come by my tree stand! Because I will ruin his day with a razor-tipped arrow if I get the chance!”

Granted, he sent this in before he filled tag number one, so maybe he’d be a little pickier now! Would you, Ralph?

The second shot is from a friend who likes to keep a low profile, so I won’t name him. This is the last trailcam shot of a stout Botetourt County nine-pointer. How do I know it’s the last shot? Because my buddy put an arrow through this deer a moment later. Anyway, you can clearly see that this buck was on a mission.

I have to wrap up some work stuff this afternoon but hope to get in the woods for a couple hours this evening. I hope to have a Treestand Dispatch later today! Maybe I’ll get lucky and it will be a hero shot!

OK. I wrote yesterday that no one would be crazy enough to hunt in the weather we had in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Ralph Barton replied that he had been hunting.

Of course he had been hunting.

Here’s his story:

“Yes, as mentioned in my earlier blog comment I have been hunting the last two days during this horrendous weather.  I had scheduled these days off from work months ago for hunting so I was going no matter what, (OK maybe I am a little bit crazy!).  But there is reason behind the craziness….. Historically I can usually see, (and sometimes tag), a decent archery buck during Halloween week so I always make sure I have a couple days free to hunt.  That week the bucks always seem to move a lot…. I guess in anticipation of the soon to come breeding season.

I will admit these have been two absolutely miserable days to be in a tree stand but sometimes you just have to take what you get and adjust as needed.  In this case my adjustment was that I moved a stand into a deep hollow where there was some wind protection.  It also turned out to be a pretty lucky move since a bunch of new rubs and scrapes had shown up in the area!  As I sat there I just kept looking at those rubs making them my focal point to help  maintain a level of confidence.

Monday I hunted all day, and late in the evening I saw a buck but he was very jittery and nervous and never offered a shot.  But just seeing a deer in that wind gave me renewed confidence in the stand location.

Tuesday morning I was back….. and questioning my sanity….. I was being pelted with sideways rain and sleet and the wind was ferocious.  Read more »

Roanoke Times photographer just posted this shot, which he took this morning on Yellow Mountain Road in Roanoke’s Garden City neighborhood, on his Facebook page.

We all know how big hunting — and deer hunting in particular — is in Southwest Virginia. And I constantly remind people that our region’s hunters come from all walks of life. We’re not just country folk driving around in big 4×4 trucks.

This appears to be a perfect example. Here we have a great eight-point buck — in the trunk of a VW Cabriolet convertible. There’s even that great “Guitars Not Bombs” sticker.

It doesn’t get much better than this folks.

Now, I suppose this could have been a road kill. But a VW Cabriolet? Not exactly the demographic of someone who would be picking up roadkill. Then again…

Anyway, I must know more about this. And you, readers of the Wild Life blog, are the key.

If you don’t know who this is, someone you know does. Share this picture. Post on your Facebook page. Email to friends. I am counting on you. I want to know who is driving this car by the end of the day.

That is all. Let your mission begin.

Jim Basham is always good for a shot or two each year. Here’s one I sent the other day.

I’ve never met Jim in person but I really like this guy. I mean, you can tell by his smile here that he just gets it. That same feel is evident in all his “hero” shots, including this Wild Life classic with Jim and son Jayden.

Jim connected with this big doe on the morning of Oct. 26. He said it has been a slow archery season for him, but he finally saw a few deer that morning and this one offered a 25-yard shot that Jim made good on. Hit in the heart with a Rage broadhead-tipped arrow, the doe piled up in sight.

As I wrote about in my column in today’s Roanoke Times, we are on the cusp of the rut. Some of us area already seeing signs. It should get better and better the next couple of weeks.

Today is a day off for most of us. By that I mean a day off from hunting. If you are out in this stuff you are crazy! Here’s hoping everyone came through the worst of Sandy relatively unscathed.

If you’ve been hunting, please take a moment to offer a quick report on what you’re seeing either below, or below the “Rut Report” sticky post.

Ben Kimbrell sent in this shot of his buddy, Jason Stiltner, with the huge bear Stiltner killed on the morning of Oct. 19, on private land in Tazewell county.

Kimbrell reported that the bear weighed 390 pounds.

“I know very few details of the hunt other than it was short and sweet (except for the drag),” Kimbrell wrote.

I know I would have liked to have to drag that beast out of the woods! Wow!