My wife and I were married during the summer of 1988. She had just graduated WVU with a degree in Industrial Engineering and accepted a job in Franklin Virginia with a company by the name of Union Camp Corporation. We relocated down there in early August. I was agreeable but very reluctant to go since I so loved my home state of W.Va. Franklin was like a different world to me environmentally as well as socially. The temperature would stay in the 90-100’s for days on end with almost 100% humidity on a daily basis. I’m firmly convinced the appropriate state bird should have been the mosquito or the black fly. Unknown to me my house was located on the boundary of The Great Dismal Swamp, that explained the mosquitos and flys. The only agreement I had with my wife was that I wanted to be somewhere I could hunt and fish. We rented a farm that had three separate tracts of land totaling about 3000 acres. The ground was leased to some farmers to raise crops. However, as part of the contract to rent the house the owners granted me hunting privilege to all the parcels. My first impression was that the hunting was going to be poor. The farm consisted of roughly 2500 acres of crops and 500 acres of timber. The crops consisted of corn, wheat, soybeans and peanuts. All the deer I saw looked to weigh about 100-110 pounds soaking wet. I saw a few buck but they all appeared to be yearlings. I purchased some topo maps and researched the area immediately around the house. I spoke to a guy at the local bait and tackle shop and he informed me that my farm was situated adjacent to The Great Dismal Swamp. I thought that I possibly might have got lucky and moved right in next to a sanctuary, I was correct. There was a road that traversed through this area that had a couple spots that had some small tracts of farmland on it. One evening while I was cruising this back road I spotted a group of six bachelor bucks all of which would easily make P&Y. One or two would probably score 150 P&Y. I was a bit less homesick after those sightings. Beside that, I found the bass fishing to be incredible. That first year I caught literally dozens on bass over 5 pounds and a couple over 10 pounds and one 12 and 1/2 pounds. Things were looking up. I spent my time either hunting or fishing or going to school ( probably in that order of importance ). My wife's job required her to be out of town for sometimes weeks at a time. So I had plenty of time to learn the ways of the South. I spent the summer evenings fishing the swamp for chain pickeral, bowfin and yellow perch. I would drive down a long sendaro off the main road toward the swamp. I usually would see deer off in the distance as I entered the sendaro. The sendaro was about 6/10th of a mile long so I was unable to identify some of the deer. Archery season was going to come in a couple of days so I decided to take my binoculars. I had just started down the sendaro when I spotted a buck off in the distance. I glassed him real quick and thought I was halucinating. The deer was a buck but the antlers appeared to be as big as an elk. The rack was as high as the deer was tall. He disappeared before I could positively identify any characteristics. I cruised down the sendaro and approached the area where I had seen the buck. He was no where to be seen but I noticed a lot of tracks surrounding a hole beside the road. Upon closer inspection this hole appeared to be some type of mineral lick. The tracks around the hole were all small so I assumed the buck I saw was not at the mineral lick. I continued on down the road and fished the swamp. I spotted a family of seven river otters and enjoyed the show that they put on. I also spotted a large water mocassin cruising down the far shore line. I thought I'd be ornry and throw a stick at it. That was a mistake. Water mocassin are extremely agressive. This one swam straight across the swamp and right up to the shore in front of me. Me being young and plenty stupid thought I'd teach this snake a thing or two. I backed off and found a 8 foot long stout dried up stick about 2.5 inches in diameter. I theorized that I'd blast the snake in the water and kill it. I would then check out his fangs since I'd never seen one up close. I raised the club high over my head and struck the snake with suck force that it drove him under the water. I immediately recognized the error of my ways. Water mocassins don't die easily and this particular one must have been h*** bent for revenge. No longer had I pulled the stick out of the water the snake appeared as if he was shot out of a cannon coming straight at me. No instructions were necessary, a immediate retreat was in oder. My truck was parked about 40 yards from where I struck the snake. There was a small water covered area between me and the truck. I can assure you that jesus is not the only person that has walked on the water. I had enough fishing for the day, so after Mr Mocassin approved my dismissal, I got in the truck and headed home. As I approached the mineral lick I spotted a nice 110" eight pointer standing off the road. I looked behind him and noticed several other bucks were following him. They all spooked back into the swamp but I wondered what the attraction was to that area. I got out and scouted around the mineral lick and determined that it was used heavily but there was some oak trees dropping acorns into the swamp. I noticed several well used trails leading to the oaks. I thought that this would be an excellent place for a stand to intercept these buck as they approached to feed on the acorns. I hung a stand up in a loblolly pine about 30 yards down wind of the trails. Several days passed until season came in and I was able to hunt the site. The first day I hunted the stand it was probably 90 degrees with no wind at all. This concerned me since I couldn't tell where my scent was blowing. About two hours and 500 mosquito bites later I spotted a group of bucks heading my way. I thought I could count 16 different bucks and two of them about made me fall out of the tree. One was a huge typical and the other was a huge non typical. The non typical was taking up the rear in the line. I really wanted to try and hold out for him but I would have to let all the other bucks walk past my stand before he would arrive. The bucks quickly approached and were filtering by my stand nicely when I felt a breeze hit the back of my neck and blow directly toward the bucks. They simply stopped and several bolted into the swamp while other ran the way they had come. The giant non typical was still about 70 yards away but he was on full alert. I glanced around my tree stand and noticed that the second largest deer was standing 40 yards away alert but unaware of the wherabouts of the danger. I theorized that if I was going to shoot it had better be now since several of the bucks had their tails at half mast. I was shooting a PSE that would shoot 2219 shafts an amazing 254 FPS. I was confident I could make a clean kill. The deer jumped and kicked at the shot and ran about 30 yards and disappeared behind some pines. The remaining deer bolted. I climbed down and approached the area I last saw the deer. I was following a very significant blood trail when I looked up and noticed this rack sticking up out of the brush. The deer was a main framed 9 pointer shot perfectly through the heart. His rack appeared to be huge. When I finally reached the deer I realized that this was probably one of the smallest bodied deer I have ever taken. However, the rack was so big that the deer head was barely touching the ground. I later weighed the buck and he only tipped the scale at 106 pounds with the guts in him. Now get this, the rack was 22+ inches wide with 5-6" mass, 23 inch main beams and 13 inch tines. He grossed 162 P&Y and would net 152 as an 8 pointer. Try to imagine a 100 pound buck with a 160 inch rack. I'm sure he is the buck I first saw in the story that looked like an elk. His front hooves were less than 1 1/2' long. So there goes the theory of all big bucks make big tracks. You might ask about what happened to the non typical??; he ended up dead 40 miles away and if memory serves me correctly scored 238". I still often wonder what a group of bachelor bucks were still doing together on Nov 1st? The only thing I can think is that Nov 1st in that Virginia coastal plains region the deer must still be in the prerut stage. I miss those days in Virginia but I'm glad to be back in my home state. Five years in a swamp is enough for me. If your ever in the market for pigs, peanuts or paper or an occasional monster buck or bass don't be afraid to travel to Southern Virginia. Things do grow big there in the swamp.
I tried to post a picture of it but I must not have that priveledge yet. I did post it in my album with some other deer but unfortunately it is awaiting moderator approval; They'll get to it soon enough.
That was a great story, I enjoyed reading it! Southeaster Va sports some impressive sized bucks that's for sure, which it looks like you found out the right way! There's a lot of farm country down there, I just wouldn't want to put up with that heat! I had to laugh when I read about the water mocassin though. I did the same thing with a black rattle snake a couple years ago in the middle of a hay field. The end result was the same as yours, me heading towards the truck!
Thanks for sharing, I definetly liked the story. Congrats on a great buck and getting away from the Water Mocassin.
