DIXIE DEER CLASSIC 2012

This is going to be a post that sounds like the speech at a NASCAR victory lane. We'd like to thank all the sponsors who made this possible. Actually, the only thanks we need to give is to God who provided all for us.

Next, we'd like to thank our Brothers in Christ from Heart of a Sportsman who provided over 5000 video's of The Record Book that were given out during the show. Each famous hunter gives his testimony while putting on a great hunt.

It was a tough race, there was a lot of traffic that we had to negotiate, but we stayed off the wall and were able to give out the video's, tracts which lead people to Christ and a nice muzzleloader to a lucky winner from Wilksboro.





Our booth was busy from start to end. Some wanted a video, some wanted to register for the gun and others to talk about who we are and what we do. What was most encouraging was that many people gladly accepted the tracts, even after reading them and knowing that it was about salvation. God surely touched their hearts to listen to his message. We just showed up as the pit crew to help with the race.


Many thanks go out to those who came and gave of their time to man the booth with a cheerful heart, especially the twin PT Barnum's (Ed Strickland and Mike Hayes) who like energizer bunny's kept going and going by constantly attracting folks from the aisles like nobody's business.




Also, there were plenty of distractions that I'll put in for the hunters to salivate over.


All in all it was a successful show and we hope that the Angels rejoiced in heaven that new souls were saved.

Here is a picture of the winner.  His name is withheld for privacy reasons, but he was a happy camper.

 

John Green's First Hunt With His Son

I took my then 7-year old son deer hunting for the first time on 10/4/10. We were in a buddy stand in a hunt club in Warren County. (Importantly, we both were wearing anti-fall harnesses and had an emergency plan.)

After two hours of seeing nothing, Daniel laid on the grunt tube near 7 p.m. (about 15 minutes before dark). A few minutes later, we heard the deer in the attached photo walking towards us. I finally saw the deer about 12-15 yards away. Daniel covered his ears, and I fired my muzzleloader. The deer went about 15 yards, dropping about 5 yards from the firebreak/dirt road.

We took the buck to Pearce's Processing for processing. We ate the meat throughout the rest of 2010 and well into 2011. I put the antlers on a plaque, and Daniel even had them scored at the 2011 Dixie Deer Classic. Daniel has the antlers and the certificate in his room.

This was Daniel's first hunt, and he was thrilled! It was a day I hope I never forget.

Novembers Trophy Buck

The mornings dawned, clear and cool on November 1^st, 2011. Thousands of tiny diamond-like droplets still cling to the colorful autumn foliage from a hard rain the night before.

I had taken the day off from work with the express purpose of trying to get a shot at a nice buck. By daylight I had my Summit climbing stand situated overlooking an old logging road in the woods near the Cape Fear River in Harnett County, North Carolina.

Noticing a scrape nearby, I freshened it up by sprinkling some doe in heat lure in it. Then I walked about 30 yards down my shooting lane and made an artificial scrape and doctored it generously with some “Tink Stink”

By 9:00 AM I still hadn’t seen one single deer! The squirrels scampering around kept me from getting totally bored.

I stood to stretch my legs and check out the woods behind my stand back toward the creek. Suddenly about 70 yards away I caught a glimpse of a big deer passing between two trees. Immediately on full alert, I scanned the thick woods for more movement! There it was again a big body moving quickly through the thick stuff up the hill by my stand. I thought I caught a brief flash of another in the morning sun then it disappeared. All was quiet, leaving me wondering if I had just imagined all that.

Disappointed and determined to make something happen I begin to make several series of loud doe bleats and buck grunts. I sat looking and listening for about ten minutes when down the shooting lane appeared a big doe or so I thought until I put my scope on it. I realize then it had antlers! As it began walking toward me down the shooting lane I realized it was a “shooter buck” with at least eight points! By now I began to get nervous and mentally told myself to calm down. The buck walked straight to my false scrape and put his nose to the dirt and stood sniffing. Already standing with the safety off on my Rouger 30-06 I watched him at thirty yards through the scope, waiting for him to turn broadside. Fearing he might lift his head, see me and bolt suddenly, I settled the cross hares on his neck where it joins his shoulders and squeezed the trigger. He dropped to the ground like a sack of hammers right on top of the false scrape, kicked a few times and expired! Needless to say, I was excited when I found he was a respectable nine point about sixteen inches wide and weighing approximately 185 lbs. Even with the help of several friends I had a tough time getting him out of the woods.

God said; “Every animal of the forest is Mine…I know every bird in the mountains and the creatures of the field are Mine.” Psalm 50:10-11

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” Psalm 34:8

By Ted McKinney

Big Bodied Buck: By Chris Crum

On December 27^th I drove toward my tree stand with hopes of getting a big bodied buck that had been visiting the area for about three weeks. The trail cam pictures showed that he should be showing back up in the evening any day now. I was heading in a little later then I would have liked, but it had been raining all day and the rain suit that I was hoping to hunt with this season was stolen from the porch after it was delivered. Part of the reason I bought it was because I recently learned how much the deer move during a rainy day. The previous day I sat on stand and only saw one doe, that didn’t come within bow range. I put on my gear and headed to the deer stand. Just before I got there I bumped the big buck. I thought, “Wow he is bigger then he looked in the pictures. My hunt is ruined, but at least I got to see him.” I decided to hunt the stand anyway. The deer would either return or I would get nothing like the previous hunt. After ascending the tree and attaching my safety harness, I put my fanny pack around a branch, but when I let go it fell all the way to ground making a loud unnatural sound as it hit the ground. “Well, if the buck isn’t completely spooked, this should do it”, I thought. If he didn’t see me climb the tree the first time, I am going to give him another chance. Before I descended to retrieve my fanny pack, I remembered some past hunts where everything seemed to go wrong, but ended on a positive note. After finally getting settled in the stand, there was a strong wind gust that just caused the tree stand to sway back and forth with the top of tree. I thought it would be best if I stayed seated. At a minimum I wanted to make it back home safe.

This hunt was starting to remind me of life. There are circumstances that happen to us, some of which are completely out of our control and some could be because of bad decisions. It is important for us to keep God at the forefront of our minds. Keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and continue striving forward. Without this, we can easily let current circumstances or things in our past drag us down, get us discouraged and cause us to loose sight of the plan that God has for us.

I didn’t know if the deer was coming back, but I knew I wouldn’t get him sitting at home. I didn’t know if the Lord would let me harvest that deer; I also didn’t realize that there were more things that wouldn’t go quite right before the hunt came to a close. As I sat in the stand I continued to brace myself when the wind picked up. Eventually it started getting darker as the sun disappeared. I decided to make the most of it and just remain as motionless as possible until quitting time. I was about to check my watch when I heard the leaves crunch. “That must be a deer”, I thought as I reached slowly for my bow. With my bow in hand I looked down to see the deer broadside at about 12 yards. Big body, several points sticking up… it must be him. I started to concentrate on the shot. The front leg was not forward, but I didn’t have much time. I drew back aimed and released in a matter of seconds. He did the “mule kick” and took off. I started shaking. After an hour I started to look for him, but I didn’t find the blood I was hoping for. I went back to eat some dinner and brought my girlfriend back with me to find the deer. She spotted him before I did, but he was lying down with his head up. I couldn’t believe it. There were at least 5 large puddles of blood, it had been over 3 hours and he is still alive. I was not sure where I hit him, but I knew it wasn’t a good shot. We backed out and I decided to come back in the morning. In the morning I found where he was bedded, but he wasn’t there. I made a big circle as my girlfriend went along the path the deer might have traveled. As I made it back around to the deer stand I saw him lying not far from the stand. He had made a big circle before succumbing to the wound. After arriving late, spooking the deer, dropping my fanny pack, gusty wind and a poor shot, the Lord still allowed me to recover the deer. Lord help us to keep our eyes fixed on You and not on the circumstances of this life that could shift us away from Your plan. Help us to live a life for Your glory. Help us to finish well, as we look forward to being with You in Your kingdom.

Ted McKinney's Nice Buck

The Lord provides to those who persevere...no this isn't a verse that I'm aware of, but it is statement for outdoorsmen. You aren't going to get one if you don't get out there. Ted, who loves the Lord does go out there and did get this nice buck. According to Ted, he

shot this 9 pt. buck at 9:30 am. near the Cape Fear River in Harnett Co. with my Ruger 30-06 . Dropped him in his tracks!

The Moral of the story is to get out there and persevere, just like your relationship with the Lord.

To all the other guys in the group or our brothers from Heart of a Sportsman or Stanleyville, send your trophy pictures and a story with it (and a verse if you want) and we'll put you on our blog also.

Todd Olsen - God Provides the Deer of a Lifetime

My cousin worked as a guide for years. One day when showing me his best deer, he told me that the one thing that every hunter wants is the whitetail of a lifetime to hang on the wall.

Tod Olsen, core member of Colonial Outdoors was hunting in Ohio on public game land a few weeks back. He told me that where he was hunting was so steep that he had to dig his heels in to keep from falling down.

At 10:00 AM, he heard a ruckus from behind him and this big boy trotted by him. Tod shot him at about 13 yards while the brute was still moving, aiming his bow at the deer's shoulder so as to hit the vitals when he let go. Fortunately, it happened so fast that Tod told me he didn't have time to get "Buck Fever" and his arrow flew straight and it was a quick and ethical harvest.

This bad boy would score in the 130 range and went north of 220 lbs. While I'm not a betting man, it would be hard to say that a bigger one will come Tod's way, at least in the near future so hitting him was the once in a lifetime shot you just don't want to miss. I would regret it every time I went into a stand if I'd missed this big guy.

Tod wrote the final epitaph that sums it all up, "God is good!".

I hope each of you gets a chance to see or get a shot at such a fine animal. Here's to good hunting and that God will bless you with such an opportunity. Just make sure you complete the job like Tod did.

Ray and Mathew Pigott - Father and Son Deer

Saturday morning 10/2/2010: Matthew and Dad climb in a box stand looking over a bean field at 5:15am. Matthew helped build the stand over the summer, his first real construction project. He learned about many tools used by carpenters. He interacted with other men who were more interested in him having success than their own. We were excited about sitting together in the deer woods. Matthew just turned 15 and has never shot a deer.

He spent time getting his hunter certification, range card at the Wake Co. range, and practicing at the range. He has proven to be an excellent marksman although a little skeptical about the black powder gun in hand. The gun makes a lot of smoke and is a little cranky grouping unless close attention is paid to loading it. We sit patiently. At 8:15, while Matthew is fighting off boredom, a deer appears crossing the bean field. I see it first and tell him to get ready. Like an old pro, he steadies the gun, takes aim and asks for the go ahead. I say go, look through the binoculars and wait for the boom. Just before the deer exits into the woods, the .50 caliber sounds off. I see the deer jump straight up confirming a hit. He thinks he missed. We give him 30 minutes and climb down. Less than 10 yards into the woods, we find his first deer. A great shot was placed behind the shoulder. We thank the Lord together for a blessed day.

We plan to hunt again in the afternoon and agree to take a stand in a double ladder for the afternoon. On the way, he asks if we can return to the box. Since it is comfortable, why not? We climb in a 4:00pm and wait patiently. Matthew can’t fight the boredom and drifts off to sleep while I keep watch. At 6:30 pm, three does come out in the edge of the woods. Could Matthew have a chance at number two? The real crazy thing here is that we both harvest a deer out of the group. It was exciting to say the least. What a great opportunity the Lord provided for father and son. We both can’t wait for the next trip. He has the fire ignited inside. We will again ask Him for the opportunity to enjoy His great creation together. With the pressure off, we will search for Matthew a buck.

Austin's Deer Story, With A Prayer

I met Austin for the first time at this week's Colonial Outdoors meeting. It is always a pleasant surprise to have some young blood in our group, not unlike the tradition of passing on the love of the outdoors to the youth.

I deal with many in their teens and 20's (the age of my kids) and to know there are good folks like this is refreshing.

Here's is the story of his deer:

As far as the buck I shot Saturday evening goes, it was kind of a spur of the moment spot to hunt. It was 4pm and I was taking my climber back into an area I had only hunted once this year. The area is semi swamp land that that has a lot of stagnant bog ponds and low areas that hold water and a lot of reeds.

On the way to this area you have to go through a thick holly patch that has a lot of oaks throughout it. The area has always provided a good travel route for bucks, but is hard to hunt from up in a tree due to the fact that usually you only will have one or two clear 10-15 yard shot and you can't see very far. Well, as I was walking through I come across two fresh scrapes that looked like they had been worked that morning. As soon as I saw them I began looking for a tree near them I could climb, but there wasn't any good ones near them except for one and it would be putting me in a position for my scent to be blowing right across the scape's. Frustrated, I decided to just sit on the ground and see what happened.

Now I said before that you couldn't shoot more than 10 or 15 yards from up in a tree in this area but on the ground it is a different story. There are several shots up to 50 or 60 yards plus you can see for 100 yards in almost 360 degrees. I knew that I would at least have a good chance of seeing some deer by deer by doing this. I found an old tree that had blown down during hurricane Fran and got positioned with the root ball on my back and the trunk to my side. I could only hope this would break me up enough so I wasn't spotted.

For the next couple of hours I did some grunts and bleats and just scanned the area with my binoculars hoping I would arouse a buck. Around 5:55pm I was scanning the woods and I heard a squirrel about 20 or 30 yards away freak out. I figured it had either seen me move ,or him and another squirrel were going at it. I didn't think much of it at the moment because squirrels fussing is a constant thing, and I had heeded their false warning countless times already that afternoon. As I began to sweep the woods back towards the noise of the squirrel I caught a glimpse of a body 30 yards in front of me down wind. I've been wanting to see just how good my scent control and scentlock are and I guess that was a good sign of them working pretty well. Needless to say I was caught of guard at the moment because the deer had just seemed to appear. Apparently the squirrel had been upset for a good reason and I should have been paying closer attention. I saw instantly that the deer had a descent rack and had to scramble to get into shooting position. Fortunately the deer was behind a lot of trees and I had enough time and cover to get ready. I raised up my muzzle loader and found a hole he was about to walk into but I wasn't able to get situated in time. He was quartering towards me by this time and was about to walk into a second hole that would barely provide a clear 21 yard shot. As soon as he stepped in I made a bleat with my mouth and he froze. At 6pm I placed my cross hairs on his front shoulder and squeezed off the shot and placed a 245 g. hollow point in his boiler room. He took off tail tucked and I knew he wouldn't be going far. He ran about 50 or 60 yards, and I don't even know how he made it that far with the amount of blood that he was loosing.

Any time I go hunting it's like a prayer meeting in the woods. Either you're praying just to see a deer, praying the deer comes close or praying that you find him after you shoot him. This buck was one of just being thankful because how short of a distance he ran. That's not always the case though. The first buck I shot this year I gut shot him and his guts closed up his wound so I had no blood. The only reason I had a clue where he was I saw his eyes shining at me when I was looking for blood and I backed out. I went home and just sat for 2 or 3 hours and I could not even eat. I prayed, prayed, and prayed a little more. A lot of times people say they got lucky shooting or finding that deer and I'm guilty of that too. Really luck had nothing to do with it, prayer and the Lord allowing you to find or take that deer is what the real truth is.

The first thing I do when I get in the stand is have a word of prayer because no matter how much time or planning I put into a hunt (or how little) I know the real truth is God can bring a deer from anywhere by me. A lot of times though I think He decides to teach me patients because I sometimes go for days without even seeing a deer. No matter what kind of hunt I have though, even if it's just looking across a field, being out in nature and just enjoying its beauty is just a blessing. I guess I could say I've never met an atheist hunter that I know of. This year of hunting has been my most blessed year. I was able to take my first deer, a doe, with my bow and I have been able to shoot three 8 pointers with my muzzle loader. This will definitely be a year that will stick in my mind.

October Calendar - Deer Season

Double click to open

Redneck Santa

Many think of us Christians as stuffy with a lack of humor. Here is a post thanks to Ted McKinney to prove that wrong.

Jeremy Herrill's Huge Buck

Jeremy Herrill of Cornerstone Baptist Church helped us start Colonial Outdoors Ministry. We are grateful for his help and guidance to get us going, and as a brother in Christ.

It's only right that we show his trophy buck he harvested in Kansas, one that any of us would be proud to have. This big boy scored 145 4/8, a number that any hunter would like to have.

Jeremy loves the Lord and pours his heart and soul into men's lives through outdoor ministry. He has become a dear friend to Colonial Outdoors and we are so glad God blessed him with this prize deer.

Plagiarized from Heart of a Sportsman directly from Jeremy (this is the link to the original blog):

Today was a good day...No, today was a great day! Today, I hunted with my soul brother Alan Davis on his farm in Kansas - and harvested a monster Kansas buck. The events surrounding this momentus kill are much to detailed to describe here (but, you will surely get tired of me telling them when I get home!).

Every whitetail hunter dreams of killing a deer big enough to get his name in the record book. Today, that dream became a reality for me. I haven't got the deer scored yet but am confident that it surpasses the 125 inches to make the Pope and Young record book. God is so good!


I was thinking today as we talked about the deer making the record book, that God has a record book too. His book is called the Book of Life. His book contains the names of every person who has accepted his gift to us, of His son Jesus. Those whose names are in that book will spend eternity in heaven. Having your name in that book is more important than any record book! It is our prayer that your name is there - in God's book ... Revelations 20:15.

Ted McKinney Gets a Nice One

In one of the earliest posts, I asked for pictures of the hunt or fishing trip. Since Ted sent these photos, up they go.

Here is a nice 6 pointer that Ted got while hunting in Carthage.

From Ted: I shot this buck with my 30-06 on Sat.Nov. 21, morning about 8:30 as he was chasing a doe out into a cut0ver near Carthage, NC. He ran only 20 yds and dropped.
He was about 185-190 lbs. His antlers are 16in. wide outside and 3 1/2 around the bases.

My true trophy was a beautiful 8pt. I shot with my bow. I tracked him for a mile and lost him in a cutover at dark ! Bummer !

Colonial Outdoors Safety Course Produces a Harvest

How do you know if your programs are successful? What lessons are we learning or teaching?

At any Hunter Safety course, they confirm that passing on the tradition of hunting and the love of outdoors to the next generation is of vital importance.

One of the goals of Colonial Outdoors is to reach seekers who have interest in the outdoors. Here is an example of killing 2 birds (deer) with one stone.

We've begun hosting and soon will be teaching Hunter Saftey at Colonial Baptist as part of the Outdoors Ministry.

One of our first graduates shows off the fruits of her labor and was rewarded with a good hunt.

Lauren Sutphin attends Colonial and Wake Christian. As far as we know, this is the first deer taken by one of our female hunter education class graduates. She was in our class last week and had her first deer by Wednesday.

By any scale, this was a success for the ministry and for the hunting tradition.

Way to go Lauren and I hope the lessons you learned about safety and about the Lord are etched in your heart forever.

Tuesday's Topic: Quality Deer Management

Make sure to come to our meeting on the 25th where we have a guest speaker to discuss Quality Deer Management.

Also if you know any young hunters that would like to learn some cool things about deer like how to age a deer from the jaw bone, be sure to bring them or invite them.

If you have some land or hunt lease property and want to maximize you efforts, these are the folks that can help, so come out and support them and their taking the time to come and share with us.

We Meet at 6:30 in the Family center, second floor, room 218/219

UPATE FROM QDMA!!!!

I am pleased to announce the opening of our pre-registration website for next year's Youth Day at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds - March 5, 2010.

http://www.capefear-qdma.org/ncqdma.html

Workshop schedules will be developed based on the interest of those who pre-register before November 15th. Remaining seats will be filled after that on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The NC State Chapter of QDMA is once again playing an integral role in its design, launch, and delivery. Please extend our reach by spreading the word!

Under the umbrella of the Wake County Wildlife Club, youth day organizers including volunteers from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC State University, NC National Wild Turkey Federation, NC State Chapter of the Quality Deer Management Association, and other community-minded organizations have been working hard to identify and define workshops which would be of the most interest to students and best match current standard course of study academic objectives. We think you'll like what we've come up with!

Public or private school groups, home schools, 4-H, Shooting clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Youth Groups at Church, Grandparents & grand kids will all enjoy the day.

Come for an hour or stay for the day!

• Each 1-hour workshop will be hands on / interactive
• Topics range from wildlife conservation to outdoor skills and wildlife careers - build a turkey call, assemble a personal first aid kit, learn more about that wily white-tail, or bring home a portable composting kit
  
• A special appearance by 13-yr old pro-staffer Zac Cooper will be enjoyed by all
• All workshops will be free; parking is fee; goodie bags for the kids are free!
• Kids can then walk over to the Dixie Deer Classic (open from 11am - 9pm that day). Youth 12 and under will be admitted for free; Youth 13-18 will be admitted for half-price that day. Remind kids to have their hands stamped on their way out for a free return on both Saturday and Sunday.
  

Questions? Check out this web link, then send us an e-mail via the pre-registration forms.
http://www.capefear-qdma.org/ncqdma.html; or feel free to give me a call.

Thanks for supporting area youth - the future of Wildlife Conservation and our Hunting Heritage!

Colonial Outdoors at the Dixie Deer Classic

This weekend was the Dixie Deer Classic. Some of our brothers including Ed Strickland and Todd Oleson helped out at the S.O.M.E. ministry Booth hosted by Mike Hayes. They got to see some awesome deer and speak to others on behalf of Mike's Ministry.