Five deer qualify for Boone & Crockett’s all-time record book, including two by bow.
The Dixie Deer Classic once again lured to Raleigh thousands of sportsmen, sportswomen and youngsters, but more important, it lured in hundreds of great bucks to the big-buck contest, including five that qualified for the Boone & Crockett Club’s all-time record book.
The March 2-4 event was the highlight of the season for hunters, and the highlight of the 3-day event, which drew 23,000 people to the N.C. State Fairgrounds, was the big-buck contest.
Click here to see a photo gallery showing many of the bucks that were entered into the scoring session.
North Carolina hunters, as anticipated, posted a strong showing. Two bucks from the Tarheel State qualified for the B&C record book, and a North Carolina hunter took a record-book non-typical from Ohio. Also, a Virginia hunter won Best in Show honors with a Boone & Crockett bow kill from just across the state line and another Virginia hunter presented a muzzleloader buck that made the book.
What made this year’s show so special was the number of quality entries. Dozens of deer barely were edged out — some by the length of a part of a pinky finger — in the many divisions of the big-deer contest. For the second-straight year, North Carolina produced a truckload of magnificent 8-point bucks, many scoring in the 150 range and a couple sliding up the scale into the 160s.
The show’s most impressive buck was downed by Chad Coley of South Hill, Va. Coley’s buck had a nearly-perfect 5×5 rack and qualified for the B&C all-time list with a net score of 173 4/8 inches. It was his second B&C qualifier.
Todd Lowe of Mocksville, who moved to North Carolina from Ohio seven years ago, returned to the Buckeye last September and killed a huge buck on Sept. 27.
“I always hunted other places because they had harvested corn,” he said. “This time, the corn was on the ground at this other place I like, so I hunted there.”
At that special spot, Lowe slammed an arrow into a main-frame 8-pointer that sported 20 non-typical points, the abnormals totaling an amazing 102 1/8 inches. The stunning rack topped out at 224 4/8 inches of antler and easily qualified for Boone-and-Crockett status. According to Lowe, the buck will rank as the No. 3 bow kill ever in Ohio.
Dustin Reamey of Chase City, Va., made the Boone & Crockett Club’s all-time record book with a non-typical he killed with a muzzleloader that scored 212 7/8.
The two North Carolina trophies were both great typicals. Ronald Collins of Belews Creek and Jeff Hamilton of Pilot Mountain dropped their trophies last fall, with Collins popping a 170 5/8-inch Rockingham County buck with a rifle and Hamilton using a muzzleloader to down a 170-inch Surry County beauty.
Doug Malinowski of Burlington captured the non-typical archery award for his Orange County buck that scored 165 7/8 points. The buck scores as North Carolina’s second largest in both typical and non-typical categories.
Steve Shaw’s Alamance County 18-pointer, which sported six drop tines, captured the muzzleloader non-typical category at 180 3/8 inches.
In the youth category, Austin Shelton’s 149 6/8 Caswell buck topped the muzzleloader category, while Daniel Miller downed the top bow buck, 125 3/8 inches, from Rockingham County. Hunter Webb’s great 144 3/8 Scotland County buck led the gun division.
Robert Powell topped the adult non-typical gun division with his 177 5/8-inch Wake County monster. Kenneth Nance’s 143 1/8 buck from Stokes County led the crossbow non-typical class while Louisburg’s William Smyers led the crossbow typical with his 146 4/8 whitetail.
David Gardner found a skull that sported 148 4/8 inches of antlers in Lee County during December 2011 that led the Non-Hunting category, while Joseph Baldwin led the Physically Challenged hunters with a Durham County 123-inch buck.
Teena Koury of Burlington won the Female Muzzleloader class with a 129-inch Person County buck. Haley Price of China Grove topped the female archery division with a 120 1/8-inch in-velvet Forsyth County buck that’s the biggest deer ever taken in velvet by a female North Carolina bowhunter.
Meanwhile, Donna Clifton of Linden popped a Harnett County 149 2/8 trophy to take the Female Gun category.
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