Thursday, September 30, 2004
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: Hunter's emotions go from deep sadness to pure joy
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
Bill Cochran's Outdoors
Recent columns
- Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
- Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
- Elk advocate finally gets his day
- Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
- Column archive
Bill's Mailbag
Bill's Field Reports
- Eagles are up; black rail are down
- A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
- Field reports archive
Resources
The buck that Rodney Lang shot at looked to be a 10-pointer, the kind that would make even a discriminating hunter proud. But when the smoke from the belch of his black-power gun cleared, Lang figured he had missed. For him, it was the beginning of a season that would ranged from deep grief to pure joy, and eventually lead to first spot in the 2004 Virginia Big Game Trophy Show.
The hunt took place in a Northampton County soybean field that had been harvested a few weeks earlier. Lang, a 31-year-old contractor, lives nearby in Exmore.
This is Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a sliver of land that drapes like a bony finger, separating the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic. It is better known for its channel bass, flounder and stripers than trophy deer, but that is about to change. Word is getting around that the deer are big -- big bodied, big antlered -- fed fat on the table-flat agriculture fields that are protected by private ownership.
The county didn’t have enough deer for a season until 1972. Some say the herd migrated down the peninsula from the north, meaning that the animals are of the bigger, northern stock.
Lang was set up on a 16-foot ladder stand, watching the soybean field. It was Monday of the first full week of the black-powder season. He could see into another, larger field across the highway from him. That’s where he spotted the 10-pointer.
“He was on the run, coming across a public road to my side of the field. He almost got hit by two cars. When he was coming I grunted, I yelled, I hollered, I whistled and couldn’t get him to stop. So I led him a little bit and put a shot on him.”
The deer ran to the edge of the woods and stopped.
“He turned around, raised his tail and blew at me, then went into the woods,” Lang said.
Even though the deer showed no indication of being hit, Lang spent more than two hours looking for it. He got a flashlight and continued the search when darkness came.
“I am not a running shot person,” he said. “I was kind of upset with myself afterwards that I could have wounded him.”
When dawn came, Lang resumed the search. It was then that he discovered a scrape line and a big cedar tree that had been ripped apart by what appeared to be a huge buck. Nearby was a shed antler. It was massive, seven points on one side. It was way bigger than then the rack on the buck Lang had missed.
Before Lang could follow up on his discovery, his father-in-law, Richard Riggin Sr., was taken to the hospital critically ill. Lang and Riggin were close. They liked to talk hunting and they played video deer hunting games. Sharing their last hours together, Lang told his father-in-law about the buck he’d missed, and broke the good news that his wife, Amy, was pregnant and he would have a grandson.
Riggin died one week after Lang missed the buck.
Although Lang describes himself as a “deer hunting fool,” he forgot about hunting. The urge to go wasn’t there. Then one morning while in bed, Amy kicked him on the leg and told him to get going. He resisted, then got up. It was a dreary, foggy morning, conditions that matched his mood. He arrived at his stand late, climbed into it and sat there in a daze thinking about his father-in-law. He dozed. His heart wasn’t in it.
“The next thing I know this doe had run out into the field. She had what I think was a smaller buck behind her, but I couldn’t make him out. It was still too foggy.
“In about 15 minutes everything started to clear off. This deer was coming into my left in the sneak position, just smelling that hot doe all the way. I could tell he was a big one. When he got within 80 yards of me, I had my (muzzleloading) gun up. When I put the gun on my shoulder, he put his head up and started sniffing the air. I pulled the trigger on him.”
The deer dropped in its tracks. No question in Lang’s mind, it was the big one that had owned the shed antler he’d found.
“I had tears coming down my eyes. They were joyous tears. I looked up and said, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you, father-in-law.’ ”
 |
| This 14-point buck killed in Northampton County by Rodney Lang of Exmore was the top buck in the 2004 Virginia Big Game Contest |
The buck scored 232 5/16 under Virginia’s unique measuring system, placing it best in the show at the 65th annual Virginia Big Game Trophy Contest in Harrisonburg Sunday. The show attracted a record 360 deer, with some veteran observers saying it was the finest collection of quality bucks they’d ever seen. It also produced outstanding bear and turkey trophies.
The modern firearm’s season deer category was won by Travis Powroznik of Hopewell who entered a 13-point Prince George buck that he killed on New Year’s Day. It scored 225 7/16.
Tying that score was the contest’s top bow-killed buck, a 12-pointer taken in Amherst County by Michael Panzarino, who said he had been watching the big deer for three years, even getting video footage of it last year.
Michael Nixon of Goochland won the bear class with a 440-pound Buckingham County trophy he killed opening day of the bowhunting season. It scored 30 3/16. Last season was the first time Buckingham and many other eastern counties were open to bear hunting.
Top turkey was a Richmond County tom killed late in the spring gobbler season by Mark Rioux of Glouster. It scored 77 2/16.
