By John Caknipe
Photo: Then 15-year-old Jimmy Ray Eppley of Red House, Va., went one for three on opening day of the Commonwealth's '05 blackpowder season. For a while there, he thought he might have nothing to show for smoking up the woodlot.
Jimmy Ray Eppley, at the young age of 15, feels like he is a seasoned hunter. Having hunted since age 7 and harvesting sufficient venison to feed the family at least twice per month for the last six seasons, he is a proud young man.
His first deer in 1999 was a 5-pointer, followed in 2002 by a 7-pointer (with a 17 1/2-inch inside spread). In 2004, he shot an 8-pointer. And he’s taken several does in between. None of these, however, will be as fondly remembered as the ’05 season’s bounty.
“I thought it was a big 10-pointer, but I couldn’t see it clearly,” Jimmy admitted. “I had a hole the size of a quarter and only a neck shot. I squeezed the trigger, and, even in the smoke, I could see the tail twitching. I knew I got it!”
Jimmy left his rifle and ran to the deer lying in the small creek.
“After that, I just ran back to the truck to get my Grandpa, but I couldn’t find him. So I got a knife and ran back to the deer, but it was GONE!” he added.
It had been a long and frustrating day for Jimmy. It was Nov. 5, opening day of Virginia’s muzzleloading season, and he’d arrived at his uncle’s 28-acre farm at 6 a.m. and was in the treestand by 6:15, a good half-hour before dawn.
“After 30 or so minutes, two does ran right past me,” he said. “I made a bleat with my lips, and they stopped. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. When the smoke cleared, they were gone. I’d just clean missed. I walked back to the truck, sat down and listened to the radio.
“Eventually, I heard a dog barking. I got out and saw a big bobcat. Huge! It was about 75 yards away. I had already reloaded my muzzleloader, so I raised it, got the cat in my crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. I hit it in the shoulder. But when I went to get it, the thing jumped up and hobbled off into the thicket,” he continued.
Jimmy went back to the truck, reloaded his muzzleloader and returned to track the big cat. He followed the trail for almost 15 minutes, to the backside of his uncle’s farm, before giving up on finding the animal.
“I was real close to a spot where deer cross all the time when being chased by dogs, so I sat down next to a tree,” he said. “We call it the Double Poplar.”
The kid was there for only a few minutes when a big doe ran right in front of him and stopped about 75 yards away. He’d just acquired the deer in his crosshairs when he heard something else rustling the leaves on the hillside behind her.
“I saw a deer, a rack — not all that big — but it was a buck, moving toward the doe. It came down the hill and jumped into the branch. It was walking down the branch, and then it stopped.”
This is the buck — the alleged so-so 10-pointer — that Jimmy shot, the one that disappeared.
“There was no blood trail, but it looked to me like the buck had gone back uphill,” Jimmy said. “I ran up and over the knoll to see what was on the other side, and there it was. I started yelling and jumping up and down. Grandpa said that when he got there, I was dancing all around the buck.
“I was shaking too badly to field-dress the deer,” Jimmy added. “So Grandpa took care of that. He then went to the truck and drove it back there so we could load the deer on the dog box.”
The kid’s buck was indeed a mainframe 5x5, but the rack sports five irregular points as well. Not only is the 15-pointer a state record for Virginia, but it’s also No. 10 in the world (among Semi-irregulars felled by muzzleloaders).
Reason enough to grab a partner and do-si-do.
BTR SCORE: 175 3/8
A new state record among semi-irregulars
–John Caknipe