Karen Caywood with her first whitetail buck. We had seen this buck for years and she would settle for no other one. She passed up other legal bucks and waited patiently for "her" buck. On the last weekend of the season, he finally showed up with a gaggle of does and lingered just few moments too long. She placed a shot absolutely perfectly at 55 yards, and he went only a few yards. There was much celebrating and tipping of wine glasses that night. The extremely cold weather, with highs reaching only 22-30 degrees allowed us to hang and age the deer for about five days before we dressed it for the freezer. We have already smoked the loins and several of the huge rump roasts for Christmas presents. Of course, some of that delicious smoked meat made it down my gullet... The reason Karen is wearing the mitts is because it's about 15 degrees out there. She shivers like a Chihauhau when it drops below 85 degrees! I'm trying to put some winter fat on her.
We estimated the live weight of "Scrappy" at about 180-190 lbs. He's at least 4 1/2 years old and has split brow time, all in all a very unique buck! The Southern Mountain Rifle was designed just for big boys like this with our .45 caliber barrel. And, you can slip out the .45 when it's time to go to the squirrel/rabbit woods and place a smaller non-meat destroying small caliber barrel in. We can fit it up in .32, .36 or .40 caliber barrel to suit any and all of your needs. And just so all of you old fat guys ( like Mike and I) know, this gun only weighs about 5 pounds! REALLY.
Scrappy had four broken tines, including both his main beams. Look at the size of his neck! We think he had been fighting with another monster buck that got car-killed (they had to tow off the new Dodge truck!) on our driveway the night before the season opened. That big 8 point buck weighed OVER 200 pounds and now resides in Mike's freezer. Mike said he was the biggest dead deer he's seen in this part of the country. We have extensive food plots and feeders going to keep our herd healthy and happy! Big fawns and healthy does produce big bucks like these year in and year out.
Here's the great room in Caywood's Camp-Run-A-Muk where Karen has already picked out a spot for Scrappy on the 12 foot high cypress wall. We hope you like our nice array of lawn furniture! We are not going to move in the "real" furniture until we get 'er all done! Note Mountain Rifle leaning against fireplace JUST IN CASE a big one happens to run through the yard begging to be shot...
Yes, I've done all the work, from plumbing to electric to fireplace building and rock work... and everything else. Karen has sanded, caulked and polyurethaned every log and board in the place for no maintenance. Phew, we're getting tired. The great room ceiling height is about 21 feet. It took some BIG logs to build this house!