Today is October 7, 2016 and taking time to sit back and relax due to the rainy weather forecast for the next couple days brought about by Hurricane Matthew which is currently off the eastern coast of Florida and no doubt will affect our North Carolina coastline as well.  We got a good downpour early this morning with light rain and drizzle at the moment with about three inches of rain forecast over the next couple of days, therefore staying inside to relax and chill out.

This website was originally titled Porter Family Pixs and was operational sometime in 2000 and our son had it attached to his website www.mountainbikebill.com.   We later transferred it to a server registered as https://portercalls.com.  Before creating www.portercalls.com, I would send the pixs to Bill, Jr. to do all my uploading, etc. but with his military career and family obligations, that was taxing to say the least.  Web publishing was a learning process for me of which I have enjoyed keeping it up and running and only crashed it one time; my bad for deleting a test website which wiped out my entire active website.  Luckily, I had a fairly recent back-up copy and Bill, Jr., my tech support when needed, had to create the directory files on the remote server for me.  It took many hours to upload all the files from my auxiliary hard drive to the remote server since my website was well approaching 1 gigabyte in size. 

With a good bit of downtime from my hunting and other outside activities, today is a good day to upload some of those hunting pixs that didn't make it into a hunting story for whatever reason, so here goes and I will give a narrative if the memory is still good.....grin if you must!

DEER HARVEST AFTER RECENT KIDNEY STONE  2000

During our annual big game hunting season in 2000, I took two weeks vacation off from my job with the N.C. Department of Correction and planned to do some serious deer hunting at our club hunt land at the Anson County Airport owned by Pines Davis. 

I remember hunting on a platform stand during muzzle loading week 2000 and got off stand sometime around 0900 hours and planned to go back hunting that same afternoon.  I needed something from the H. W. Little Hardware Co. Inc., and it was around mid-morning and had traveled maybe a mile when a sharp excruciating and piercing pain hit me on the left side around my upper ribcage area and bent my body over to my left.  I thought maybe I had pulled a muscle or something and remembered jumping or slipping off the ladder of the tree stand about two feet off the ground, maybe due to ice.

When I arrived at the hardware store and got whatever the item was, I was waiting at the checkout of which there were several ahead of me and by this time, beads of sweat was forming on my forehead and the pain was so intense it was just about unbearable.   I began to dry heave and thought I would never get checked out.  I could not straighten up and I believe I told the guy at the checkout, I thought I was having a kidney stone attack since I heard stories about folks that had them and the symptoms were what I was experiencing.  I have a high tolerance for pain being burned and shot with a firearm, however never had I experienced such unbearable pain before.  To make a long story short, I lasted about 30 minutes after I got back home and told my bride she had to take me to the local hospital emergency room for treatment.  They eventually gave me enough medication to where it was just bearable and after the X-Ray, they told me the kidney stone had dislodged from the kidney and traveled down the ureter tube to the bladder and too large to go into the bladder where it was lodged.  They sent me to the Hospital in Rockingham, NC where the stone was removed the next day.  I was told not to do any heavy lifting or anything strenuous for a couple weeks and to take it easy. 

We are not too far away from my hunting stories and pixs, so bear with me.  Behind our home is a 134 acre +- track of land owned by the estate of the founder of B. C. Moore and Sons and at that time, our Street and this track of land was outside the city limits of which you could legally hunt.  Our home and property borders the ole B. C. & Sons Estate property on two sides now owned by Baucom Land Development, LLC, a large farming co-op and being the last house on the dead end street, is like living in the country.  The ole Moore estate land was not annexed into the city limits and I have written permission from lessee to hunt said land adjacent our property.

The Blizzard 2000 left a bunch of saw timber size pine trees down and many others with their limbs broken off and a logging outfit was contracted to remove only the damaged timber which left it somewhat open allowing at least a 150 to 200 yard view in many places.

HUNTING FROM THE DINING ROOM

I decided to watch the area from our dining room just in case a deer was spotted and had the ole Remington .270 Winchester BDL left hand rifle propped in the corner.  Every 10 or 15 minutes, I would walk by the door and look out across the fairly open woods and sometime around mid-day, I spotted a good buck at approximately 150 yards slowing feeding and moving in the direction of White Store Road.  I put the crosshairs on the ole boys shoulder for an instant kill because I knew I was too weak to do any serious tracking and dragging a deer out.  I might have positioned our gas grill in front of the sliding door to the deck to use as a shooting rest.  At the sound of the muzzle report, the buck went to the ground.  There is a small creek aka branch between the deer and our home and it is an uphill drag once you get out of the little creek bottom. 

The buck was field dressed where he lay with a Randall Made Knife model # 3 and I thought I never would get him dragged out and it was all I could do to get him across the creek and up the steep incline but I finally did.  I probably didn't travel 10 to 20 yards before having to stop and rest.  Remember what the surgeon said, "No heavy lifting or strenuous activity for two weeks" which apparently went in one ear and out the other.  Below a few pixs to document the dining room hunt:

Check out the modified tiger strip camouflage on the gunstock below.  That was long before folks started to camouflage their guns or were available to purchase.  I did the tiger stripe sometime in the early 1980s if memory is correct.  I did a Belgium Browning A5 light gold trigger 12 gauge shotgun the same way.....grin if you must!

According to the time stamp on the pix, it was November 16, 2000 at 12:29 

I can't remember if I took him to Stag N Doe owned by Billy Gathings to have processed or I did it myself.  Before 2002, Stag N Doe did most of my archery kills due to the hot weather.  After 2002, I started processing all my deer kills with the addition of an extra refrigerator for my game animals.

DINING ROOM SECOND BUCK TAKEN

The Remington .270 Winchester was still sitting in the corner of the dining room the next day and sometime before dark, I spotted another buck on the B. C. Moore & Son 134 acre estate land and the Remington had another buck down for the 10 count.  I don't remember any particulars about the dining room evening hunt, but by the pix it is easy to ascertain that I was still weak looking from the recent kidney stone attack and removal. 

It certainly looks to be freezing weather by the looks of the expelled breath in the above pix.  From dragging that deer out, it is no wonder you can see breath that looks like it is coming from a steam engine.

HUNTING THE MOORE ESTATE 2002

One of my friends, Frankie Cranford offered to let me hunt the Moore Estate land adjacent the western side of Anson High School Road in 2002 that him and Jeff Crawford had leased.  However, there was one stipulation, that I could not take a deer with less than a 16 to 18 inch inside spread, otherwise I would have to pay a fine.  Frankie was aware that I am a meat hunter and "If it is brown, it is down."

Since I didn't own a four wheeler and where I would be hunting, it was about impossible to drag a deer out which was uphill about 300 to 500 yards and I would need some help from him with his four wheeler.

Below is a pix of the area where I had my portable stand set-up and hunted during the week of muzzleloader hunting season and also the first week of regular gun season.

I don't know how many small bucks and does that came by my hunting position and I let them walk.  In front of this stand (about the middle of the pix) to the left at the wood line about 100 yards out is a small clearing.  Frankie had spread corn and the deer were feeding there pretty regular.

I finally had enough of letting little bucks and does pass and decided to take a deer regardless of what the stipulation was.  Below is the management buck that I harvested and you guessed it, I certainly didn't call Frankie for help because I knew he would "cut up" and give me plenty of "chin music" so to speak.

This ole boy was harvested with the Remington .270 Winchester BDL hand loaded with a 130 grain Sierra Sport King soft point jacketed bullet hand loaded with 57 grains of DuPont IMR 4831 powder.  The buck didn't travel but about 30 yards before going down.  I field dressed the buck and I thought I never would get him dragged to the end of the field which was about 500 yards or more and then up the incline to the road.  The ground was wet and there was no way the ole 1971 Chevrolet two wheel drive truck could get in there and out without getting stuck. 

I didn't tell Frankie about the little buck harvest until after the season and we both got a good grin out of that one!

ARCHERY 2005

Below is a buck that was taken on 09-14-2005 if the file data is correct.

I had seen this buck several times about dusk dark and also had a pix of him on my game camera but don't have the file pixs available.  The old boy came in about dusk dark and my game camera picked him up with a good photograph.  I was using the Bushnell Holo sight on the PSE Mach6 cam bow and had the center dot locked in on him and made a heart shot at about 12 yards distance.  He went about 40 yards or less and heard him crash.  He was a heavy bodied deer and I field dressed him at the kill site.  There might have been a few other deer harvest that year but haven't located any pixs if any were taken.   

GOING BACK IN TIME TO THE EARLY 1980S

I hunted the Blewett Falls Lake, Pee Dee River, Anson and Richmond County for a number of years during the 1980s by boat and a good many deer were harvested during that time period.

One of the first bucks that I harvested in the upper area of the Grassy Islands is below after field dressing him on the river bank.  I had the ole boy hanging from a large Pecan tree in our back yard using a lineman's rope come-a-long to hoist him.  That deer was approaching the 200 lb. class.

I don't think I ever did get his hind feet off the ground because of his weight and the large pecan tree limb would keep bending downward.

Below is another one of those Grassy Island Bucks taken in December 1982:

The above does were harvested before 1989 when we lived on White Store Road and probably harvested them on Pines Davis land adjacent the Anson County airport before they annexed part of his land to increase the runway length.

FIRST RECURVE DEER WITH A FRED BEAR CUSTOM KODIAK TAKEDOWN

After four or five seasons of hunting with the compound bow, I wanted to harvest a few deer with the ole stick n string aka recurve bow for the extra challenge.  I ordered a Fred Bear 65# draw weight Custom Kodiak Recurve Takedown and practiced with that bow until I was proficient shooting instinctive style; e.g., no sights or using the arrow as a sight aka gap shooting but purely instinctive shooting; looking at your target and drawing your bow back and as soon as you reached your anchor at full draw, the arrow was released.  Over the next few years, I harvested a total of seven (7) deer using traditional equipment, but I harvested most of them with a custom made Black Widow takedown recurve bow.  I started gap shooting in 1989 and missed 5 deer in one hunting season and it was time to hang the ole stick n string up and go back to hunting with technology!  I attribute the gap shooting problem to shooting tournaments in the NFAA with traditional equipment and had to shoot targets out to 60 to 80 yards and shooting purely instinctive didn't work for me.  Got to make excuses, right?

From the period between 1980 through 2000, I took few hunting pictures because of the size and weight of the Nikon F2 35mm camera and once the camera digital age came about, I took the little digital camera with me regularly and totally enjoy digital photography.

In the early 1980s, I hunted land adjacent the Pee Dee River, Blewett Falls Lake area Anson County, NC that was owned by the Dr. Davis estate, whereas Joel Price had a lease on much of the pastured land and allowed myself and our son to hunt there.  I did much scouting said land and located several well used deer crossings that bordered property that belonged to Fred Teal who had soybeans growing that year.  There was a small tributary stream that ran into the ole grist mill canal waterway and found a deer crossing that had a good sized poplar tree about 22 yards below and downwind from the crossing.  I carried a Baker Pro-Hunter platform stand and placed it about 20 feet up the large poplar tree and secured it in place and tethered it off with some rope where it wouldn't move much at all.  I used a pair of Bashlin pole climbers to get up and down the tree and I believe I had a knotted rope to aid in climbing the tree but not sure on that one.

I hunted that stand many times during the 1983 archery season and it was a good twenty minute plus walk from where I parked my ole 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne model car.  Deer were using the crossing regularly but mostly at night but I was persistent and didn't give up.  I remember one morning, the moon was full and I heard a deer walking through the woods and he came right up to my tree but I made a little noise and he walked off no doubt wondering what was going on.

The morning of the deer harvest, the temperature dropped down to the low 50s before daybreak and the previous days temperature was in the 80s so I was under dressed for the sudden drop in temperature.   It was very overcast and cloudy and I remember it was cold.  Right about daybreak, the sky began to clear quickly and I heard a deer walking pretty fast coming from my right which was where the large soybean field was located.  I stood up slowly and go ready for the approaching deer but couldn't see him through the woods until he got to the crossing.  The dry creek bed was about twenty feet across and the deer stopped and stuck his head out and looked up and down the crossing and then started to slowly walk across the dry sand bed.  I had the ole Fred Bear Custom Kodiak takedown bow ready with an arrow nocked and when I tried to pull back, I couldn't pull it and finally had to grit my teeth and muscle it back and the Buck was about to the other side of the crossing when I released an arrow.  I hit him a little far back and didn't hear him crashing into any of the underbrush as he exited the crossing which isn't a good sign.

I lowered my bow to the ground, put my pole climbers back on and went down the poplar tree and checked my arrow.  There was dark blood on the shaft and toward the fletch I could see stomach contents which is not a good sign either.  I walked a few yards into the heavy cover using the well worn deer trail and heard a deer snort running off and I decided to back off and hopefully give the deer time to die.  I decided to leave and go to Joel Price's home and call my hunting buddy Charles Wesley McKenzie in Rockingham, NC who owns deer hounds who worked second shift at the same place I did.  I got up with him and he drove down the old logging road within a 100 yards of where I was waiting for him.  He arrived about an hour later with one of his dogs named Maggie who he had a lease on her and within a couple minutes the dog was trailing the deer.  CW and the hound was in front of myself and I spotted the deer in a small gulley.  The deer had cut back from off the trail and was barely visible in a small ditch were he died.  I shot him too far back and the arrow hit a kidney or his liver, can't remember which and he didn't go but about 50 yards at the most.  Below pixs of my first deer with a recurve aka stick n string:

Check out the antique camouflage hunting pants pattern.

Hunting with traditional archery equipment; e.g., longbow or recurve shooting purely instinctive was a total pleasure being able to see the flight of your arrow.  It is wonderful seeing the place you want your arrow to hit, whether it is a target or deer, pull your bow string back touching your anchor and release the arrow to watch its flight and striking the place you are looking at.  Modern cam bows send an arrow so fast that it is hard to follow the flight of the arrow at shorter distances but being able to make a successful deer harvest is what it is all about regardless of the equipment used.  Some of the traditionalists go a little overboard in condemning modern technology, but if it works for you, that is fine!  Been there, done that.   

The next year 1984, I started hunting on land belonging to Pines Davis adjacent the Anson County Airport and hunted that land for the next seventeen years with excellent success harvesting many deer with the bow and arrow, muzzleloader and rifle.

After the death of Pines Davis, I hunted on land in front of the ole Porter Graham Center aka Organic Farm adjacent 742S near Cason's Old field and harvested a few deer. 

As evidenced by the pixs I have posted on this website, it is readily apparent that I am not a trophy hunter.  I hunt solely for the freezer and if a big buck happens to get in my sights so be it, but I definitely want pass up a deer when I am hunting for the freezer other than a fawn and/or yearling.  I have killed some of them when it was dusk dark thinking it was a small doe, but it happens some times.  Early in my bowhunting years, I would harvest a yearling for the freezer. 

HUNTING WITH RUGER SUPER RED HAWK .44 MAGNUM

On November 11, 1988, I purchased a Ruger Super Red Hawk .44 caliber magnum revolver from Sports Unlimited in Charlotte, NC.  I installed a Leopold 2X pistol scope on it and I believe it was the following Sunday that I went to Blakney Steele's farm in Cason's Old Field adjacent highway 742S and sighted it in.  After a few rounds for sight-in at 100 yards off a good sandbag rest, I fired the next 6 rounds at the bottom of a Styrofoam coffee cup and placed four inside the small bottom and fired two more rounds with all six rounds being within a 5 inch diameter circle.  I was using Winchester Silvertip 240 grain jacketed hollow point bullets.  

The next morning, I hunted land adjacent Jimmy and Patricia Burns on 742N that was owned by Charles Simon and got on stand before daybreak using one of my home made Hunter's Dream foot climber tree stands.  I was up in the tree very high, probably 40 feet so I could have view of a small field and opening about 50 yards from my position.  After daybreak, several deer were within 20 yards of my tree stand and a small 5 point buck was chasing a doe in estrus.  I got on him a couple times but he would not be still long enough to allow me to squeeze a shot off.  Finally, he came back within 20 yards and stood still long enough for me to get the crosshairs on him and fired a round into him at an acute angle striking him behind his shoulder.  At the crack of the .44 magnum, the little buck jumped straight up with all four feet leaving the ground.  He ran into nearby thick cover and I heard him fall.  I got down and went to where I heard him last and he was pilled up for the 10 count.  There was no blood trail and no exit wound with the round being lodged in his brisket on the opposite side.  He was field dressed and loaded into the back of my old Chevrolet 1971 truck.

Later that afternoon, I went back to the same area and put my portable tree stand up watching a crossing at a logging road about 50 yards from the morning hunt.  I wasn't on stand too long before I heard a buck grunting making a sound similar to you rubbing your fingers across the bristles of a plastic comb.  The 7 point buck hurriedly crossed the logging road and there were only a few openings between small pine trees that afforded a shot and when he walked between two of the pine trees, I pulled the trigger and the buck immediately stopped in his tracks.  I fired a fast second shot and hit him in the neck.  I missed with the first shot and he should have exited, but he made a fatal mistake.  He was probably 30 yards away.  The rut was in full swing and that is when those bucks do some crazy and stupid things jeopardizing their safety to the hunters advantage.

I didn't take a single pix of either buck.  This was before the digital camera age and didn't lug my Nikon F2AS camera with me.

8 POINT BUCK FROM DECK

Below is pix of a buck that was harvested from the rail off our deck at about 50 yards. 

Don't remember the exact date, but he was a large bodied deer.  This ole boy came out about dusk dark and lit him up with the Ruger Super Red Hawk like a Christmas tree.  My deck hunting days are over since we were annexed into the city limits either in 2001 or 2003, however the 134 acre +- track behind our property was not annexed into the city limits...imagine that.  Money sure does talk!  Anyone with over 5 acres within the circle to be annexed that year was exempted which includes the 14 acre Harry Hodges estate and the Janet Edwards estate which are closer to town than our property and there are large tracks of timber between here and uptown Wadesboro exempted as well.

NUB BUCK

I can't remember the year that I was hunting with the Ruger Super Red Hawk, but I had seen a small one year old buck that had some crazy looking antlers which I nick named him Nub Buck.  I passed him up a couple times with the muzzle loader and decided to try for him with the .44 caliber magnum revolver.  I was using some hand loaded 180 grain Speer Jacket Hollow Point bullets loaded fairly hot since I waned some expansion and the bullet to hopefully exit leaving a good blood trail.

The little buck finally gave me a shot late one afternoon and I made a perfect heart shot on him at about 50 yards distance.  He didn't go but about 20 or 30 yards before running out of steam.

Below pix of the exit hole.....devastating!  The file pix says entry hole but I believe it is the exit hole.

It is getting about time to bring the ole Ruger Super Red Hawk out of retirement and see if I can get the crosshairs on another deer.

NEW CAMERA ANGLE POSITION USED

Below is pix of a buck harvested with the Remington .270 Winchester BDL left hand rifle.  I set the tripod up for a different view and used the hand held remote control for the little digital Olympus Stylus 400 camera and pleased with the results.  The pix was taken November 16, 2004.

Notice the Hunter Orange hunting vest on with the camouflage coveralls.  Wonder if I had that vest on while up in my hunting stand......grin if you must!

PINES DAVIS HUNT LAND BUCKS

Below are some bucks that were harvested off the 500 acre +- track of land owned by Pines Davis.  As I stated before, I hunted his land for 17 years until right before his passing.  One of his care givers we nick named "The Vulture" took control of the affairs of Mr. Davis before he died in the nursing home and that individual was very difficult to deal with. 

I have made a couple 300 yard +- shots with the Remington BDL .270 Winchester while hunting a couple of the large fields that offer up to a 500 yard shot in some places and below is one that was 211 yards stepped off.  The hyperlinked pix above has a good aerial view of about 3/4 of the Pines Davis land.  The island in the middle of the lower pasture was a honey hole which had a large Willow Oak and a couple Persimmon trees that were magnets drawing the deer to them when the fruit and acorns were ripe.  Deer loved to feed on the Coastal Bermuda grass which stayed green until the heavy frost and freezing weather killed it back and I hunted a couple stands along the perimeter over the years.

It was on this stand that I saw one of the largest bucks ever but didn't get a shot on him as he was moving very fast. 

Above is an 8 point buck harvested on Thanksgiving day, November 22, 2001.  I had some scent vents out about 125 yards away hanging from the limbs off of a large Willow Oak tree and the buck came out of the woods into the pasture heading toward the scent vents.  I think he saw me move and stopped and by then, it was too late.  I had the crosshairs on his heart/lung area and he went maybe 100 plus yards down the pasture fence line and cut back to his right and entered the woods.  He went a short distance in the woods and that is where he was field dressed.  

The evening before, my bride advised me to be back from hunting in time to deep fry a turkey for our Thanksgiving Dinner since our family and some friends would be dining with us.  I was back home around 0830 to 0900 with plenty of time to get those turkeys deep fried.

Below is a little 3 point buck harvested in the pasture....didn't have a time or date info on file but the fog in the back ground is beautimous.

I don't know where the below 8 point buck was harvested at but some of my friends will call him a management buck and another will call him a "milk mouth deer", either way I bet you he was some good eating!

Below another November little buck from the pasture:

The little 4 point buck was harvested on November 22, 2001 if the date file is correct.  Must have been around 0800 or later by the shadows.  The tree behind me at one time had one of my climber stands chained to it about 20 feet up and one of my 20 feet telescopic ladders chained to the tree.  I harvested several good bucks from that tree stand but don't have any pixs of them for whatever reason and in all probability was before 2000 when I got my first digital camera.

When I run across more earlier pixs and slides, I will post them to this page and I am sure there are some that I have overlooked.

I am definitely no trophy hunter and those little bucks sure did look and taste good served with rice, gravy and biscuits....grin if you must!  There were many, many does harvested off the Pines Davis land during the 17 years hunted there and they were also some "beautimous" table fare.  I made many pounds of smoked venison Cajun blend summer sausage too!

1 Timothy 4:4  "For everything of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving." 

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 10-07-16

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please take this moment to accept him by Faith into your Life, whereby Salvation will be attained.   

Ephesians 2:8 - 2:9 8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Open this link about faith in the King James Bible.