Dixie Deer Classic set for March 4 - 6

Craig Holt

Deer scoring is one of the main draws at the Dixie Deer Classic

North Carolina’s biggest bucks and several of hunting television’s biggest stars will be on display March 4-6 when the 31st annual Dixie Deer Classic makes its annual appearance at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

The annual big-buck contest, the centerpiece of the 3-day show, will crown the biggest bucks taken in North Carolina during the 2010-11 season in more than a dozen different categories: typical and non-typical gun, blackpowder and archery, for men, women and youths, plus non-hunting trophies.

Competition in the big-buck contest will be held the first two days, with winners being introduced the final afternoon of the show.

Returning to the DDC for a second-straight year are outdoors television personalities Michael Waddell and the husband-and-wife team of Lee and Tiffany Lakosky. Waddell, of the Bone Collector television show, and the Lakoskys, of The Crush, will be featured in seminars, along with Jase Robertson, the Duck Commander, and other hunting experts. Seminars will be held in the Dorton Arena this year because they were so heavily attended in 2010.

In addition, the North Carolina state turkey-calling championship will be held in conjunction with the DDC, as will a 3-D archery competition.

Show hours are: Friday, Jan. 4, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 5, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 6, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

The sponsoring Wake County Wildlife Club will have displays of the biggest bucks ever taken in North Carolina and scored over the past 30 years, plus a display of mounts of all of North America’s big-game species.

Last year, hunters brought more than 750 deer to be scored. Eight of those bucks measured 160 or more typical inches, headed by Michael Helbert’s 167-6/8 buck, taken by crossbow in Caswell County. The biggest non-typical scored was a 179-2/8-inch Chatham County buck entered in the non-hunting category by James A. Brewer.

According to the Wake County Wildlife Club, more than 24,000 people attended the 2010 DDC.

For more information, visit www.dixiedeerclassic.org.