Dixie Deer Classic has 3-day run in Raleigh next weekend

Seminars, big-deer contest, turkey calling contest on tap at state fairgrounds

Craig Holt

Jeff Hamilton's Boone & Crockett buck from Surry County was among the biggest scored at the 2012 Dixie Deer Classic.

North Carolina hunters will get a chance to see the biggest bucks taken across the state last fall, listen to the state’s best turkey callers and sit in on seminars given by some of the industry’s best as the annual Dixie Deer Classic returns March 1-3 to the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

The 3-day show, spread between the fairground’s Exhibition Building, Jim Graham Building and Dorton Arena, will include a Youth Day, the Tar Heel open turkey calling contest, a 3D archery tournament and two days of scoring to determine the biggest whitetail deer killed last fall in North Carolina and neighboring states in a handful of categories.

Show hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Friday, March 1, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, March 3.

Scoring of trophy deer will be held on Friday and Saturday, with the biggest bucks crowned and on display on Sunday.

The Dixie Deer Classic, sponsored by the Wake County Wildlife Club, will welcome all youths, especially students from kindergarten through the 12th grade, for Youth Day on Friday, March 1.

 

Youth Day activities will include a wildlife scavenger hunt, a seminars on call-making, trapping and wildlife conservation, turkey and quail management and aquatic biology. All seminars meet the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s essential standards for math and sociial studies.

 

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold a Becoming an Outdoor Woman series all three days of the Classic, and the NRA’s Great American Whitetail collection will be on display throughout the show.

 Special guests of the show holding seminars include Pat and Nicole Reeve of Driven TV on the Outdoor Channel, Steven Rinella of the Sportsman Channel’s Meat Eater, and TV personality Tom Miranda of Territories Wild.