"I've hunted Mills River, Davidson River, Harmon Den, Mount Mitchell. Every single area has nice deer. The habitat is changing, because the Forest Service is real limited as far as the amount of clear cutting they're able to do."

Scarborough feels that the rut is a little different depending on where you're hunting in the Pisgah. East of Asheville, he thinks that the peak of the rut hits very close to the opening of the three-week gun season, in mid-November. West of Asheville, he thinks the rut is "in its latter stages when our season opens.

"You don't get a second rut, because up here, the season ends in mid-December, and by that time, the weather gets so bad that it is almost impossible to hunt. You get high winds, snow and cold weather. It's our coldest month," he said.

The Pisgah National Forest, and all of western North Carolina, for that matter, is confirmed big-buck territory, but it doesn't get as much notice, because local hunters are unwilling to let their secret out.

One of the main reasons is that deer populations are low enough, and the buck/doe ratio low enough, and hunting pressure low enough, that bucks have a decent chance to make it to 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years old. That's when those big, heavy sets of horns start to show up.

"There's nobody around to kill a lot of them. That's the main reason they reach old age," Scarborough said. "They get that in the mountains. Around here, big bucks are nothing now, but nobody really wants to let anybody know about it.

"I use kidney fat as an indicator, and I've never seen any with more than 25 percent. The deer are never really fat. It just makes you wonder what they could do with good food."

Scarborough said that patience is a key. He admits that he often sees only a dozen deer during the three-week gun season, but a relatively high percentage will be adult bucks.

"If you see a doe, there will usually be a buck with her."

Scarborough doesn't carry a tree stand back into the forest -- permanent stands or screw-in steps are illegal; climbers are not. He mostly still-hunts and stalks through potentially good areas, going slowly.

"I drink a half of a Mountain Dew, then put the bottle in my pocket sideways. If I can hear it sloshing around in the bottle, I'm going too fast."

Scarborough rarely hunts past mid-day, leaving the woods around 2 p.m. because of the length of the walk out. "If you kill one after 2 p.m., it will be midnight before you get him out," he said. "The fastest I've ever gotten one out is 4 1/2 hours. You've got to be in good physical condition to hunt this type of country."