Found scuttling around in leaf litter adjacent to a dirt road and under some trees. I thought it was a mouse at first, then saw that it was a huge Prionus in the process of laying eggs. I captured it and took a few pinches on the hand before I figured out to hold it from above by the edge of the elytra. It was very strong. The beetle was chilled and posed for these photos, then released.

This beetle is not common in my area, it is listed by Brimley (1) for the North Carolina mountains only. (The Piedmont was largely deforested circa 1930, when the Brimleys published that work.) I've only seen it this once, and this was in a well-wooded rural area with plenty of large deciduous trees.