I shot this buck on the opening morning of the Pa rifle season. Works and 2 young children allows me very little time in the woods anymore. We hunted on stand until about 9:30 and then decided to put on some small drives. One of our hunters only had the morning to hunt so we thought we would push for him and then figure out a plan. Our first drive produce a doe for one of the standers. As we were getting ready to plan our next drive, the guy who just shot his doe whistled at me and motioned me down to his stand. When I got there, there were 3 doe working their way thru a thicket. I tried to find an opening but had no luck. They worked their way down the hollow and as he collected his gear he left behind we walked away. A few moments later, I heard a shot in the direction the doe had just gone so I decided to go back to the stand and see if they returned.
As my Dad and I got to the stand, I looked down and could see a deer working his way on the same trail the doe had just come. As I was watching, I could see antlers. Unlike the doe, he turned up the hill and now is when I got a good look at him. At around 60 yards, I could see the 3 tines along the main beam and not until he turned his head and looked up the hill did I see the 4th point I needed for the area I hunt in. I lowered the scope to his front should and squeezed the trigger. He jumped like he was hit and took off running up this ravine in front of me. I could just see the anters moving along. I was fully expecting him to drop at any minute but he never did. Finally he came up out of the ravine and is not standing about 75 yards away. I centered the cross hairs in the middle of his back and squeezed the trigger. Now he is running full tilt back down the hollow, I chambered another round and fired again.
By this time, I had a whole audience as all the other guys in my group could see the action from the hillside they were on behind me. My Dad and I went to the first shot, and another hunter went to the second shot. There was blood and bone and hair at the first shot and even more at the second. I crossed the creek and picked up the blood from where I last saw him. About 300 yards from the first hit, we found him laying there. I was absolutley amazed at how far this buck made it after being hit twice. The first shot entered the front shoulder and hit a lung and went out the other side. The second shot hit part of the liver and the other lung and exited between his front legs.
He is a half rack 4x1. Later when butchering the deer, my Dad noticed the right front leg had been broken and was healed as had a couple of ribs.
http://www.pabucks.com/bucktales/vie...4&type=listing
2003 Pa Buck
