Mojotex

Thought some of you folks might get a kick out of this one. I have been at this deer hunting thing for 50+ years and never seen anything like this behavior.

Thursday morning I was easing into my stand well before daylight, walking in as quietly as I could manage and into the soft breeze. The area was loaded with scrapes and rubs, and has been a good area to hunt for many years. About 100 yards from where I had put my climber two days before, my head light caught "eyes" and the silouette of a big bodied deer. Would look away and then back. Did this for a least 30 seconds, which seemed like minutes! So I reached into my bocket for a compact but high intensity flashlight just to get a better look. "Spotted"' the deer, not yet knowing what it was for sure ..... what a man! Fat, thick body and a head full of antler.

Well I expected this buck to bolt anytime, but instead it stayed right there and worked a scrape 2 more times, stopping breifly to look back at me every now and then. He urinated in the scrape, hookled branches above and eased off into the woods. I was about 60 - 70 yards from the buck, standing stone still and down wind.

What got me is this was a mature buck and I did not expect it to dilly-dally around while I was so close. I may have screwed up "spotting it", but I am going to hunt that area a few more times for sure. Maybe he'll come though pushing a doe when the strus heats up.

Ridge Runner

think back..........remember when you use to horn the brush so to speak, that's where he was, good thing you didn't have tinks 69 on your boots or you would have a story you could never tell without losing your man card
RR

Oldtimr

Had you done that in my state while in possession of a gun or bow, you would have been in violation of the law.

Bocajnala

^^^

Deer do some goofy things during the rut. About 10 years ago while archery hunting I had used a drag line on the way into my stand. On the way out after dark ran into a buck following the trail. And he just refused to move. I shooed him, whistled, talked, stomped feet, finally he left reluctantly. Thankfully he didn't decide to fight or mount me.
-Jake

Oldtimr

Yep, lucky you didn't bend over to tie your boots.

super_hunt54

No he absolutely would NOT have been. It is unlawful to FIRE on a lit up animal. Not to light them up while walking in. If that were the case every single one of us on this forum would have violated the law by walking in to our stands with a flashlight. That's EVERY state not just PA. I've lit up hundreds of deer over the years walking in and out of stands. Not a thing illegal about it and if a GCO tries to ticket you for it then he would be in for a hell of a ride in a courtroom.

Oldtimr

Do not presume to know the laws in PA better than I do. It is one thing to accidentally shine on a deer with a headlamp when walking into your stand. It is quite another to pull out a flashlight and intentionally shine the deer when in possession of a gun or bow, that my man is illegal, and intentionally shining deer while in possession of a firearm in PA is a serious charge and not really hard to prosecute in my experience. So before you talk in absolutes, you really should know the law. Just so I won't have to spend all evening arguing with you:

§ 2310. Unlawful use of lights while hunting.
(a) General rule.--Except as set forth in subsection (b), it
is unlawful for any person or group of persons to engage in any
of the following activities to any degree:
(1) Cast the rays of an artificial light of any kind on
any game or wildlife or in an attempt to locate any game or
wildlife while on foot, in any vehicle or its attachments, or
any watercraft or any airborne craft while in possession of a
firearm of any kind, or a bow or arrow, or any implement or
device with which any game or wildlife could be killed or
taken even though no game or wildlife is shot at, injured or
killed.

Champlain Islander

Same in Vt. Shine a light in a field at night to "spot deer" and you get pinched. People have been written up just pulling into a field access road casting lights on a deer briefly and then backing out. If the warden is watching you are guilty of spotlighting a field at night and having a gun in the vehicle isn't necessary for the ticket..

Bocajnala

"Mens Rea" folks. Look it up. Was it illegal, sure. Did it matter in this situation? Not a bit.
-Jake

Oldtimr

I don't need to look it up, I prosecuted those kinds of cases in fact I prosecuted about 3,000 Game Code cases and it is illegal no matter how you try to make it not illegal. It is illegal to intentionally shine a light on big game while possessing a bow or firearm When you have prosecuted as many game code cases as I have, then try to tell me what the law says and how it is prosecuted. Was the op's first encounter with the buck accidental, yes, was it intentional when he pulled out a flashlight and continued to watch the deer while in possession of a weapon? Yes. What you don't know about the PA Game Code is that it is a strict liability law, look that up! Strict liability means that there need to be no intent to violate the law, all you have to do is violate the law, therefore mens rea doesn't apply.