Fellas, thanks for all the kind words. I'd have posted sooner, but I haven't slowed down since I droppped the string almost 14 hours ago. I'm exhausted...

I had 'til 9:30 to hunt locally today, before I had to head in to work. At 9:20, I looked down and this guy was walking under the tree. There was no time for deliberation... I drew and shot, and my PA season was over just that quick.

I hunted all morning over an existing scrapeline. The wind was terrible, rendering me essentially deaf. This buck was within 5 yds behind me before he caught me totally off guard.

Man, I couldn't be happier. PA hunting time was starting to tighten up, especially with the time change looming. I was quickly approaching a point where I was going to have to consider eating my PA tag to spend the lion's share of my time hanging in Ohio. I was absolutely desperate to tag my PA buck, and put the Commonwealth in the rear-view.I lucked out today.

It was basically a true one-and-done scenario. I scouted these scrapes once and hunted it one morning earlier this season, just to test-drive a tree and get a feel for ingress/egress. Y'all saw a few videos of some of the bigger deer in the area (I may have this guy on film from summertime). I kept this standsite in my back pocket and today was the day. What a great feeling.

After the deer hit the ground, I had just over 2 hours to get him cleaned, dragged, contest pics, iced, and hung. Then, I had to grab a shower, suit up and hit the highway. I was 5 minutes late. LOL

He's finally at the butcher's place and I can finally catch my breath and grab some z's.

Good night and good luck boys.

This was a great PA buck and a great hunt, but the real eye candy will be coming when I post my next tag filler. Mark it down. The Dark Horses have only begun to make their statement.