Friday the 13th Lucky in PA! Part 2
10-17-2006 | 02:50 PM
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Giant Nontypical
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From: Phoenixville, PA USA
Friday the 13th Lucky in PA! Part 2
In my first post I describe my hunt and mention my buddy Karl's buck. In this post I'll describe his hunt, so here we go:
After deciding to let my buck lay overnight just to be on the safe side I called my buddy Karl on the way home and he told me that he hit a big one too. Here is his hunt.
He was hunting in a ground blind constructed of and old wire fence that was overgrown with vines that he had cut out and set up in a semi-circle next to a tree with low hanging branches. The branches hung down and provided pretty good cover and there was a large bush to his right where the deer usually came to the opening from. On his way into the stand he saw 3 deer, a mid-size six and two doe already in the clearing that he watches from his blind. He got to the rear of the blind undetected, but when he got to get into the blind he was busted and the deer blew out. For a second, Karl thought about just calling it quits figuring that those deer blew out everything on the hillside. Fortunately for him he stuck it out. He then began a long 5 minute rattling session. He did this because he had seen bucks fighting and sparring in the field across the road from where he hunts and when two would start fighting the field would fill with deer. So, after his long session he puts down the antlers anda big 8 point steps out into the clearing walking very deliberately with that "whose fighting on my turf" walk. Karl gets his bow ready as the deer moves from his right to left looking for the fight. When he reaches Karl's shooting lane Karl draws and whistles stopping him at 17 yards (on the ground mind you). As their eyes meet Karl releases and slams his Gold Tip XT tipped with a Spitfire on an upward angle 3 1/2 inches up from where the white belly hair meets the brown right behind the shoulder. The buck bounds off and crosses the road, causing some honking along the way, and heads into the field. Karl jumps up after hearing the honking and gets a better vantage point and glasses the field. He sees the buck about 65 yards up in the field. He starts to wobble and Karl describes what he does next as "laying down hard."
The buck is still alive at this point with his head up and looking around. After a few minutes he gets up and takes about 3 steps up the hill in the field and again lays down hard. Darkness takes over and we come to where Karl and I are on the phone. I head out to his place and meet him there with my spotlight. We figure to give him a few hours and then spot the field to try to find him. We waited until 10:15 and spotted the field which much to Karl's dismay was empty. We got our flashlights and headed out to the field to look for his buck. We first started out heading up to the tree line up the hill (the field was on a hillside). We walked the treeline looking for blood and then went to the downward hedgerow looking for blood. After this failed we went to the bottom of the field that the deer had run from which had a creek running through it. After following this for about 60 yards there was his buck on the edge of the creek. Apparently, after dark the buck realized he couldn't make it up the hill and went to the creek for some water where he expired.
He is a beautiful, big bodied deer. We estimate his live weight at close to 200 pounds. He's got a 19 inch inside spread, 7 1/2 inch G2s, 5 inch G3s, 4 inch brow tines, and 23 inch main beams that are very heavy. On to the pics:
After deciding to let my buck lay overnight just to be on the safe side I called my buddy Karl on the way home and he told me that he hit a big one too. Here is his hunt.
He was hunting in a ground blind constructed of and old wire fence that was overgrown with vines that he had cut out and set up in a semi-circle next to a tree with low hanging branches. The branches hung down and provided pretty good cover and there was a large bush to his right where the deer usually came to the opening from. On his way into the stand he saw 3 deer, a mid-size six and two doe already in the clearing that he watches from his blind. He got to the rear of the blind undetected, but when he got to get into the blind he was busted and the deer blew out. For a second, Karl thought about just calling it quits figuring that those deer blew out everything on the hillside. Fortunately for him he stuck it out. He then began a long 5 minute rattling session. He did this because he had seen bucks fighting and sparring in the field across the road from where he hunts and when two would start fighting the field would fill with deer. So, after his long session he puts down the antlers anda big 8 point steps out into the clearing walking very deliberately with that "whose fighting on my turf" walk. Karl gets his bow ready as the deer moves from his right to left looking for the fight. When he reaches Karl's shooting lane Karl draws and whistles stopping him at 17 yards (on the ground mind you). As their eyes meet Karl releases and slams his Gold Tip XT tipped with a Spitfire on an upward angle 3 1/2 inches up from where the white belly hair meets the brown right behind the shoulder. The buck bounds off and crosses the road, causing some honking along the way, and heads into the field. Karl jumps up after hearing the honking and gets a better vantage point and glasses the field. He sees the buck about 65 yards up in the field. He starts to wobble and Karl describes what he does next as "laying down hard."
The buck is still alive at this point with his head up and looking around. After a few minutes he gets up and takes about 3 steps up the hill in the field and again lays down hard. Darkness takes over and we come to where Karl and I are on the phone. I head out to his place and meet him there with my spotlight. We figure to give him a few hours and then spot the field to try to find him. We waited until 10:15 and spotted the field which much to Karl's dismay was empty. We got our flashlights and headed out to the field to look for his buck. We first started out heading up to the tree line up the hill (the field was on a hillside). We walked the treeline looking for blood and then went to the downward hedgerow looking for blood. After this failed we went to the bottom of the field that the deer had run from which had a creek running through it. After following this for about 60 yards there was his buck on the edge of the creek. Apparently, after dark the buck realized he couldn't make it up the hill and went to the creek for some water where he expired.
He is a beautiful, big bodied deer. We estimate his live weight at close to 200 pounds. He's got a 19 inch inside spread, 7 1/2 inch G2s, 5 inch G3s, 4 inch brow tines, and 23 inch main beams that are very heavy. On to the pics:
