PA Opening Day Buck-Of-A-Lifetime!
12-18-2009 | 05:42 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Spike
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
PA Opening Day Buck-Of-A-Lifetime!
Here's the story - unimpressive, but True!
Monday, November 30, 2009. It was raining, 42° and generally miserable. I got into my ladder stand around 6:45 AM which overlooked the side hill of a saddle where the deer always cross from the oaks on one side to the thick brush on the other side. Over the years, family members and I have taken over 20 deer in this general area which we call "above the camper below the Old Cherry Tree" (the Old Cherry Tree is about 7 or 8 Feet in Diameter - you can't miss it!). At about 8:45 AM I was getting quite cold and wet and miserable, so I decided to climb down from my stand and walk up the 4-wheeler path up towards the "Old Cherry Tree". I had just gone around some grapevines and raspberry thicket and saw 2 does milling around under an oak tree that borders a brush thicket that runs up the hill about 40 or so yards. I scoped them out to see if the little one might be a button buck - I didn't have a doe tag this year, so they were safe. A few seconds later the 11-point came busting out of the brush and ran up the hill skirting the brush, I found his chest and fired, he didn't act like he was hit and crossed the 4-wheeler path and turned around looking back where he came from and was broadside and uphill from me - I found his chest and fired again - he vanished from my scope. I still hadn't gotten a good look at the horns, but I knew he met the 4-point on one side restriction. I thought for sure that I had missed him, but being a good sportsman, I always follow my shots and went up the hill to look for him. After looking around for about 10 minutes, I saw an antler sticking up over a log on the ground and there he was! Then I saw the rack and started high-fiving myself (since I was alone in the woods!). Then the work began and I was no longer cold. I had to drag him the 200 yards down hill to the camper and load him into the truck by myself, but I didn't care the adreneline was still pumping like mad and the deer only weighed about 120 lb or so. To say the least, I was the talk of the hollow that first week for killing the "Double Drop-Tine Buck" that all the neighbors had on their trail cams. He wasn't on my trail cam, but there were 2 nice 10's and 2 nice 8's and a couple of 6's that didn't have brow tines on it - so I knew there wer some good one's there.
I green scored him using the on-line form on the B&C website and it calculated it at 149 4/8. He is at the taxidermists already and should be ready to pick up next June.
Here's the Pictures:
Here's one I shot on Thursday (with my camera!) on a neighbor's farm.
Monday, November 30, 2009. It was raining, 42° and generally miserable. I got into my ladder stand around 6:45 AM which overlooked the side hill of a saddle where the deer always cross from the oaks on one side to the thick brush on the other side. Over the years, family members and I have taken over 20 deer in this general area which we call "above the camper below the Old Cherry Tree" (the Old Cherry Tree is about 7 or 8 Feet in Diameter - you can't miss it!). At about 8:45 AM I was getting quite cold and wet and miserable, so I decided to climb down from my stand and walk up the 4-wheeler path up towards the "Old Cherry Tree". I had just gone around some grapevines and raspberry thicket and saw 2 does milling around under an oak tree that borders a brush thicket that runs up the hill about 40 or so yards. I scoped them out to see if the little one might be a button buck - I didn't have a doe tag this year, so they were safe. A few seconds later the 11-point came busting out of the brush and ran up the hill skirting the brush, I found his chest and fired, he didn't act like he was hit and crossed the 4-wheeler path and turned around looking back where he came from and was broadside and uphill from me - I found his chest and fired again - he vanished from my scope. I still hadn't gotten a good look at the horns, but I knew he met the 4-point on one side restriction. I thought for sure that I had missed him, but being a good sportsman, I always follow my shots and went up the hill to look for him. After looking around for about 10 minutes, I saw an antler sticking up over a log on the ground and there he was! Then I saw the rack and started high-fiving myself (since I was alone in the woods!). Then the work began and I was no longer cold. I had to drag him the 200 yards down hill to the camper and load him into the truck by myself, but I didn't care the adreneline was still pumping like mad and the deer only weighed about 120 lb or so. To say the least, I was the talk of the hollow that first week for killing the "Double Drop-Tine Buck" that all the neighbors had on their trail cams. He wasn't on my trail cam, but there were 2 nice 10's and 2 nice 8's and a couple of 6's that didn't have brow tines on it - so I knew there wer some good one's there.
I green scored him using the on-line form on the B&C website and it calculated it at 149 4/8. He is at the taxidermists already and should be ready to pick up next June.
Here's the Pictures:
Here's one I shot on Thursday (with my camera!) on a neighbor's farm.
12-18-2009 | 06:26 AM
#5
Spike
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 23
Likes: 0
From: Cocoa Fl
Awesome Rack! What part of Pa? Was born and raised in Pa around Pittsburgh then moved to Conneaut Lake in Crawford Co. Nice deer up there. Sure do miss the hunting up there. I'm living in Fl now trying the deer hunting down here for the first time this yr.
kudos buddy
12-18-2009 | 08:50 AM
#10
Fork Horn
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 191
Likes: 0
I love antler restrictions they finally put some into play on state land i new york. Not the 4 point on one side criteria but that would be perfectly fine with me if they did, I actually wish they did. People get mad at the restrictions but if we had them alot more people would be shooting great bucks instead of killing every one and a half year old in the state