One hunter’s loss leads to another’s gain. One gets the photos; the other gets the buck.
My story begins weeks before Pennsylvania’s 2016 archery season even started, when my brother-in-law sent me pictures of a massive buck in velvet. One of my parents’ neighbors, a kid, was sharing trail camera photographs with him.
Little did I know the deer was hanging out only a few hundred yards from my parents’ property.
On the cold morning of Nov. 5, I left my dad’s house around 5:30 to go to one of my favorite stands. Deer always come through that area during the rut.
I sat there all morning, calling and rattling. I saw only a flock of turkeys that came through about 10:00. Some of them were as close as 20 yards from me, and they hung around for half an hour.
At that point, since I hadn’t seen a deer, I said a little prayer to see at least one legal buck.
Soon, I decided to get down from my stand and go somewhere else. While walking out of the woods, I heard my father approaching on the side-by-side. He stopped to ask if I’d seen anything.
I told him all I’d seen was turkeys. He said he’d seen a couple of bucks, but they weren’t close.
We decided to go for a ride to check out some of the other stands we’d hung before archery season opened. I told him I thought the deer would be chasing during the afternoon.
Dad and I were riding up the hill on the way to our stands when we saw a nice buck chasing a doe. We were both hoping to see that buck again when we got up into our respective stands.
No more than two minutes after I’d settled in, a 3-pointer came to within 5 yards.
An hour later, we’d had enough. My father walked over to my stand, and we decided it was time to break for lunch.
We hopped on the side-by-side, and I asked my father to show me the new property line. We headed uphill at about 11:45 and split up to search for the property corner.
We had never hunted that part of the place, so we thought we might get lucky and at least see some deer.
My father was about 75 yards from me. As he was walking through the brush, he jumped a monstrous buck that ran my way. When I got my first look at the deer, it was about 25 yards away.
It got within 20 yards of me and stopped, still looking in the direction of where my dad had jumped it. It saw me lift my crossbow, however.
I could see only three long points on the right side of its rack. The buck was in some tall weeds and shrubs. The deer kept looking back and forth at my father and me.
When the time was right, I squeezed the trigger and heard that wonderful whack, which told me I’d hit the deer. When it left, it ran toward my father.
Soon, I heard Dad yelling, asking if I’d hit it. I said “Yeah.“
He then asked if I’d seen the antlers, and I told him I thought it was a big 8- or 10-pointer. He said, “Son, that deer was a monster, the non-typical the kid was seeing on his trail camera.”
I told him to give me a few minutes while I went to see if my bolt had blood on it. When I got over there, I didn’t see my dart, but I saw good blood and started following the trail, which went right past my father.
Dad and I started talking strategy at that point. We figured the amount of blood meant it was a good shot, and the buck couldn’t go far.
To play it safe, however, we marked the spot and went to my dad’s for lunch.
After two long hours, we decided it was time to look for the buck. My brother-in-law joined us.
When we got back to the spot, my dad and brother-in-law circled around some thick brush in case the buck was still alive and able to run. I got on the blood trail.
I had covered only 20 yards when I noticed it on the ground, probably 75 yards from where I shot it. As I approached the downed animal, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I had always dreamed of shooting a deer like that.
I stood there for what felt like forever just looking at it in amazement. Then I screamed loudly that I’d found the deer.
My brother-in-law helped me drag it to a more open area so we could get a better look at it. We all thought it was a record-setting buck.
This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2018 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.
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