It's been a good season. Of course, it's that time of year when the air is crisping, the leaves are turning hues of all colors and the whitetail love is in the air. Our PA season winded down it's 3rd week with 3 weeks yet to come. Previously you may have read my thread on my PA doe, a big nanny entitled Revisiting It's Not Just a Doe. Well after a week of evenings, hunting a blind I threw up to cut off a bruiser of an 8 point who walked a field to a fence line and with no viable trees for a stand that would offer good wind, I found myself back in one of my favorite spots in the world. Particularly the whitetail world. Many of you know this as my " food plot stand ". Though this year there is no plot planted. Many of you also know that the reason this stand is in place is it's a natural funnel between two woodlots, one being used as a bedding area. The stand overlooks a CRP field, corn fields and is hidden behind a mobile home park. 200 yards down the field is my "Pin Oak" stand, sooner or later every deer on this property will pass these 2 treestands. Over grown food plot, standing corn and CRP field. Bottom Pic looking toward Pin Oak Stand I was in my stand plenty early, actually too early as I found myself taking a needed nap long before the sun was due to come up. I did however make myself aware of slowing creeping daylight coming and with it, my anticipation. Light continued to creep in, so did my anticipation, my ears perked to the woods behind me, my eyes darting about the fields in front of me, my binos occasionally being utilized to second guess my what my eyes see. As the sun matured into the day my anticipation was replaced with expectation which slowly diminished towards disappointment. at 7:30 I was honestly surprised I hadn't see a flicker, something. I decided to blind call, grunt to be more precise and this is something I rarely do. As most of you know, I'm very vocal with whitetails and It's served me so well pulling mature bucks from 200 plus yards just like you were reeling them in. Against my own ruled I gave a series of 4 grunts in several directions, hung up the call and continued to study the landscape. Nearing 7:45 am I hear the unmistakable walking gate of a whitetail buck. As my ears honed in on the direction I turned to see a flicker 50 yards inside the woods behind me. The flicker turned into a body and the binoculars instinctively came up and pinpointed my quarry.... "hmmmm" I said to myself, " anlters!". and "hhmmm, they look good! "...... Shooter? I thought to myself... as he closed the distance I again glassed him and he cleared a visual lane through the Beechnut trees... ( they seem to stay green and hold their dang leaves) ... the buck continued toward my location, even more importantly he continued toward my field.... At a mere 18 yards I glassed him once more to verify my decision as he would need to enter the field to offer me a shot. My decision was confirmed, even though I have 2 weeks off in Nov, I'm taking this buck if he offers me a shot.... He continued to move to the edge of the field where the treeline is the thickest. At this point I installed my release to my loop and put tension on the string. The path he was taking was the exact path my doe came out on so I already knew this was an 18 yard shot. He paused before pushing through into the plot... I drew... anchored... bent at the waste and followed him along with my 20 yard pin tucked in behind his shoulder aiming for the opposite... as he cleared the tree limbs I softly " Meh.... Meh"... as he paused I felt the release engage, the string loosed and the arrow disappear behind my pin.... confidently in my head I said, " your done".... With that the buck tucked his tail as if in slow motion, I instinctively pulled my binos as my eyes followed his every move... just like my doe did, he charged toward and down the mowed path I have through the CRP field toward my pin oak (path of least resistance)... and as he bound away I remember thinking, that's far enough... go down, that's far enough and just when I thought I was wrong at my shot he darted right off the trail and went down in the CRP field... but was up again only to stagger and go down again... some weed thrashing and silence...... roughly 150 yards. I stood shaking.... did that just happen? So I glassed the area again... nothing.. no movement, nothing... is he really laying there? A whirlwind of thoughts and then of course textings staring happening... pics? Where's the pics? were some of the texts... when I get down, another shooting is behind me dogging a doe.... As all that was happening I heard another deer running behind me...turning with my binos I saw a heavy horned Rob buck. 4 on one side, very large 2 on the other, likely 18" wide and heavy dogging a doe... when all things silenced I got down and walked the same path out to my buck. I was almost startled by the body when I walked up on him... he's huge I thought to myself and also was praying, please no ground shrinkage, no ground shrinkage.... I wasn't disappointed... turns out he is my biggest and best scoring buck to date... it's just not easy to come up with more antlers in my area... I was very happy with him... no doubt a sold 4.5 year old and he ended up weighing in at 245 lbs (nose still bent on the floor).... a 200 lb buck here is exceptional. I didn't realize how heavy that dead weight was until I was trying or attempting to get that sum beech up in the bed of my lifted pickup... I just couldn't do it and was relieved with a call from a buddy asking me if I needed help loading him... I didn't want to gut him yet because I wanted his live weight. Well there he is, and the hero shots. ;-) And the honorary GregH pose: Equipment: BowTech Destroyer 350 Limbdriver Pro V rest Viper Archery Products sight Super Stix Stab Gold Tip Pro Hunters Rage broadheads.
OUTSTANDING Buck Rob... outstanding indeed! I use to hunt on the Tioga /Lycoming line and I never saw a buck that large! Congratulations on taking a PA Stud
Congrats, again, Rob! Even though my second text was to ask if it indeed was a Rob buck, I knew it was probably a good one. I just didn't realize how BIG of a body he had until I saw the one of him in your bed of your truck. Great job, bud. Now I need a little of that success thrown my way these final weeks.
