Figured I’d share the story behind my PA archery buck from this year.
A group of us do a backpacking style hunt in the Pa big woods. State forests allow for camping and we carry in camp and set up base camp. Unfortunately no matter how hard you try your always within a mile or two of road, even if they are shut down for the season.
Anyways I had an area I had e-scouted that I wanted to check out as a buck bedding area. I made the trek from camp primarily walking closed roads and found a trail that wasn’t on any of my maps and ended up 3 miles from camp by mid morning. I had been scouting along the way but decided after finding some pretty fresh rubs that I would setup for a few hours and then move on if I didn’t see any movement.
I was in the tree for no more then 35 minutes when I heard grunting coming from my left. Shortly thereafter a doe busted out of the area with a nice buck 10 yards in tow. I already had my bow in hand and drew back as soon as I saw the buck trailing her. He was a decent buck wider than the ears and fairly tall and one that I gladly would have shot. Unfortunately he was moving too quickly and ignored everything I did when I tried to get him to stop. I watched him trot off out of sight and while bummed was still pumped as I had never gotten to experience that before while hunting.
Five minutes pass and I hear noise again coming from the left. I grab my bow and go to full draw this time knowing I needed to be quicker. Out bounds a basket 6 or 8, but significantly smaller then the one who just came through. I made the decision not to shoot in hopes that the bigger one would circle around again. After he ran off I really doubted myself and was kicking myself for not shooting a legal buck. Out of the group of guys who travel north this was the 8th year a version of the group had gone up. They have not had success in harvesting a buck. Last year was my first trip up and I was successful on the first night with connecting with a nice 7 point.
Another 5 minutes pass and this time I hear movement from my 10 o’clock. As I’m looking I see the largest buck I’ve ever seen on the hoof. His nose is down making a bee line for the trail the doe had run down 10 minutes prior. I didn’t count points but just saw mass and height and knew he was good. I anchored back and as soon as he stepped into a shooting lane I let my arrow go. I’m shooting a Kudu Point 125 gr single bevel and total arrow weight is around 515gr. I knew that even though he was quartering to me I could make the shot. I watched my arrow hit the shoulder and disappear into his chest cavity. He turned and took off, but ran out of sight and then I didn’t hear a crash. I was filled with adrenaline but forced myself to wait an hour to get out of the tree.
When I got down I started tracking small dime and nickel sized blood drops. After about 20 yards I found my arrow completely covered in good blood with one fletching missing. After that I was confident he was dead, just needed to find him. As I continued to track blood I began to smell him as the wind was in my face as I crossed the hiking trail I saw him laying there 25 yards in. A wave of relief and pure astonishment washed over. I couldn’t believe what I had just done. I was able to FaceTime with my family as I was lucky and had service and sent a satellite message to the group as I was the only one with cell coverage. My arrow had punched through his right side scapula and exited out the bottom of his chest cavity hitting the heart. I then began the process of capeing and quartering him for the pack out. The group was able to get a truck a little over a mile from the kill site and came and helped me pack him out. My K4 performed flawlessly and handled the weight without any issues. My hip flexors where my biggest weakness.
I’m not big on score but threw a tape on him after I got home and if I did it correctly he grossed around 135. By far my biggest to date and will be hard for me to beat going in blind for PA big woods.
A group of us do a backpacking style hunt in the Pa big woods. State forests allow for camping and we carry in camp and set up base camp. Unfortunately no matter how hard you try your always within a mile or two of road, even if they are shut down for the season.
Anyways I had an area I had e-scouted that I wanted to check out as a buck bedding area. I made the trek from camp primarily walking closed roads and found a trail that wasn’t on any of my maps and ended up 3 miles from camp by mid morning. I had been scouting along the way but decided after finding some pretty fresh rubs that I would setup for a few hours and then move on if I didn’t see any movement.
I was in the tree for no more then 35 minutes when I heard grunting coming from my left. Shortly thereafter a doe busted out of the area with a nice buck 10 yards in tow. I already had my bow in hand and drew back as soon as I saw the buck trailing her. He was a decent buck wider than the ears and fairly tall and one that I gladly would have shot. Unfortunately he was moving too quickly and ignored everything I did when I tried to get him to stop. I watched him trot off out of sight and while bummed was still pumped as I had never gotten to experience that before while hunting.
Five minutes pass and I hear noise again coming from the left. I grab my bow and go to full draw this time knowing I needed to be quicker. Out bounds a basket 6 or 8, but significantly smaller then the one who just came through. I made the decision not to shoot in hopes that the bigger one would circle around again. After he ran off I really doubted myself and was kicking myself for not shooting a legal buck. Out of the group of guys who travel north this was the 8th year a version of the group had gone up. They have not had success in harvesting a buck. Last year was my first trip up and I was successful on the first night with connecting with a nice 7 point.
Another 5 minutes pass and this time I hear movement from my 10 o’clock. As I’m looking I see the largest buck I’ve ever seen on the hoof. His nose is down making a bee line for the trail the doe had run down 10 minutes prior. I didn’t count points but just saw mass and height and knew he was good. I anchored back and as soon as he stepped into a shooting lane I let my arrow go. I’m shooting a Kudu Point 125 gr single bevel and total arrow weight is around 515gr. I knew that even though he was quartering to me I could make the shot. I watched my arrow hit the shoulder and disappear into his chest cavity. He turned and took off, but ran out of sight and then I didn’t hear a crash. I was filled with adrenaline but forced myself to wait an hour to get out of the tree.
When I got down I started tracking small dime and nickel sized blood drops. After about 20 yards I found my arrow completely covered in good blood with one fletching missing. After that I was confident he was dead, just needed to find him. As I continued to track blood I began to smell him as the wind was in my face as I crossed the hiking trail I saw him laying there 25 yards in. A wave of relief and pure astonishment washed over. I couldn’t believe what I had just done. I was able to FaceTime with my family as I was lucky and had service and sent a satellite message to the group as I was the only one with cell coverage. My arrow had punched through his right side scapula and exited out the bottom of his chest cavity hitting the heart. I then began the process of capeing and quartering him for the pack out. The group was able to get a truck a little over a mile from the kill site and came and helped me pack him out. My K4 performed flawlessly and handled the weight without any issues. My hip flexors where my biggest weakness.
I’m not big on score but threw a tape on him after I got home and if I did it correctly he grossed around 135. By far my biggest to date and will be hard for me to beat going in blind for PA big woods.
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