Pennsylvania Game News - February 2012 - 12

the windows down. After about a 15-minute wait, we noticed someone with a flashlight walking up the road. The individual, Lenny, was coming back for his truck. His buddy had shot a buck with a bow near quitting time, and they tracked it back across the road. We offered to help track the deer, but Lenny insisted he didn’t need any help. I could sense, though, that something wasn’t quite right. I told Lenny we would help and asked him to take us to the last place he had found blood. With that, I shut my door and started my truck. Reluctantly, Lenny started his truck and drove around the property to where his friend, Steve, was waiting. When we arrived Steve said that Lenny was the one who had shot the buck, with a crossbow, and that he was just helping his friend track the deer. When I caught up with Lenny again, I couldn’t help but notice blood all up and down the backs of his pant legs. When we all got to the last spot of blood, Lenny knew the gig was up and confronted Pete and me. “What’s going on? Did the neighbor call you and complain about us tracking a deer?” Lenny asked. I told him we were just traveling through the area and noticed his vehicle parked along the road. Not getting anywhere, I finally asked Lenny what they were doing. “What do you mean?” he replied
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“I mean that you are telling us that Steve shot this deer, and Steve is telling us that you shot the deer. On top of everything else, you have blood all over the back of your pants. You do not get that bloody by tracking a deer. That tells me that more than one deer is involved here. So, do you want to come clean with us, or do you want us to tell you what we think happened?” After he asked what kind of trouble he was in, I told him that depended on how honest he wanted to be with us. With his head hanging, Lenny said, “I shot this buck we’re tracking, and I shot another one earlier in the day. I shot the first one with my (conventional) bow and borrowed a crossbow to shoot this one.” With Pete on point, the four of us tracked the other buck for almost four hours. Finally we found the buck bedded in a cut hay field. The buck jumped up and ran several hundred yards and lay back down. I snuck up to about 20 yards from the big 8-point and motioned for the other guys to circle around and to spook the buck back toward me so I could get a good look at its injuries. The plan worked and the buck ran back across the field. His injury did not appear life threatening, so we let him go. A little after 1 a.m. Pete and I left Lenny’s house. He was charged with attempting to kill more than the lawful number of big game and pled guilty to the charge. He was fined $800 plus costs. (Currently, would be the same as the penalty described on the previous page.) Sometimes it does pay to be nice and help others. 
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Pennsylvania Game News - February 2012

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