Pennsylvania Game News - February 2013 - 17

of course, he always shared what he had. And that’s how we got the idea of how to really help some of the troops over there: have an entire deer made into jerky. The ﬁrst obstacle was to see if it was legal; the second was to see if it would stay without spoiling. I contacted WCO Gary Fujak and he informed me of the details. Then he told me about a deer processer called Kips. In the past he had checked and processed deer carcasses brought in during deer season. Kips was contacted and I was told what had to be done. He said they would do everything possible to make it happen and he would work with me on the cost. All I had to do was get a deer. No problem, I thought. I talked it over with everyone who hunted with me, including my brother, John, my son, Jeff, and my two hunting buddies Al and John. Surely with all of us out there, someone would get a deer. Archery season opened and Jeff hit a big buck but it got away and was found dead days later. Al was the other archer, and he saw deer but never got a shot. Next up was muzzleloading season. John and I usually got out during this season, but due to other obligations, we never got out this year. At that point I started to get a little apprehensive about getting deer jerky for the troops. Next up was bear season. We hunted bears and scouted for deer at the same time. John and I hunted in the Minister Run area in Forest County. The day brought beautiful weather, but we didn’t see any bears or deer. We changed locations on Monday, to a State Game Lands in Venango County, and once again, we didn’t see anything. I told John that if our plan was going to reach fruition, it would have to be in the ﬁrearms deer season. We met at camp the day after ThanksFEBRUARY 2013

giving and sat around talking about what was at stake. At ﬁrst we had thought we would take a doe the ﬁrst day, but last year the season was changed in our wildlife management unit; the antlerless season didn’t open until the ﬁrst Saturday. In western Pennsylvania it rained hard on the ﬁrst two days of the antlered season. We selected an area not far from camp that we thought might produce some deer. From talking to the locals, we learned that the hard mast was in short supply, though. Al and I saw some tails on Monday and Tuesday, but we hunted only three hours in both days.

Once we sent some beef jerky to Afghanistan. EJ said he had to ﬁght off the other soldiers whenever it arrived but, of course, he always shared what he had. And that’s how we got the idea of how to really help some of the troops over there: have an entire deer made out of jerky.
On Wednesday we went to Minister Run area. We didn’t see any deer. On Thursday we took a break and went ﬁshing for steelhead at Lake Erie. John, Al and I discussed our options for Saturday. We all agreed that the ﬁrst antlerless deer that came by would be taken. At 8 o’clock on Saturday the ﬁrst round of does came through. I didn’t have a good shot, but I thought they would continue past my son, Jeff. An hour later, I started pushing toward the others, and within 10 minutes I
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Pennsylvania Game News - February 2013

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