Pennsylvania Game News - July 2011 - 14

and his wife, Leigh Ayn, would be in hers on the next ridge, a few hundred yards from him. So, when the eastern sky lightened in a display of color, all three of us were tucked into our stands. It wasn’t long after daylight when I heard a shot that sounded like it came from Leigh’s direction. A few minutes later I heard another shot. Leigh had shot at a buck, and when she couldn’t locate any sign of a hit, JJ went over to help look. She stayed in her stand and directed him while he searched. At first he couldn’t find anything, but then he located some hair and found blood. He soon located her deer. It was a fat 6-point with one broken main beam, but still a legitimate six. Around 9:30 I noticed a doe sneaking through one of my shooting lanes and into a laurel thicket. She was quickly followed by three more antlerless deer. They were noticeably nervous, as they fidgeted around in the brush. I kept watching the shooting lane to see if maybe a buck had been trailing the group, and I soon saw a much larger deer coming, but it was only a spike. It, too, joined the group in the laurel. I finally decided that because there was no buck in the group and a couple of the does were good-sized, I would try to get a clear shot at one of them. I kept glassing the group through the scope, trying to get one of them to separate from the others, but all I could make out were patches of brown here and there. Finally, when one of the deer took off down the hill, the whole group followed. A few seconds later, though, they were all back. After more milling around, one of them started down a trail directly toward my stand. It would have been perfect if the group had followed, but one in the back must have panicked again and took off
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down the hill, taking the entire herd with her. But once more, they were all back in a few seconds. I was getting frustrated, trying to locate a large doe and get a clear shot, when I noticed the tips of antlers bobbing around in the laurel. I couldn’t count points (I couldn’t even tell which deer they were on), but it looked like a nice rack. I could see at least two points on each side, but I couldn’t tell if he had any brow tines. Then he turned his head at an angle and I spotted brow tines. He was definitely a legal buck, and a pretty nice one. I was searching in earnest for an opening in the brush. And a third time, they took off down the hill. I could see “my” set of antlers disappearing through the laurel, along with my hopes, but for an unbelievable third time, they returned. There was obviously something down over that hill they didn’t like. By now I was frantically probing the laurel for a clear shot, because I feared they would take off for good at any second. I finally located the antlers again and they were attached to a deer that was staring right back in my direction. I didn’t know if he was actually looking at me or not, but I knew I had only seconds to shoot. I could see only his head and the upper part of his neck between a fork in a tree. He was quartering toward me, so I held as low on the neck as I could, tried to steady my nerves, and fired. At the shot, mass pandemonium erupted in the thicket. This time deer went down the hill with a purpose and didn’t return. All was quiet again and I was shaking like a leaf. I climbed down and walked toward the thicket. As I neared it, a lone deer ran down over the hill, but I couldn’t tell if it was the buck or not. I got to where I thought the buck had been standing, but couldn’t find any sign of a hit. No hair, no blood and I couldn’t even see where any leaves had been kicked up. I made ever-larger circles and still couldn’t find anything. So, I went back to
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Pennsylvania Game News - July 2011

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