Pennsylvania Game News - August 2015 - 26

pounds and its dressed weight of 651
was just a pound shy of the heaviest bull
harvested that year, Tyler said. The bull's
rack netted 368 7/8 inches, placing it in
the record books as the sixth-largest to
be taken with a firearm in Pennsylvania.
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On the Monday after the elk hunt, Tyler
had a chance to do some turkey hunting,
heading to an area he had seen turkeys
while scouting for elk.
Before long, he was into a flock of
about 40 birds. He broke them up, and
with a few kee-kee calls, brought in a
young hen.
Any turkey's a trophy at that time of
year, he said, especially given his limited
opportunity to hunt. And with buck, elk
and fall turkey tags filled, Tyler knew bear
season held the potential for an extremely
rare degree of success.
Some among the handful of hunters to
complete Quadruple Trophy seasons have
said they weren't really thinking about
pulling off such a feat. Tyler is different.
"We made it the mission," he said.
And on the night before the Monday
opener, Tyler's dad and great uncle saw a
bear. He knew where he'd be hunting. And
given that he'd harvested bears four times
previously - three of them as part of Triple
Trophy seasons - the lofty achievement
seemed within reach.
Snow covered the ground for the
first day of bear season, with depths of
about 16 inches at some elevations. Tyler
quickly tore a path through it, hopping
from the truck the moment he arrived,
picking up the bear's tracks and striding
off at a brisk pace.
"Like a knucklehead," he said.
The bear was closer than he expected.
Within 100 yards, he jumped it, shot and
missed.
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Obviously, things weren't going the
way he wanted, but at least he knew the
tracks he'd take up were fresh. He decided
then and there he'd either track down that
bear, or push it to someone trying.
The bear's tracks showed it ran wide
open for about a half-mile, where it entered a beech-brush thicket. Within the
dense cover, it slowed its pace. But the
tracks suddenly would veer sharply to the
left at about a 120-degree angle. A little
ways ahead, they veered similarly back to
the right, then back again.
It was as if the bear was zigzagging.
Could it be making those cuts as Tyler
was turning his back to follow the tracks in
the other direction? He spun and looked,
peering through the sapling picket. To his
amazement, only 30 yards away, stood the
bear - a 127-pound sow.
"We were ecstatic," he said. "That was
the final tag for that season."
But the story was far from over. Gobbler season still was to come and, additionally, as Tyler will tell you, "You gotta
throw the coyote story in there."
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The coyote story starts as a turkey
story. Tyler struck up a conversation with
a gobbler one morning, but the turkey
suddenly went quiet. He thought another
hunter might have spooked it, or that the
turkey somehow caught a glimpse of him,
or just got tired of talking.
He soon realized there was another
explanation.
In the distance, a coyote appeared,
walking fast. Tyler hit the turkey call.
The coyote stopped, turned to see his
decoy and took off toward it on a dead
run. Tyler's 12 gauge downed the coyote
at 15 yards, just before it reached the
bogus bird.
"My decoy's been with me a long

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - August 2015