Pennsylvania Game News - December 2015 - 13

0

hunting in the same stand, which also is
located on the land he and others lease.
It's in a laurel-covered little ravine that's
a natural travel corridor for wildlife and an
escape route for pressured bears, he said.
Years ago, he turned the stand over
to his brother, Ray, who has taken some
bears there, too. And on the Saturday
opener in 2014, he connected with his
latest, a 134-pound male.
Carrying a gun in the bear woods for
the first time in a few years, John ended his
hunt early on Saturday to help his brother
get the bear to the check station.
With Ray tagged out, it meant the
honey-hole stand was available Monday.
John settled into it before first light.
By 10 a.m., he hadn't seen anything - but
something was happening.
John heard some hollering back and
forth in the distance. A group of hunters
was putting on a drive on nearby.
John sat tight and, before long, he saw
a bear making its escape down the ravine,
just like he'd seen others do in previous
seasons. He placed a shot behind the
shoulder of the 100-pound female.
Fortunately, for John and his home life,
he found someone to take the bear off his
hands. John donated the meat, head and
hide. He kept only the claws, and wouldn't
have the bear mounted.
"I knew better," he joked.
0 0 0 0
For as much as he loves turkey hunting,
John's success as a deer hunter is hard
to top. Now 68 years old, John began
hunting whitetails at age 13. And by his
recollection, only three seasons closed
on him with his buck tag still attached to
his license.
His impressive trophy room is a showcase of that success.
John's first five bears are there - a
half-mount, two shoulder mounts and
DECEMBER 2015	

two rugs.
Turkeys are represented by full-body
mounts - strutting, flying and roosting
- fantail displays, or just by their beards.
And while some of the turkeys came
from Oklahoma or down South, and
western mule deer and elk have their spots
on the wall, too, the mounts in the room
largely are Pennsylvania products.
All but three of the bucks that hang
there - including a few of them taken
by John's son, well-known local race
car driver Chad Trout - were taken in
Pennsylvania.
There are some dandies among them,
nearly all of them from the big woods.
While a line of seven shoulder mounts
runs the length of one wall, most of what
John has are antler mounts. Bucks of all
sizes are mixed in, but most of them are
rack bucks.
Standing within reach of the room's
longest wall and looking through the mass
of antler it supports, points protrude from
every direction.
The latest addition, a finished six-point
skull mount, sits atop a milk can by the
woodstove. It's the buck that completed
John's Quadruple Trophy, and one he
wasn't sure he'd get.
John said he usually will see at least
one buck sometime early in the rifle
season. But the hot streak he rode into deer
season quickly cooled. Monday passed,
then Tuesday and Wednesday, and he still
hadn't seen a buck.
"I was sweating bullets," he said.
Thursday seemed to be following the
same pattern. Getting an early start, John
hunted deep into the afternoon without
seeing a buck. It was closing in on quitting time when he saw deer on the move.
Initially, he could see only does, but they
were being chased by the six-point.
John knelt, held steady on the buck and

13
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - December 2015
