Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024 - 34

wise, and said so.
" Go back, I told him, and you'll fi nd
that buck, " Bogolea said.
Petrie went, his dog in tow, fi nding hair
and blood. While following the trail, Petrie
noticed his dog had disappeared into a
thicket. It refused to come out, then clearly
could be heard licking something.
" So then I looked and all I saw were
antlers, " he said. " I didn't care how many
jaggers there were, I was crashing through
this stuff , and my hands were all ripped up.
" Then when I got in there I went, oh,
this isn't my buck. This is way too big to
be my buck. "
But it was, as his arrow proved. And it
was surely big. The 8-point - which wasn't
on any of Petrie's trail cams - scored 1346/8
inches.
All that remained to complete the slam
now was a spring gobbler. Petrie usually
does well on turkeys, he said, but there was
a complication. Afton was initially due to
deliver their baby on May 13. But doctors
moved that up to May 8, then again to May
2.
" I thought, shoot, I'm going to be in the
hospital on opening day, " Petrie said.
But when Afton, who grew up in France
and Germany as part of a non-hunting
family, learned what a big deal a grand
slam was, she off ered an opening.
At least temporarily.
" She told me she knew it meant a lot to
me to get a turkey, and since the season's
only a week, if I had to leave the hospital
to get a bird, to do it, " Petrie said.
" And I said, no, without hesitation, it's
a month. And she said, oh, it's a month.
Then your butt is in the hospital. I was like,
what did I just say? "
When the whole family returned
home the next week, though, Petrie
got the green light to go out. Half
34
an hour after daylight that fi rst morning, he
had his chance. He heard plenty of gobbles
and ultimately had a longbeard pop out 20
yards away.
Somehow, though, he missed it.
Sick, he tried again. That day brought
lots more gobbles, but no birds. Then a
friend texted to say he was seeing gobblers
at his house. Two that very morning,
in fact. Would Petrie like to try for
them?
Hunting there, fi guring the turkeys
were somewhere in the valley, the friends
set up close by one another. Both called
and, when they did, the woods " erupted, "
Petrie said. For the next 40 minutes, the
birds answered every call, but refused to
come any closer.
When one - with a 10.5-inch beard -
fi nally did, Petrie dropped it.
He had his grand slam.
Bogolea was not surprised. Petrie hunts
everything there is to hunt, he said, and
does it well.
" He deserved everything he got, " Bogolea
said.
For his part, though, Petrie credits his
faith.
" At the beginning, I asked God
for a blessing when I was struggling
with some bills and
things, and now my cup is
overfl owing, " he said.
" I'm ecstatic. I'm
still thinking, did
that just happen? "
Beaver
County,
PA
Harvesting a bear in Beaver
County was an unheard-of thing
in the 20th century. It's a different
story in the 21st. While it remains uncommon,
it's also becoming a semi-regular
occurrence. Hunters have taken three bears
there in the last decade. The first came in 2015,
the next in 2018 and the third, Tim Petrie's, in 2023.
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024

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