The HuntingPA.com Outdoor Community banner

legal buck?

4K views 27 replies 14 participants last post by  Johnnyb1815 
#1 ·
Had a nice 8 run a doe past tonight, stopped him at 40 yards. I could see him fine. Whispered to my 68 year old mom to shoot, but she was slightly to my left and had some brush in the way. She correctly held off, waiting for a shot. They ran and she couldnt get on him.



Two smaller bucks were trailing, a spike and a 16" wide 2 1/2 y.o. buck. That buck had a good 1" brow, broken G2 and long beam on the right side. The left side had no brow (maybe broke off?) and a fork on the. The G2 on the right was broken off maybe 3/4" sticking up above the main beam. He was clearly a young buck, very thin, no mass. Of course, he hung around within 60 yards a good 10-15 minutes, and stood motionless in a clear shooting lane for what seemed like forever. I elected to have mom pass, mainly because I thought the stud 8 point might circle that doe back around (was only 4pm).



I wondered if you could call the 5 point a "legal" buck? Clearly he had 3 up top at one point, and maybe enough of a stub left to count. Was I right to pass? My mom seriously hunts harder than probably half the guys in PA and hasn't gotten a buck in 12-13 years. All kinds of stuff always seems to go wrong for her. It was pretty hard telling her not to shoot. Hopefully, the big 8 or the other smaller 8 we saw earlier comes by tomorrow. If there's a hot doe, we may have another opportunity. At least I hope so, for her sake.



We got a new spot, first time there tonight, and it sure looks like a honey hole. Saw 5 bucks tonight and umpteen does. And there's only us and maybe 2 other guys on 300+ acres.:smile2:
 
See less See more
#5 ·
I believe that senior citizens are allowed to shoot a buck with 2 or more points on one antler or one antler that has a length of atleast 3 inches. I don’t think your mom would fall under the current AR rules. May be something to dig deeper into!

Best of luck! That’s awesome your mom is still hunting at 68 years old!!
 
#7 ·
I believe that senior citizens are allowed to shoot a buck with 2 or more points on one antler or one antler that has a length of atleast 3 inches. I don’t think your mom would fall under the current AR rules. May be something to dig deeper into!

Not true. Seniors must abide by AR's.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Thanks, I try hard each year to get my buck tag filled in archery season so I can sit with her and help. She really struggles finding deer in the scope. I need to get her to practice more, for sure. Seems every time we get on a buck and something screws it up. Last year we watched a good 8 point for over an hour push a doe around, waiting for him to cross the road onto our property, only to have the neighbor Elmer Fudd down the road and funk things up for us. This year he put a stand in front of ours. Completely cut us off. Just really hope we can get things to come together. She did get a nice doe last year at about 130 yards!



As for my original question, I know the answer. I'm sure I made the right call. If you have to break out the tape measure after it's dead to check if it's legal, you probably shouldn't have shot it in the first place. And yes, I'm aware seniors DO have to abide by AR's. My granddaughter on the other hand, will be on the first spike we see there next year!
 
#10 ·
the saga continues. She has hunted by herself, morning and evening, in the rain, just about all week. Yesterday morning she calls me..."I screwed up...I missed a big one." She didn't tell me all the story but said it ran after the shot and she found no blood, etc. And she said the neighbor shot shortly after, assuming he got her buck. I was obligated to be at work and just couldn't go out to help look. I got more out of her last night. She said it "kicked and ran". It was quartering away and close, like 50 yards. She had a rest. She's normally a decent shot. I just don't think she could have missed. I think she could have misjudged where it was when she went to look for it. Deer don't always bleed right away. I think she could have pushed other deer to the neighbor. It is doe season after all. She's a trooper though. She moved to another spot after messing that one up in the morning, then after lunch, went back out and tried another spot I cleared out for her. She is out again this morning. I told you, she hunts hard!



I think she's out there hunting today. I just can't get away today and with rain tomorrow, I think for my peace of mind I should go take a walk and look for it on Sunday. If nothing else, I can get the lay of the land for late season. I think I'm going to upgrade her senior license to the senior combo, and take her out in the late season with the X-bow in a ground blind. I have a few days off for the holidays.
 
#18 ·
Yeah, maybe. Or just pay the fines and support the GC when we get pinched for not rereading the book every year.:nerd:
But every 5 years? The way things change these days I'd say about every other weekend.:grin2:
 
#25 ·
Just wanted to close the loop on this, regardless that the thread turned sideways. I kind of hesitate to post, because the deer was wasted, but it was quite a learning experience for both of us. She looks happy here, but what you don't see is how she cried like a baby when she saw what the coyotes did to this deer. She was devastated over wasting the deer. I had considered maybe we could save some meat, but it was too far gone.:crying: Consider this a learning experience for everyone.



So here goes...


Mom called me at work Thurs, said she missed a big one. She doesn't miss. But she didn't tell me the whole story at the time, and I didn't sense any urgency, so I didn't leave work to look. Wish I had. At 6pm that night I talked to her, she said she thought it kicked and ran. That changes everything. I should have gone to look. No time the past 2 days to go, so we headed out this morning.

She showed me where she was and where the deer was. We walked down behind the rock, maybe 60 yards thru thick woods and trees. Then she thought it was wrong, so I told her to go back to where she was and put me where the deer was. As I waited, I turned around and looked not 30 more yards and there he laid. She made a perfect shot thru the tiniest gap in the trees, with the scope only on 3X, at nearly 100 yards! Hit him high shoulder and he dropped like a sack of bricks. What she thought was him running was does, she neglected to tell me about earlier. She went down and followed where the does went, never knowing her buck was dead just a bit further out.

Coyotes had already gotten to him. Luckily not the head. *** end was gone, but we decided to pay tribute to this great animal by getting it mounted. I caped it out and we'll drop it off tomorrow. Now I know what to get her for Christmas! He was a big, mature, heavy beast. Easily 225 on the hoof. Biggest deer I've laid hands on. What a shame.

But I'm proud if her. She did it by herself. Just didn't know where to go from there. At 68, I think she did pretty good. Remington Model Seven in 7-08 with (choke) factory 140 gr core lokts.






 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top