Pa's new top archery deer
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Teeton
04-Jan-18
Teeton's Link
Here's a link to my home state (Pa) new top typical deer. In the last 5 years I have seen some really nice deer come from Pa.
https://gantdaily.com/2018/01/04/pennsylvania-has-a-new-record-buck/
From: Quinn @work
04-Jan-18
Great buck for anywhere! Refreshing to see the guy doesn't find the need to long arm that rack.
From: Sage Buffalo
04-Jan-18
Let that sink in that is a 185" net WT buck taken with bow in PA and it's the #1 deer ever taken (that's recorded).
There are so few deer actually scored that break that magical 170" mark. I once did some research and only a handful of bucks a year are taken in each state with bow that exceed that mark.
Nice buck!
From: midwest
04-Jan-18
I'd say that's a shooter!
From: spike78
04-Jan-18
Deductions make no sense to me at all.
From: bow assassin
04-Jan-18
Great buck! Congratulations to the hunter!
From: Charlie Rehor
04-Jan-18
Public land? Prolly DIY too. Just amazing!
From: PECO
05-Jan-18
Great buck!
From: Fuzz
05-Jan-18
Dilly dilly!
From: Franklin
05-Jan-18
Looks like another record is about to fall in Wisc....it`s on the Wisconsin board and it was killed in New Berlin behind the Costco.....unbelievable typical. Good to see some NEW great deer being taken.
From: Jax'sMommy
05-Jan-18
214 lbs dressed in York County. 8 pointer with a huge neck. I think his Grandfather was Elk or Mule Deer. I didn't get it, a Friend did. 37 yards double lunged with his Prime. Fellow is a Gunsmith, FFL holder, Boyer but doesn't advertise as he's got more than enough work. I don't think he was interested in being in records but RutNut saw the picture, as did Joe. Anyone want to see it send request for text 570-977-1149.
From: GotBowAz
05-Jan-18
Pa has really stepped up in terms of public land big bucks. Have a friend of mine from there that sent me a picture of her niece with a 130ish and then her boyfriends buddy that killed a 150ish. Both public land. The one above is a very impressive deer anywhere but in PA, well that's a hell of a buck.
From: marktm250
05-Jan-18
Nice buck. They ran Gary Alt out of the state after he put in the controversial antler regs (early 2000s?). I moved out of PA soon after so never witnessed the impact but I still get reports from friends on some nice quality bucks every year.
From: DanWesson357
05-Jan-18
The antler restrictions did wonders to allow deer to live past the 1.5 year age. So now many reach the 2.5 but even the great bow, rifle, inline and flintlock hunters of PA can't kill all of the 2.5 year olds so there are more, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5 and so on. Antler restrictions are the best thing to happen to deer management in PA since I started hunting for certain. Now all we need is Sunday hunting. Buck to doe ratio has improved and herd reduction allows for healthier deer. Many complain that the PGC sells too many doe tags, but this is not the case where I hunt.
From: LINK
05-Jan-18
Nice buck.
From: Boris
05-Jan-18
It was an honor to measure the Nicola buck. But, as they say records are made to be broken. So far this year I have measured 3 bucks that goes over 170. All come from Ohio. ! was taken with a gun at 188+, 10pt. The other 2 are also 10's an they go just over 170. These are bow kills.
From: deerhunter72
05-Jan-18
Wow! Public land record!
From: bigeasygator
05-Jan-18
"Antler restrictions are the best thing to happen to deer management in PA since I started hunting for certain"
I cut my teeth hunting whitetails in PA (25 years ago) and I completely agree with you. Anything with any kind of a basket rack back then was an absolute trophy -- 90% of the deer that were killed were forkhorns and spikes it seemed like. Without ARs, I don't think you'd ever have seen a buck like this. I know there are drawbacks to the ARs, but man, I don't think you can argue that it drastically improved the trophy quality of the herd.
From: marktm250
05-Jan-18
Agreed, gator. Back then, even a P&Y-class deer would have been a huge deal, although some brutes always came out of the Pittsburgh suburbs and up in the Erie swamps. A good 6 or 8-pt basket was a nice buck. Tough growing up hunting in PA ... no youth season, no Sunday hunting (still!), could not shoot does during buck rifle season, etc.
From: DanWesson357
05-Jan-18
The new record was at one time a 1.5 year old spike or fork horn and most likely someone had to let it walk due to antler restrictions, then it became a 2.5 and lucked its way through the PA hunting seasons, then it became a 3.5 and got lucky a second year, then it became a 4.5 and turned into a different animal difficult to kill. And sometime after that it became a new PA Record. The more 1.5 year old that live the more chance we get to hunt 4.5+ year old deer.
From: Mule Power
05-Jan-18
Sweet!
From: BOWNUT
05-Jan-18
Great buck. How old was it?
From: DaleHajas
05-Jan-18
DaleHajas's Link
I hunt the same woods often. The guy put in the effort. Thats why he killed a great buck. What if some guy shot it as a basket rack? :( its good to see guys letting them grow a bit.... Heres one from the bordering county...RK
https://www.dailyamerican.com/entertainment/monster-buck-found-dead/article_00dc1918-f225-11e7-80a7-2bc8b7e9582f.html
From: XMan
06-Jan-18
Wow, great deer and I am equally as surprised by a 185 buck being number 1, tv gives such a false impression of reality
From: WV Mountaineer
06-Jan-18
Great deer for sure.
From: Timbrhuntr
06-Jan-18
Awesome deer ! Said he had 8 game cams out and basically watched it grow up new where it bedded and what trails it used. Sounds like he put in the work not just a lucky encounter ! Only problem was he said he used sentlock and if it wasn't for that he probably wouldn't have got the deer !
From: Treeline
06-Jan-18
Very nice! Congratulations to the hunter! Shows what PA deer can grow to if they are just allowed to get a little age on them! Awesome buck from anywhere.
From: Zbone
06-Jan-18
And they say there are no big deer in PA...8^)
From: kentuckbowhnter
07-Jan-18
not any more he killed it.
From: Mule Power
07-Jan-18
And to think some hunters persecuted Gary Alt for implementing antler restrictions and advocating more antlerless licenses. Deer hunting in Pa has never been better.
From: stick n string
07-Jan-18
Mule, the problem is, everybody used to see 100 deer the first day of rifoe no matter where they sat or how close to the truck they were. They were all running for their lives, but that was "hunting" to them. Now they gotta actually hunt, and even then sometimes u dont see deer.....
I agree, i love the hunting in PA right now....
From: marktm250
07-Jan-18
Here is a clip of a nice PA buck I saved from the paper back in 1980. No record potential but a damn nice buck for the time in PA. I never hunted up there, but the swamps up around Erie and Crawford county allowed a few of these bucks to age.
From: Mule Power
07-Jan-18
That’s a dandy! I have friends shooting nice bucks in the Crawford county swamps and around Pymatuning these days.
I can remember counting over 125 deer in a day up in Forest County on the gun opener too. If you saw a spike you shot it and if you killed a tiny 8 point you were a hero. These days the numbers are certainly down up there but the quality is way up. This is a Forest County buck from this year. Back in the say there wasn’t a buck like this within 100 miles of Forest County!
From: Zbone
07-Jan-18
Could never understand why they said no big bucks in PA, I worked for a few fall months in NW region of the state back in the late 80s and seen some dandy bucks, just as good as the bucks in NE Ohio... Back then you could legally spotlight them until 10 PM or something like that and seen plenty of good ones... If you think about it they have the same genetics, much of Ohio's modern day deer population of the 50 and 60s migrated from PA, they are the same deer...
Have seen pix of some killed recently in the Pittsburgh area the past few years that are jaw dropping...
From: Habitat for Wildlife
08-Jan-18
This is proof IMO that at least some parts of QDM work. Congrats to the hunter and the state for big improvements.
From: Mule Power
09-Jan-18
Perry county 11/2 crossbow kill
From: JL
09-Jan-18
""This is proof IMO that at least some parts of QDM work. Congrats to the hunter and the state for big improvements.""
I'm not so sure about the APR portion of that...at least in PA's case. Their buck harvest rate is avg only 18% (82% of hunters unsuccessful) and something like 11% or 12% of their total buck harvest is comprised of 3.5 and older. The other 88% or so is 2.5 and below. Using those PGC numbers, 12% of 18 means only about 1.9% of the hunters shoot a 3.5 and older buck every year. It's possible that's why hunter satisfaction in what they see is not very good when looking at the hunter surveys. They have been using APR's since 2002...which the hunters surveyed still like. Is that a QDM/APR success?
From: Zbone
09-Jan-18
Mule Power - Wow, thanks for sharing.... Killed on my birthday, would have been a nice present...8^)
From: Shawn
09-Jan-18
Indian Bob, actually a 199" buck in Licking County Ohio would put you in the top 15 and as far as typicals go it would be number 1 I believe!! Great PA buck for sure!! Shawn
From: Mule Power
09-Jan-18
Mckean County “Kinzua Country” I had no idea there were bigguns way the heck up there!
From: marktm250
10-Jan-18
Geez, I think that guy migrated down from Canada. Impressive bucks for the mountain tier counties for sure. I only hunted PA as a resident ... may need to reconsider hunting as a NR.
From: Teeton
10-Jan-18
PA deer
PA deer
PA deer
PA deer
Another
Another
Mule, I was just going to start another thread called
"Another PA Bruiser" till I saw u posted a picture of it.
Here are some other pa buck I got pictures of. Ed
From: Kodiak
10-Jan-18
Man, some heavy beamed knarly old bucks for sure.
From: Wood I
10-Jan-18
Here is a photo of a public land firearm buck shot this year. 186 5/8" green from PA
From: Zbone
13-Jan-18
Believe this or not (can search the old threads) but back when PA adopted the APR I said PA would be the next whitetail hotspot....8^)
From: Charlie Rehor
13-Jan-18
Anyone except Mule Power remember Gary Alt? He’s the reason there are big bucks again in PA and he was lambasted for doing it at the time!
From: Mule Power
13-Jan-18
I mentioned that above Charlie. He gained respect by helping make the Pa bear population healthier than ever. But all those fork horn shooters had a meltdown when he told them no more “if it’s brown it’s down” hunting. Some of us went out drinking to celebrate!!!!
From: Jethro
13-Jan-18
If ever a guy deserves to say "I told you so", its Gary Alt.
From: Teeton
13-Jan-18
Gary did a wonderful thing..
As for the brown it down mentality, big change. I now see guys passing up small 8 points because they know there's bigger out there. Pa's deer hunting is the best it's been in 50 years and it's only going to get better.
Many of these big deer are big woods deer. Maybe our deer in the big woods are big for the some of the same reasons that our bear are... One is lots of hard wood nut crops..
From: Charlie Rehor
13-Jan-18
Pretty soon us NR may have to draw tags like in Iowa:)
From: Mule Power
13-Jan-18
Ok we can delete this thread now before we have Pennsylvania point creep! Lol
From: cord 62
13-Jan-18
Land in Pa just went up $500/acre.
From: Teeton
14-Jan-18
Here's another PA buck. Just got this pic.
From: Teeton
14-Jan-18
Hi Bob, u maybe right but,I'm seeing way more killed each year. I've seen more nice deer in the last 4 or 5 years than the 20 years before. Every few years in the old days I would see a good 150 buck someplace. Now I see a few every year.
I'm not saying that PA has biggest deer. Just that PA has a lot more bigger deer than it had 20 years ago. Ed
From: Mule Power
14-Jan-18
Teeton... exactly! There were always a couple here and there. Now you can’t count them. It’s a whole other world.
From: marktm250
16-Jan-18
There were some big boys around before antler regs ... this is from 2001 ... so the "genes" are there. A decade after antler regs, looks like there are more of these brutes running around. Statistically though, KS, IA, IL are still the best shots for actually seeing one of these on the hoof.
From: Slippery Paw
17-Jan-18
Slippery Paw's Link
Link doesn't work. See below.
From: Slippery Paw
17-Jan-18
Slippery Paw's Link
Well it's a bit of a depressing story. The deer was recovered over a half of a mile from where he shot it and it was 41 days later. How do you even prove it was an archery kill?
From: Genesis
17-Jan-18
Interesting to see how they will rule......ZZZZZZZZZZZZZaft 2.0................clean skull in 41 days
From: midwest
17-Jan-18
Pretty sad story. At least it wasn't an 88 or 101 yard shot in the neck. It was a 32 yard shot in the neck.
From: Slippery Paw
17-Jan-18
Yea I don't want to be one of those jealous types bashing another hunter over his success, but something is a little fishy here. Look at the pic in the D&D hunting article. That's supposed to be how he found the deer 41 days later. There's another backbone lying in the picture. Who's to say EHD or any other number of reasons didn't kill the deer? It was 41 days after the shot. Ugh! PA has already accepted it as a hunter killed new state record.
From: Scrappy
17-Jan-18
I have no idea how Pa. could accept this deer as an archery kill. Not trying to bash or be a negative nanny but no way. Thats nothing more than a dead head pickup.
From: JL
17-Jan-18
I think one challenge would be how to prove his shot killed it. What if the deer lived for a couple of weeks and died from some other cause? Is there not a statue of limitations involved? Also...if some other hunter comes up and says he also has pics and shot the deer too....that will be a problem.
From: midwest
17-Jan-18
I sincerely hope it was his arrow that killed it and he never hunted once between the time he shot it and the time he found it.
I wouldn't have felt right entering it after that much time.
From: JL
17-Jan-18
""I sincerely hope it was his arrow that killed it and he never hunted once between the time he shot it and the time he found it. ""
Good point....especially if he was tagging other deer in between. I wonder how that would work if he used his tags on other deer? Can he still claim that one?
From: Genesis
17-Jan-18
nm
From: Trial153
17-Jan-18
Surprised they are allowing it as a record. Seems like a lot of variables that aren’t accounted for.
From: midwest
17-Jan-18
This poor guy is going to be roasted online once the rest of the story gets around.
From: cord 62
17-Jan-18
"statue of limitations," uhg
From: Grunt-N-Gobble
17-Jan-18
I read that he failed to tell the PGC the whole story and that they are now consulting with B&C as to what to do next. Apparently the PGC had no idea it was 41 days until he found it.
I bet no one would even be questioning it had he found it inside of a week.
From: marktm250
18-Jan-18
Wow, what are the odds of that buck expiring right on top of another deer backbone? Tough call, but I am leaning towards a dead head pickup. I truly feel for the guy. Personally, I would have been happy to recover it but sad and the same time and would not have bothered with the record books. However, it is good that the rack was made public.
A mandated recovery time would be tricky ... 24 hours ... 1 week ... 1month? What if he had clear video of the shot ... would that change things?
From: JL
18-Jan-18
I would think if he had clear footage of the shot on that confirmed buck....that is pretty strong evidence. It still leaves a gap of time that has to be accounted for and what took place during that gap. If the deer survived "X" amount of days after the shot, is it considered a "kill"? I don't know. Is there a past precedence that could be applied?
From: Pope125
18-Jan-18
Pretty funny the guy did not find that deer till 41 days after he shot at it . So what really killed it ???
From: Boris
18-Jan-18
I am a measurer for P&Y. The rule is, If you stop looking for the animal an return to hunting again, you abandon the first animal. That disqualifies that animal from the record books. Question: did he stop looking for that deer nd return to hunting? Then he found the remains of the first deer. Not slamming anybody, just putting the rules out there.
From: Ben Farmer
20-Jan-18
Here are two more from this year in Pa
This one netted 204 4/8
From: Ben Farmer
20-Jan-18
This one netted 198
From: Termin8r
26-Jan-18
Termin8r's Link
The report states the PA Game Commission is investigating....... http://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/battle-over-record-setting-deer-bagged-in-westmoreland-co/689489070
One question that I haven't seen answered is this. We know from the hunter that he lost blood after 1200 yards, but how far was the head recovered from where he shot it? The distance could be an indication if the arrow actually killed the deer.
It is my understanding that the measurers/PA Game Commission did not know it was found 41 days after the shot.
From: DaleHajas
26-Jan-18
As far as the 41 day recovery its very easily possible that Pa Game Book listings dont require to be exactly like P&Y club LISTING rules. Theres no way IMHO that the PGC says "oh goody you found it now here's your #1 certificate" just no way. There has to be more to the story and eventually it will be told. It isnt going to last long as there are quite a few big boys roaming Pa's woods. Look at these pictures!
From: Bou'bound
27-Jan-18
could have been a coyote kill
From: Mule Power
27-Jan-18
Then again he could have killed the deer and not hunted again this season and finally found it after the arrow finally took it’s toll.
How about that theory? If you shot a buck like that what would you do? I’d search to the ends of the earth.
From: DaleHajas
28-Jan-18
And he pretty much did lol there are deer that easily compare to that buck in the state. But what "if" someone killed it as a basket rack 4 or 5 years ago? There are going to be some bigger bucks killed.
From: Bowgoon
07-Feb-19
Has anyone heard anymore about this?
From: Zbone
07-Feb-19
If ya think about it, he should have used his tag last day of season even though he hadn't found it yet if he assumed it was dead...
From: Huntcell
07-Feb-19
‘41 days latter nothing but bones’ he should have thought long and hard about how it would play out to all the venues he was going to expose it to. Always going be doubts and murmuring behind his back.
From: EIStone
07-Feb-19
Ya I believe that they measured it and it is the state record with a bow now. I think that the ruling was that he didn't hunt for another deer and kept looking for the one he shot so he never gave up on it.
From: Boris
10-Feb-19
Thanks slippery paws. I thought that I had read the story in North America Whitetail. An that it was shot in archery season, but found in in rifle season. Yes, it is a hell of a buck. But, how can it be a State archery record if it was not found after the shot?
From: David A.
10-Feb-19
"If it's brown, it's down" is an all too common mantra even with mule deer. Tragedy of the commons...
From: Lee
11-Feb-19
If you want to read an interesting book read Deer Wars.
Lee
