I Shot the Biggest Pennsylvania Archery Buck on Record

This story, “The Rack Was No Phantom,” appeared within the Could 1968 difficulty of Outside Life.

WITH HIS ANTLERS FLASHING within the solar­ gentle, the buck bounded out of the hemlocks. I pulled the longbow to full draw because the deer ran broadside to me, 35 yards away, however a brush pile between us blocked any probability for a shot.

The deer broke into the clear for an immediate because it leaped throughout the logging street. Then the buck was again into the comb once more; however out of the nook of my eye I noticed a gap forward.

My lead and maintain had been instinctive; my total con­sciousness targeted on the deer. I launched the bowstring, the arrow was on its method, and the buck was trotting towards the opening. I noticed the whole lot as if it had been hap­ pening in sluggish movement. Then in a single break up immediate the motion appeared to mix collectively: the deer flashing by way of the opening, the arrow converging with it. Then — thunk!— the deer was gone, clattering down the hill­ facet.

Abruptly I used to be weak within the knees and trembling throughout. Had I scored or muffed the possibility of a lifetime? I knew this was the most important buck I’d ever seen. It was thick-necked, and its rack was large. I guessed the buck was at the least a 10-pointer, however I had no concept how massive it actually was.

It was Saturday, October 2, opening day of Pennsyl­vania’s 1965 four-week archery season on deer. I used to be searching with Don Switzler. We’re each 20, reside in Pat­ton, Pa., and work for a contracting firm as linemen on high-tension energy strains.

Don and I had taken up bowhunting two years earlier, the identical yr that hunters started coming back from the Lengthy’s crossroad space with reviews of a large trophy buck. I first heard about this deer from Frank Urbain and Jim Blake, each of Patton. Native hunters started calling the deer the phantom due to the best way it dis­appeared earlier than they may get a shot at it.

Don and I’ve been searching collectively for a number of years, first with rifle and — beginning in 1963 — with bow and arrow. Don purchased a semirecurve fiberglass bow, and I bought a reasonable longbow, additionally fiberglass. Don’s bow pulls 50 kilos; mine pulls 44 kilos. These bows may appear to be hefty weapons for newcomers, however we’re each six ft tall and we each weigh 180 kilos. We noticed loads of deer these first two seasons, however we by no means caught a lot as a glimpse of this phantom buck we saved listening to about. We even bought a number of pictures at different deer however didn’t rating.

In 1964 I bought a shot at a doe working up a hillside 35 yards away. Pennsylvania permits bowhunters to shoot a buck or doe. My arrow hit this deer low within the rear leg. It was evidently a glancing hit as a result of the arrow ricocheted and the doe saved going with no limp. Later that yr, throughout the rifle season for antlerless deer, I bagged a 110-pound doe with my Winchester Mannequin 94 .32 Particular.

All of this searching was performed within the rolling hill nation inside a number of miles of our houses in Patton, in Cambria County, roughly 15 miles northwest of Altoona. Cambria County’s annual deer kill of 1,600 places it effectively down on the listing of Pennsylvania’s main deer counties.

Cambria doesn’t examine with Potter County, the place hunters common 5,000 deer a season, or with Lycoming County, which normally produces 4,600 kills annually.

In a number of areas, although, Cambria County helps good-size deer herds. And our corn-fed farmland bucks sport larger racks than these discovered within the closely forested moun­tainous elements of the state. Pennsyl­vania’s document bow-killed buck taken as much as 1965 got here from adjoining Somerset County. This buck was an 11-pointer downed in 1962 by Mar­lin E. Spangler of Boswell. It scored 131 7/8 underneath the Official Scoring Sys­tem of the Boone and Crockett Membership.

Don and I did most of our searching in timberland close to Lengthy’s crossroad, which adjoins Prince Gallitzin State Park, six miles northeast of Patton. That’s the place I’d bagged my doe the yr earlier than, and we knew loads of deer had been in these woods. With luck we’d even get an opportunity at this elusive phantom buck we’d been listening to about. Anyway, that’s the place we’d agreed to open the 1965 arch­ery season.

It had rained the night time earlier than opening day. The rain let up about midnight. After I picked Don up at 6 a.m., the starry sky promised a transparent day. We drove to the state park, turned south on the Lengthy farm, and bounced over the dust street that runs the divide between Deemer Hol­low and Killbuck Run.

Daybreak was breaking after I pulled up beside the previous logging street and parked. We bought out and strung our bows. Promptly at 7, authorized searching time, we began down the logging street into the woods. This was the second we’d been awaiting for a very long time.

All the things appeared contemporary and inexperienced after the night time’s rain. Droplets hung like diamonds from the department suggestions of towering hemlocks. We walked quietly on rain-softened earth underneath the forest cover of big oak, beech, hemlock, maple, and hickory. At a number of locations we paused to verify contemporary tracks the place deer had crossed the logging street.

After we’d gone about 200 yards into the woods, Don nudged me.

“I’ll flip in right here and discover a stand,” he whispered. “You go on forward and choose me up in your method out. For those who want any assist to pull out a deer, simply give a name.”

I grinned and went forward. If there was something I hadn’t needed to fear about after I went archery searching, it was dragging out a deer.

Earlier than lengthy I got here to an enormous hem­lock at a bend within the street. This was the place I’d bagged the doe the yr earlier than. I turned off the street and walked to a stump close to the junction of two well-used deer trails. There I sat to noiselessly watch the close by deer trails. It was so quiet you possibly can hear the needles drop off the jack pines. If there have been any deer or different bowhunters mov­ ing within the woods, they had been certain being quiet. I’d forgotten that the world might be so nonetheless.

After an hour of watching and wait­ing, I bought a sense that I’m certain have to be acquainted to many bowhunters — futil­ity.

If there’s any high quality that you should must be a profitable bowhunter, it’s confidence. But once you determine your probabilities of bagging a deer with bow and arrow, confidence is a top quality that’s mighty arduous to maintain alive, particularly after that first hour or two within the woods.

Even in Pennsylvania, one of many main deer states, solely about one hunter out of each 40 will rating on a deer — buck or doe — with bow and ar­row. In 1966, for instance, a military of 92,792 bowhunters accounted for under 2,337 deer.

You must be extraordinarily fortunate or a very skilled woodsman to get inside bow-and-arrow vary of a deer. Then it’s a must to drive an arrow into a significant space. Earlier than the season, I’d spent many evenings working towards with my bow. It took lots of observe earlier than I may drive three out of 5 arrows right into a bushel basket from 25 yards.

I’d been sitting on the stump for over an hour after I seen a motion within the leaves no more than 4 ft from my boots. As I watched, a grey squir­rel frisked previous; then a second squirrel. They’d gotten that near me with out my listening to them.

“If the squirrels can transfer that quiet­ly,” I assumed to myself, “then possibly I can too. Not less than the deer don’t appear to be coming to me.”

I GOT DOWN off the stump, stretched, and began for the logging street.

I had a broadhead nocked on the bow­ string and eight extra searching arrows within the quiver hung from my belt. Shifting a step at a time, being cautious to not snap any twigs, I reached the path.

Stomp! Stomp! I froze in my tracks. The sound was that of a deer. It sound­ed close by, however I couldn’t inform the place.

Then I heard it once more, behind me, and I turned. At that immediate the deer ran. I bought glimpses of it because it trotted behind the brushpile, heading towards the street.

The buck bounded throughout the logging street, then went into the comb once more. The clearing within the undergrowth was no wider than a automotive door, however the deer must move by way of it. I had the bow at full draw, main the deer, and launched by pure intuition.

Because the arrow sped on its method, the buck continued to run towards the open­ ing. Then the flight of the arrow and the trail of the deer appeared to con­ verge, however I by no means noticed the arrow strike. I simply heard a thunk, after which the buck was clattering on down the hill.

Had I scored? I didn’t know, however after I bought my legs underneath management, I went to have a look. Reaching the open­ing, I appeared round for the arrow, then bought down on my fingers and knees to look some extra.

The deer’s tracks — scuffed marks within the leaves — had been plain sufficient. However no arrow. I started following the tracks. After 20 yards I got here to a leaf with a spot of blood on it. Proper then I made a decision to return to Don for assist.

He was sitting on a stump about 30 yards off the logging street.

“I bought an arrow right into a buck,” I informed him. “I don’t know the way dangerous it’s hit, however I bought the beginning of a blood path. Come on again and provides me a hand in monitoring it.”

We went to the opening and started monitoring. We picked up the second spot of blood 10 yards from the primary. From there on, the monitoring bought simpler. Quickly we had been discovering massive splotches of bright-red blood on the bottom and likewise on the leafy branches of low saplings.

After one other 200 yards Don stated, “Look forward there. There’s your deer!” Positive sufficient, the buck lay sprawled in a rocky melancholy underneath a low hem­lock. We approached cautiously, ar­rows nocked, prepared. The deer by no means moved. I let fly from 15 yards with an insurance coverage shot, driving an arrow into the deer’s neck, however it wasn’t wanted. The buck was useless.

Our eyes widened as we got here as much as the deer.

“Ten factors and what a rack!” Don stated, grabbing an antler and lifting the top. “And have a look at the dimensions!”

It was an enormous one, all proper. My first arrow had hit him in the precise facet, angling ahead into the lung. It had buried itself to inside an inch of the feathers. I pulled the arrow out, and we heaved the deer from beneath the hemlock. I tagged the buck and we field-dressed it. We hadn’t introduced alongside a rope to pull out a deer, so we every grabbed an antler and started drag­ging the buck again to the logging street.

THE SUN WAS effectively up within the sky, and it was scorching and humid. By the point we reached the logging street, we had been drenched in sweat. We nonetheless had a drag of over a quarter-mile to get to the automotive.

We’d drag for 20 yards, pause to catch our breath after which drag once more.

Our work retains Don and me in prime bodily situation, however that deer was loads heavy. We later discovered that it weighed 204 kilos, field-dressed.

We nonetheless had 100 yards to go when one other hunter got here out of the woods. It was Bob Lengthy, 19, who lives on the Lengthy farm on the crossroads. He carried our bows and quivers whereas we tugged the buck the remaining distance to the automotive. It took all three of us to heave it into the trunk.

We stopped on the Lengthy farm to drop Bob off, and earlier than we left he bought some rope and we bought the deer out of the trunk and tied it over the hood of the automotive. Bob’s mom got here out to have a look at the buck whereas we had been tying it down.

“Properly,” she stated, “I see somebody closing­ly bought that phantom buck. I’ve seen it within the fields quite a few instances.”

As much as that second, Don and I had been so enthusiastic about my getting a deer, any deer, that it by no means occurred to us that the buck I’d downed was the fa­ mous phantom buck we’d heard a lot about. We knew that I’d bagged an impressive trophy, however we’d by no means linked it with the phantom. Now that we knew, one other spherical of again­ slapping was so as.

We drove into Patton, stopped at my place to point out the deer to my mom and sister, then went to Don’s dwelling. We drove up and down principal avenue to point out our trophy off. Later we visited a number of close by cities the place we had searching associates. All over the place we went, crowds gathered to see the buck. It was fairly a day!

Recreation Protector Hank Miller of Barnesboro, who checked the deer the following day, stated that it was 5 years previous. That meant that it had carried a authorized rack for 3 full searching sea­ sons. Once we skinned the deer, it was straightforward to see the way it had earned its repu­tation because the phantom. It had by no means been a lot as grazed by a bullet or an arrow. We discovered a number of curved scars on its neck, however we concluded that that they had been inflicted in fights with different bucks.

I took the top to Clearfield Taxidermy in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, to have it mounted. I used to be too late to en­ ter the top within the 1965 Trophy Buck Contest sponsored by the sport com­ mission and the Pennsylvania Outside Writers Affiliation. This program, pat­ terned after the Boone and Crockett system of scoring and document preserving, was simply getting underway that yr, and measuring and scoring had been accomplished that spring. The aim of this system is to compile information on all exceptionally massive deer bagged in Pennsylvania. Awards are given for all­ time information and for one of the best trophies of the yr.

Each second yr, hunters are in­ vited to submit trophy racks whatever the yr taken, for scoring underneath the Boone and Crockett Membership’s Official Scor­ ing System. In that first yr, greater than 1,300 racks had been measured, a few of them courting again to the 1800’s. Since I didn’t get my buck till October, and measuring had been accomplished that spring, I used to be unable to enter in 1965. Readers might do not forget that the all­ time Pennsylvania document for a typical whitetail deer that yr went to Ray Miller of Bedford for a buck he killed in 1957. It scored 177 5/8 (see “Big of Newcomer Hole,” OUTDOOR LIFE, February 1966).

The sport fee official, R. H. Sphar, scored my buck at 152 3/8. When it turned evident that this could be a brand new state document, Recreation Protectors Fred Servey and George Church visited my dwelling and spent two hours remea­suring the rack. This time the scoring was 155 1/8.

On September 23, 1967, my fiancee Alice Jane Duclos and I had been company on the second annual Deer Data Ban­quet at Allenberry, Carlisle. Readers who prefer to hold the document straight might be to be taught that Ray Miller’s trophy head was displaced because the state’s all-time document for firearms by a typical whitetail trophy submit­ ted by Vernon and Maynard Reibson of Forksville. It had been killed by their late brother Floyd in 1931 and scored 180 4/8 towards the 177 5/8 of Mil­ler’s buck. The Reibson head had not been entered for the primary measuring.

The spotlight of the banquet, at the least as far as I used to be involved, got here when my title was known as and I went to the rostrum to obtain my certificates and medallion from Glenn Bowers, govt director of the Pennsylvania Recreation Fee, for the all-time document buck taken within the state with bow and arrow.

Learn Subsequent: ‘I’m Stupid, Yes,’ Says Wisconsin Man Who Tried to Claim a 49-Point High-Fence Deer Was a State Record

From the best way archery searching’s develop­ing in reputation in Pennsylvania, it appears inevitable that my document gained’t final lengthy.

I suppose it’s virtually inconceivable that anyone archer out of any military of some 93,000 bowhunters would herald a document buck twice in a row. By no means­theless, I’ll be on the market attempting with the remainder of them.

I’m not satisfied that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the identical place. This a lot I do know: information are made to be damaged.