Every fall I make my pilgrimage back home from Alabama for the whitetail rut.  I know there are a lot of opinions on deer managment in PA but I for one think they have done a respectable job bringing improving the quality of the deer here.  No - I don't see as many deer as I did when I lived here 10+ years ago but the quality of bucks has improved significantly and the rut is pretty intense.  Yes - we can bowhunt for 4 months and kill multiple bucks in Alabama but I'm grateful for my week in PA every year.  Doesn't compare to anything I experience in the South.  

Anyway - we arrived evening of Nov 1 and on Friday morning we were in our stands and the bucks were moving.  Between 4 of us, we saw 10 bucks that day.  Things slowed up though Saturday when nobody saw an antler.  Sunday is a scout day and we moved and hung new stands and put out cameras.  While I was itching to hunt one of the new stands, one spot always calls my name each year and the sign there was smoking when we checked it Sunday.  My buddy Mark had a stand there and offered me to hunt it.  I tossed and turned all night trying to decide where to go in the morning but when I awoke I knew I had to hunt Mark's stand at the edge of the pines.

Mark and Wes headed to the creek bottoms where we hung new stands.  Pretty soon I started getting texts from them they were seeing deer - bucks too.  As I hadn't seen a deer yet, I was questioning my decision.  

Now I am from PA but I guess my blood has thinned out since I moved south and 31 degrees is cold for me.  I pulled on another layer wool about 8:30 determined to wait it out.  I had been in the stand since 6am.  

I was on the SE corner of a 3 or 4 acre patch of thick pines in a stand in a pine - looking out over some swampy grass and open hardwoods.  There were several scrapes surrounding the pines and some rubs on trees the size of my leg.  I hunt this spot every year and its always a hotbed of sign.  But yet I had been here 3 hours now on Nov 5 and not yet seen a deer.  Hmmm.

November 5 has historically been one of the most active dates each year but it didn't seem to be panning out this year.  

At 9:15 I heard footsteps behind me.  There is a scrape just around the corner of the pines that hadn't been hit in several days but as I looked through the pines I caught flash of tines - long ones!  I couldn't see him as he worked the scraped but I saw the trees sway and heard the dirt fly.  Then he took a couple steps though the water and I knew he was coming my way.  He rounded the last pine at 10 yards and turned right for my tree. Now he was walking on top of my boot tracks.  At 4 yards - he got real nervous.  I had no shot what so ever.  I thought - this is never gonna happen - he's gonna blow.  I looked away so there was no chance we would make eye contact.  After about a minute, I heard footsteps and looked back as he was coming in front of the stand.  It was too brushy for a shot but now he was straight downwind.  Yep - he caught a whif and started out of there - but at 10 yards he slowed to a fast walk.  I drew and at 14 yards he was quartering hard away.  It was now or never....  The arrow took him just ahead of the last rib.  I knew the angle was about right but still when you see an arrow that far back - your mind starts to question.  But at 75 yards he stumbled once, twice and was down.  Thank you Lord.

I had prayed as I settled into the stand asking the Lord to make it a great day.  Dang if He didn't.  Glory to Him.

Nice deer, congrats.. I am from PA too and normally make it back there for a couple days but not this year sad fully.

Just beautiful Steve. Who says PA doesnt have big bucks? Gorgeous, big whitetail you've got there! Love the rubbed trees in the background.

Congrats!!!

Awesome buck!  Great story!      

Steve,
 Congrats on a great buck! I'm in the opposite geographic situation - from AL, living in NH!!
                                   Todd

Gongrats from Pa.  

excellent deer and story. Congrats!

I am only disappointed that while other states take a "site specific management" tact PA has chosen to make each "management" unit very large.

In some areas I get to hunt occasionally, there seems to be decent buck activity and a goodly number of branch antlered bucks.

In another area, each year we see more and more illegal spikes... and we see groups early season running together of the runts of the year, with each successive one in the group bigger in size and horn then the last...but all spikes.

This would strongly suggest a multi-year age class of spike bucks. So there may indeed be, in some specific areas, a genetic disposition to spikes...we see few branch antlered bucks...just more and more huge bodied spikes with bladed 12" horns... Love to see PGC take a few of those big ones and do a tooth age study and report their findings... I'd throw some bets into a pot on age!

Congrats on a fine buck

what a dandy! congrats

Nice story and great buck. Good shooting!  Oh and buy your friend a beer.

Nice deer....a little colder here than 'Bama?    :eek:

That is a hoss!

 congrats

beautiful buck and great memories. you cant ask for more

That is a beautiful buck!  Congratulations on your very successful hunt and your exciting story!    

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

Nice shooting and yes 31 is cold to us living in Alabama.

Congrats  

not only did you come home a PA buck but a nice one!

Steve, congratulations on a great buck!  Thanks too for giving the Lord the credit!!

Way to go Brother!