It was Thanksgiving Day and Dad was talking about hunting again! He was passing around his video camera telling everyone about this Big Buck he saw for the last couple of weeks. I was intrigued, so I watched the video. As I watched the video I just wasn’t sure how big the buck was. It didn’t seem as big as he described. The whole night that is all he talked about to everyone. We were not on very good speaking terms since he had taken my 5 year old son, Will, hunting against my orders. He had told me about the new mentor program implemented by the Game Commission where you could take a child hunting at any age under supervision. I hadn’t heard of it and wasn’t sure he had made it up. Nevertheless I said Will was not ready to see a deer die. I knew he had been working with Will practicing with the crossbow and teaching him where to place the shot on a deer. But I still didn’t think Will was ready to see a deer die. I thought it might traumatize him. I didn’t start hunting until I was 12 years old and felt he should be, too. One day Will came home from Poppy’s (my Dad) and said he almost got a shot at a buck. I asked more questions. He said he had been hunting with Poppy three different times. He said he was wearing a harness and the tree stand had rails on all four sides. This did not make a difference. I was still mad. I called him and he admitted to everything but it didn’t make me feel any better. So we hadn’t talked much since.
When I answered the phone that morning he told me he had just seen a 10 point that he had showed me on video twice before. My Dad had already gotten a real nice 8-point in archery season so he had been trying to video my Uncle Pablo shooting that buck in the morning. They both saw the big bruiser at 150 yards about 9:00 a.m. He went behind some brush and never came out. My Dad climbed down from his tree stand and did a little drive in hopes to push him past my Uncle. Only three doe came out. We don’t shoot doe in buck season even though you are permitted in Chester County.
When he got to the stand he told Uncle Pablo that he would go up to the house and push down. When he was 200 yards from Uncle Pablo he saw the monster’s rack down through the woods. My Dad thought the buck might not go past Uncle Pablo as he didn’t in the morning. He got on the phone and called his oldest son, Vernon. Vernon works a second shift job so he didn’t get an answer. His second call was to his good buddy, Herb. He said he couldn’t leave work because of it being the first day of buck season and they were short handed. I guess I was his last hope. I hadn’t hunted in 15 years. Dad told me to go get a license and pick up my brother Victor from his job and be here by 3:30.
When we arrived Dad had all my clothes laid out and my shotgun on the pool table in the basement. Victor and I got dressed in some old musty smelly hunting clothes that were as old as my Dad. Dad sent Victor down in the valley with Uncle Pablo. He had been on stand since 5:30 a.m. with nothing to eat or drink. Dad said he was dressed like it was archery season so I knew he was cold and hungry. He called up to the house and told Dad to send Victor down with a bottle of water. We gave Victor a half hour to get set up. Just before we left the basement the sky got black and it started to sleet and rain. This was something Dad hadn’t planned on but it was perfect for stalking a big buck. Dad was videoing and trying to keep the camera dry and I was trying to keep my scope dry with a glove over it. As we snuck through the woods, you could hear the sleet on the leaves. It sounded like bacon cooking in a hot frying pan. As we neared the spot where Dad had last seen the buck, I slowed down. I could just see the rack moving in the two foot undergrowth. Dad said to crawl to the next tree about 20 yards closer and slide up the tree and smoke him before he makes his escape. I think he expected me to chase that monster to my Uncle or to my brother. When I slid up the tree, he had just decided to leave his bed. I’m not sure if it was my perfume or just time to go eat. When he stood up I still could only see his massive rack and neck so I dropped down and imagined where the vital area would be, I didn’t want him to get away. I didn’t want to loose the only shot I was going to have and I didn’t want to take a head shot and blow off that massive rack. Dad was still videoing as the monster started to move. I squeezed off a shot. He dropped like a sky diver with no parachute. Dad turned the camera, still recording, and said “nice shot”. It made me feel great. Victor called five minutes after he heard the shot. He told him it was over and I had just gotten my first monster.
I think I’ll go back into retirement until my son Will starts to hunt or since I have a license now, I might take Will with Dad second archery season after Christmas. Who knows? Things change. This is how I forgave my dad.
Gross Score: 153 6/8
Date of Kill: 12/1/08
Outside Spread: 21 1/2
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