It would be a real bitch to be shot by a doe. Your "Obituary" woul read...Killed by a leaf eating brown eyed very hairy wicked nailed female".
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It would be a real bitch to be shot by a doe. Your "Obituary" woul read...Killed by a leaf eating brown eyed very hairy wicked nailed female".
It looks like the same buck in the same area I almost hit in October. I was on my motorcycle on that road that runs alongside St. Barbara church to that credit union that is across from Giant Eagle, the detour while the bridge was closed. It was after dark and I had no time to react/brake.
Scared the $h!+ out of me, I was really throttling 2nd gear up that little hill at the time...
It takes more than just good genetics to grow large deer, Pa has good genetics for the most part. What Pa lacks is the hunters mindset to "let them go, let them grow". I know plenty of hunters that will shoot the first thing they see, and this is the mindset of most Pa hunters. It's obvious by the size of that deer that the potential is here, they just need to live for 4 1/2+ years, but they don't in most places.
Some guys will start out looking for a trophy but that mentality quickly fades. It is however starting to improve but still has a long way to go. From 1995-2002 I shot 4 bucks in Pa during archery and 3 were 3 1/2 and 1 was 4 1/2, all were taken in northern butler county on property that got decent hunting pressure during gun season, but not enough pressure that the bucks are starting to get through the season more often and live longer, which was not the case when I first starting hunting there. A big buck years ago was a basket racked 1 1/2 year old 8 point that field dressed at 120#'s. All 4 of my bucks were over 220#'s live weight.
I'm pretty sure....well more than pretty sure that the buck you saw near St. Barbara was a different one. Could have been the same.....but late summer under an apple tree before you get to the "Crafty Shack" my wife and I were going out to Rt 22 and I saw a massive rack buck under that apple tree. He was still in velvet and he was a freight train of a deer. Again...could have been the same buck given the distance.....But my guess was they were different. The buck near the Crafty Shack was no where near as high of a rack. Still....a shoulder mount none the less.