Pennsylvania Hunter Tags a Giant Buck with His Flintlock. It Should Become a New State Record

Pennsylvania’s early archery and rifle deer seasons had ended, and Chris Rhoades was nonetheless ready for an opportunity to take an particularly large buck. He’d seen the deer on path digital camera images and simply as soon as in late December on his looking property, the place he’d set a blind.

“I noticed the buck very late [that] day within the cornfield on my 165-acre farm,” Rhoades tells Outside Life. “Nevertheless it was too late to shoot.”

Rhoades was looking together with his .45-caliber CVA as a part of Pennsylvania’s traditional flintlock season that runs from late December by way of a lot of January.

The blind that Rhoades had arrange in his Erie County cornfield was well-camouflaged. It has sturdy partitions and home windows to buffer Pennsylvania’s bitter-cold winter climate, however he at all times waited till onditions had been good earlier than looking the blind. And on the afternoon of Jan. 1, the wind was good.

Rhoades has hunted deer for many of his 54 years and is aware of that persistence and stealth pay huge dividends. In order that New Yr’s afternoon, he walked a number of hundred yards alongside a railroad observe to slide into the cornfield and settle quietly into his conceal.

The bottom was lined with snow. It was 15 levels and a bit overcast with a slight wind. Nevertheless it was comfortable contained in the blind, and some does and small bucks ultimately fed out within the cornfield.

“Lastly, about 5 p.m. the buck I used to be after stepped into the corn, other than the opposite deer,” says Rhoades. “I waited for him to get a bit of nearer, and when he stood at 55 yards I put the iron sights of my rifle on his shoulder and fired.”

Smoke billowed from his flintlock and Rhoades didn’t see the place the buck ran after the shot. With night time falling, Rhoades went to the place the buck had stood however discovered no blood. Deer tracks had been in all places within the subject, so he couldn’t inform which manner the deer had ran.

“I used to be undoubtedly shaking. He was an impressive animal,” Rhoades advised GoErie.com, which first reported the hunt. “I needed to calm myself down.”

Rhoades phoned his native looking buddy Kurt Hotchkiss and advised him he’d shot the deer however had no observe to observe. He determined to depart the realm, then return later with Hotchkiss and one other good friend, Brent Soety, to search for the buck.

“We obtained again there about 7 p.m. and began strolling the sting of the cornfield on the lookout for signal,” says Rhoades, who had been looking with a 240-grain hole level. “Kurt discovered him simply contained in the woods [along the] fringe of the sphere. He’d solely traveled 60 yards from the place I hit him. However there was no blood in any respect, and no exit.”

The hunters then loaded the estimated 200-pound deer onto an ATV and drove to a close-by residence to decorate the buck. The deer is a main-frame 10-pointer with heavy mass. It has been inexperienced scored at higher than 170 inches, with a 24-inch unfold. Rhoades can have the buck mounted on a pedestal to show on a whiskey barrel in his enterprise workplace.

“We predict the buck was between 5.5 and seven.5 years outdated,” mentioned Rhoades, who’s taken different huge bucks in the course of the flintlock season. “I’ve to attend 60 days earlier than the buck may be formally scored. However he’s been green-scored within the 170-inch vary.”

Whereas tagging a buck like Rhoades is an accomplishment with any methodology, it’s significantly spectacular with a flintlock. The present No. 1 Pennsylvania flintlock buck scored 146 4/8 and was taken by John Martin in 2003 in Armstrong County. One other flintlock hunter, Larry Oswald, shot an 8-point earlier this season that scored 150 2/8.

Associated: 19 Timeless Photos from Pennsylvania’s Flintlock Season, the Last of Its Kind in the Country

“I talked to Brian Knightlinger who’s an official scorer and he belives my 10-pointer shall be a brand new Pennsylvania state file buck taken with a flintlock rifle when it’s scored in March.”