This buck first made his appearance two years before this
particular story actually takes place.
P.T. was nearing the end of another day of archery deer hunting when he
located a monster buck about 150 yards away at the treeline! The buck already had P.T. pegged, and knowing
there was no chance at making a move on the big buck, P.T. grabbed his video
camera and got a few minutes of video before the 35” wide 4X4 turned and
disappeared into the treeline!
Now, two years later, P.T. had the buck located once again! The old man (the buck not P.T.), was busy
chasing does around in some scattered cedar trees. The buck looked to have lost a little width
over the years, but was in a location that would allow P.T. to attempt a
stalk. The scattered cedars and heavy
snowfall provided great cover for P.T. to work within archery distance of the
deer as they darted back and forth chasing one another through the trees. At 35 yards the buck came to a stop standing
broadside as P.T. held his bow at full draw!
The old buck showed his reflexes were still sharp as a tack as P.T.’s
bow went off. Slightly jumping the
string, it looked to P.T. like he may have hit the buck just a little far back,
but he couldn’t be sure. The day was
beginning to run out, and P.T. made the decision to mark the location on his
GPS and back out.
P.T. arrived back in town just after dark and picked up good
friend Richard Cox and some flashlights.
The heavy snow had become a white out and P.T. was afraid that if he
didn’t locate the buck soon, the new snowfall would make things extremely
difficult by morning. The two returned
to the location of the shot, but the snow had turned any tracks into small
dimples under fresh snow, completely covering any blood that they had hoped to
find. After a couple hours, P.T. realized
they had gotten off on the wrong track, so the two returned to town for the
night.
P.T. was back on location at first light and had sorted out
which tracks belonged to the buck he had shot the evening before. Luckily the snow had begun to subside as P.T.
and Richard headed home the night before, so tracking might not be as difficult
as P.T. had first thought. He continued
on the right track when he came across a set of large cat tracks that had
jumped in on the tracking job, only it looked like he had a head start on
P.T.! P.T. came to a spot that looked
like a struggle had taken place, and suddenly P.T.’s tracking job went from
following the bucks footprints to following drag marks!
The lion had drug P.T.’s buck to the bottom of a drainage,
ate a hind quarter and a front quarter and covered to buck before wandering
away to sleep off his easy meal! P.T.
reclaimed his buck that sported a 3X4, 33 ½” frame!
On the upside, the mount on P.T.’s wall is one of a
kind! The buck has new scars on his face
from his final encountered with the big tom!
