A Lion Got to Him!

P.T. has never been a stranger to big bucks!  Nor has he ever been a stranger to archery hunting, as a matter of fact, for the majority of P.T.’s hunting career, he preferred archery equipment over a rifle when it came to deer hunting!

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!