Scoring Big Bucks: Pirate
By: Brian Kightlinger
During the 2014 hunting season, my neighbor, Ron Kline, caught some great photos of a buck with his trail camera. This buck looked two and a half years old, and he was easily recognizable due to the two tears in his left ear. Because of these unique characteristics, Ron decided to name the buck Pirate. He showed me the pictures of this buck, and we agreed to allow this buck to grow another year.
In Western Pennsylvania, where I live, many bucks get harvested before reaching three and a half years of age. Ron owns seventy plus acres, and I hunt the one hundred acres across the road. We both saw Pirate during the 2014 archery season and let him walk, hoping he would make it through the heavily hunted gun season. As the 2014 season came to an end, Ron gathered more trail camera pictures of Pirate. Surprisingly, he had made it through the season unscathed. We looked at the pictures and agreed he could grow into a solid buck next year.
The following summer, Ron captured some more pictures of Pirate. The buck was developing into a beautiful mainframe eight point with excellent tine length. In August, Pirate walked out of the one hundred acres and into my front yard. My other neighbor, Dave Gill, took some pictures of Pirate and his buddy, a young seven point. I gathered some images of Pirate walking by one of my stand locations before he shed his velvet. My two children, Sam and Abby, loved going to get the trail camera cards to see what Pirate was doing. My son wanted to harvest Pirate with his bow, so he set out to practice diligently.
During the first week of the Pennsylvania archery season, Sam and I spotted Pirate. He entered our woods, out of a neighboring CRP field, about seventy-five yards away. Pirate cruised the small patch of woods before moving out of sight. Sam was excited to know that Pirate was around. I explained to him that Pirate was probably bedding in the vast CRP field directly behind us and that we could get him into bow range during the season.
Shortly after we saw Pirate, Ron tagged out on a great 145 2/8-inch non-typical buck. Now Sam and I had Pirate all to ourselves. Both of us hoped to put our tag on him.
One evening I had an opportunity to hunt from an excellent stand where I could see the CRP field. At about 4:30, I spotted Pirate about one hundred and fifty yards away. There is a long, large ditch in the center of the field. Pirate was traveling along the ditch in my direction. He stopped and fed on different plants in the ditch and then continued moving very slowly. I kept a visual on him for over a half-hour. Pirate was calm as could be until a farmer started a combine and began taking corn off the field behind me. Pirate then turned and followed the ditch back from where he came. I was heartbroken, but I was determined to outsmart Pirate and get him in bow range before the end of the season.
Late October arrived, and the archery hunting was starting to pick up. Trail cameras worked overtime, and bucks began to tear up the woods and to travel more during the day. I hunted early on Saturday, October 31st, and all I saw was a million squirrels. I decided to go home and gather my kids for a squirrel hunt. I used our squirrel hunt to scout and to put some more pieces together to take down Pirate.
While we crept through the woods, I found a fresh rub line. Following the new rubs, I could see where Pirate left the CRP field and entered the woods. The signposts continued about fifty yards to an enormous scrape and then out into a new section of woods. I explained to the kids how deer mark their territory by making rub lines and scrapes. I hung my Browning Trail camera by the fresh scrape and doctored it with Smokey's Deer Lure. I also located a hidden cherry tree to hang a stand in to hunt this travel corridor. We continued our squirrel hunt and talked about all the squirrels we would see.
November 14th was the last day of the Pennsylvania archery season. I decided to wake up early that morning and hunt another section of woods down the road from me. The weather was great! Cold temps and little wind got me excited for the hunt. I sat all morning without seeing a deer. On my way back to the truck, I bumped into three does, and as I watched them slowly disappear, a nice buck crept into view. The buck paused for a moment and then followed the three does. I continued to the truck and thought about the evening hunt.
When I got home for lunch, I asked Sam where he wanted to hunt and gave him the three options we had. Two of the options involved hunting at other farms miles away. He thought for a few minutes and said, "I think we should hunt across the road. Pirate is still around, and we could get him tonight." Sam decided we were heading out to our stand on the one hundred acres right across the road.
Sam and I got dressed in our camo and made our way to the stand. I sent him ahead of me, and I laid down a long scent drag of Antler Ice Doe-in-Heat. I hung a few scent wicks with more Antler Ice and hoped for the best. Once in the stand, we sprayed down with an extra layer of Nature's Essence, Essence of Fall all-natural cover scent, and waited for some action.
The wind was perfect. At 4:15, I heard a deer grunt that caught my attention. I could hear a buck but could not see him. Then, I saw movement. Pirate came out of the ditch from the CRP field. He was walking and grunting, looking for a way to find the hot doe! The Antler Ice was doing its job. Pirate cut into the woods and worked our way, stopping fifteen yards away behind a pine tree. Sam could not see him, so I had my bow ready to go. All Pirate had to do was step out from behind the tree, and it would be an easy fifteen-yard shot. He continued to grunt and sniff the wind as I drew, and then he stepped out and started walking away. I had one opening and was ready to release my Black Eagle Carnivore. The arrow found its mark, and the big buck ran about forty yards and out of our field of view. We heard him stop, and then we heard him go down.
Sam and I were excited as we got out of the stand and found my arrow. Sam followed the blood trail right to Pirate, who had only gone sixty yards total. He ran in front of my trail camera, and I got a picture of him before he went down. Sam and I took turns taking pictures of each other with Pirate. I texted Ron and told him Pirate was dead. Sam and I went back to the house to drop off our gear and get the tractor to load up the buck.
Back home we dressed out the buck and talked about the exciting hunt that we had shared. I was excited and pleased that my homework had paid off on the last day. I took some time to green score Pirate, and he scored 125 2/8 as a typical eight point. Pirate is my largest Pennsylvania archery buck to date. He has lots of neat characteristics, and to harvest him was the end to a great game of cat and mouse.
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