The Hard Long Chase

by Jay Paulisczak
(Schuyler County)

The story began two summers ago. I had three big bucks coming to my "Killer Food Plots Deep Woods". I was actively hunting them come fall and was lucky to harvest one of them.

Gun season came and I hunted hard for the two remaining big bucks. On the last day of gun season the biggest of the bucks was shot by a neighbor. I hunted muzzleloader for the last of the big ones with no luck.

This last summer I only got a few pics of the remaining buck which grew from an 8-point to a 10-point. We had some new neighbors and they changed the land near the bedding area he used the year before when I had consistent pics of him and it must have pushed him off the property.

The 2017 Bow Season came and it was the worst bow season I’ve ever had as far as deer sightings and big buck sightings. After a discouraging archery season I went to my usual opening day gun spot and was skunked. The strong wind forced me out of my stand and I decided to go into a stand of pines and hard woods to get out of the weather.

I found a spot and sat down against a small cherry tree in a thicket. I wasn’t liking the spot and was thinking of moving when I heard a noise which I thought was a squirrel behind me. I turned my head looking to verify and I saw a deer moving towards me. Turned out it was the 10-point and he was five yards behind me.

I was trying to figure out how I was going to pull this off as he was so close and slipping away. So I made my move and the leaves tussled and spooked him. I stood up and shuffled to my left and there he was 30 yards always looking at me. I only had a neck and front shoulder shot that was too far forward from the vitals. So I put it on his neck and dropped him!

I finally got him after two seasons of hunting him countless hours and a very challenging bow season! All my hard work and patience paid off! He is my biggest buck to date, a 4.5 year old, 130 inch, 10 point! Best of all I got it all on film with my two Tactacams!