In a previous article I wrote about my success in a stand that I had dubbed the “Triple Funnel” stand. The name is obviously synonymous with the location and the great deer travel routes that exist by my chosen tree. It has been three years since I bagged a great PA eight pointer from this tree. I have hunted there since but not often because I had bagged a buck elsewhere. With PA’s one buck limit this stand has been pretty much vacant since my past success. I had written also about my total confidence in this location and that it just screamed “hunt me”. I am about to tell you that I was indeed right and this stand once again was going to lead me to another dandy PA buck.

Prior to the 2006 PA hunting season starting I was brimming with anticipation. I had just returned from Wyoming on a great antelope hunt where I had filmed good friend Mike McCabe arrowing a great goat. I had hunts planned in Kansas and later in Illinois and figured that sooner or later I was going to have a good whitetail in my fiber optic sights. PA was another story. I am just so busy with family and work that scouting time was limited. Luckily, years of hunting familiarity with my hunting lands has me pretty much “in the know” when it comes to pinpointing deer movement. The familiarity allows me to quickly visit my hunting spot and make a low impact and fast assessment of the deer activity. If things are looking positive in my stand sites, I know it is only a matter of time before I get my chance on a good buck.

Since I had not really hunted the triple funnel for a couple of years I decided to give the landowner a call and make sure my permission was still secure (he chided me for even calling). With that relationship still intact, I set up a time to meet with the landowner to pick his brain on the deer activity and also to perform a quick scouting mission. John was as nice as ever and is truly a pure gentleman. He informed me of “one of the biggest bucks” he had ever seen on his property and that it was either a nine or ten point. He showed me where he had seen the deer several times and that is was traveling with two smaller bucks. Where John had been seeing this good buck was just a ways down the hollow from my favorite tree. I thanked John for the valuable info and moved on into the woods to check my spots and maybe secure a couple more trees to hunt for differing wind directions. I did not take me long to see that this place was not just hot but it was just plain old smoking. The deer sign was incredible. Trails that looked like they were from cattle not deer littered the area. I quickly checked the almighty Triple Funnel tree and then moved on to pick out two more low impact trees to hunt from. One was a great observation/killing tree set up about 100 yards from my TF tree. It had a low depression running twenty yards in front of it that the deer were using to move in between the woodlots. I was ready to hunt this place for sure. I saw John on the way out and told him that I was going to kill the big buck this year and I will need his help again on the recovery. He laughed and wished me luck on my quest.

The PA season progressed and I had passed up several great deer in hopes of killing a “big” buck. I was in no hurry with Kansas coming up and the PA rut getting ready to kick in. As luck would have it, I did not get a chance to hunt John’s property until the first week of November. With the rut kicked in and the weather cooperating with a great cold front I was extremely optimistic. I decided to play is safe on my first hunt and sit in my observation tree. I could see the TF stand from this tree so in a way I was hunting and observing at the same time. The wind was shifty and I did not want to risk closing in on this stand until the conditions were perfect. I saw six bucks that night in the bitter cold with three of the deer eight pointers. A couple of the eights were great deer but I knew they were not the big buck that John had spoken about. All of the bigger bucks were moving behind me and I saw no activity except a couple of smaller bucks by my killing stand one hundred yards distant. Still, as hunts go, six bucks in one night is a success in anyone’s book.

November 4^th was a night that called me to the Triple Funnel. The weather was cold and the wind was almost non-existent. With little to no wind the prevailing thermals would take my scent down the hollow away from the woods that I expected the deer to come out of. I managed to get secured in my tree and the wait began. I saw absolutely nothing. The dead quiet and crunchy leaves would give away any deer movement but still nothing. And then it happened. Around five o’clock I heard a deer approaching. I grabbed the Nikons and could tell it was a buck but with the cover could not tell exactly how big his rack was. The buck was in no hurry and kept coming closer. At about forty yards I grunted to take the temperature of this deer’s attitude. What happened next was textbook. The buck was obviously quite annoyed that another buck was in his territory. He immediately starting making a scrape. And I do mean making a scrape. Dirt and leaves were flying as this guy dug a pit to vent his anger. To stoke the fire I grunted a couple of more times just to piss this brute off. At this point, I was still not sure whether this guy was the buck I wanted to shoot. After my grunts, my indecision quickly faded. The buck laid back his ears and bristled the fur on his back and walked to my tree stiff-legged. This buck got bigger with every step and soon enough my heart was pounding and my breathing became heavy and irregular. This buck walked directly to the base of my tree. This was almost deja vu from three years ago. The big guy stopped just two steps from the bottom of my tree as the smell from my mock scrape hit him in the face. I am certain this just infuriated him more. At this point I was scared he was either going to hear me breathe or my heart pounding....he was that close. As he started to move his head passed behind a tree and my Pearson Stealth was at full draw. All I saw was brown filling up the sight as my pin settled on the sweet spot. The shot was fluid and down right perfect and I watched the bruiser run off and crash into the woods from where he came.

I had to just sit and celebrate the moment. I love it when a plan comes together. I knew that this buck had to be the deer John was talking about. Every step closer he took I realized that this was a great deer and that he needed to ride home in the back of my truck with me. With light fading fast I elected to check for blood (and was greeted by a huge crimson trail) and would come back in the morning to get my prize. This decision was twofold: I was being overly cautious and secondly there was no way in hell I was going to get this buck out of the woods that night by myself. The weather was plenty cold so I made my way home confident that I would be holding a heavy rack in the morning.

First light found me with my four wheeler and a good friend in case I needed help either tracking or hauling. It turned out to be hauling. The blood trail was even more obvious in daylight and my great buck had only gone fifty yards. I was excited to say the least. This was a great PA buck with all that you wanted in a deer. The antlers carried mass all the way out and he sported nine heavy tines. I was able to share my success with the landowner which made this even sweeter. John was as excited as I was and I continued to thank him for the privilege of hunting his property.

Will the third deer from this stand be an even bigger charm??? Stay tuned.