I posted a picture of this deer in the pump rifle thread, but I thought everyone would find this interesting. First some background. I've been shooting traditional archery at ETAR at Denton Hill State Park for many years. Some friends also usually spend some time in the summer riding their ATVs on the trail system through the Susquehannock State Forest. We as a group have sat around more than a few campfires and threatened to come down and hunt these big woods deer. We knew the deer density was probably low and that's probably why it's remained talk for so long. Well long story short I'm 52 and not getting any younger. I got tired of waiting for others to commit so this year I decided to just go on my own. I spent a long weekend hiking and scouting in September to try to find a couple likely areas, but that was really the limit of my knowledge of the area.

Early Saturday morning I made the 3 hour road trip down arriving around 6am. I had no idea what to expect as far as hunting pressure but figured the place was big enough I could get away from the crowds if they were there by just putting on some miles. Turns out there were way less people than I really expected. Saturday turned out to be a bust. No deer seen for 3.2 miles worth of still hunting and sitting, dawn to dark according to OnX. I stayed over night in the back of my truck in one of the parking areas rather than waste money on a motel. Sunday morning, with no real expectations, I decided to hunt the other area I had scouted in September.

The morning was so crisp and calm that I decided to still hunt the main ATV trail as walking anywhere else sounded like a heard of elephants coming through the woods. When I left the truck, mine was the only vehicle there, but by 0930 I had still hunted into 3 other guys all hunting the trails. I was dejected enough to decide to just hike up over the mountain to get as far away from the trails as I could. I only went about 1/2 mile off the road and found a beautiful little bowl and watched 4 does bust out of it heading for parts unknown. I decided this spot was just too perfect not to spend some time in. I sat there the rest of the day and about 4pm, this guy comes walking through without a care in the world.

Here's where it gets real interesting though. after the initial excitement, I tried to set him up for some quick pictures. That's when I noticed he was a TAGGED deer!

At first I thought oh crap, I shot an escaped farm deer, but the tags in his ear said Pennsylvania Game Commission, $100 reward and a phone number to call. Both ears were tagged with different numbers. This may be important later. (I intentionally blurred the numbers so none of you reprobates tries stealing my reward )

So now it's 1630 and I've got a job in front of me. I decided before going in there was no way I was going to drag anything out of there so I brought along my Mystery Ranch Sawtooth and everything I needed to debone him in the woods. Going home to NY I'm not supposed to bring anything but meat home anyway due to CWD regs, so this made sense. Normally I would have just capped the skull there in the woods and taken just the antlers, but with those tags I wondered if PGC would want the jaw or brain for testing. Ultimately I got back to the truck and chickened out in regards to the skull. I cut off the antlers leaving both ears and tags attached and just the lower jaw. I bagged the rest of the skull/brain matter and discarded it in a dumpster On my way out of town.

Side note: That pack out sucked! It was only 1.5 miles straight line to the truck, but closer to 2 actual distance. The first 400 yds was basically straight up, then once I hit the trail it was more gradual up, but still up most of the way. I weighed everything when I got back today and best I can tell the total for pack,meat,head, gun and binos was 97 pounds. That doesn't include my wool clothes I was wearing. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have made 2 trips. I'm way too old for that chit.

So about those tags. This morning I tried calling the number on the tags and it seems the number is no longer valid, so I started doing some digging around on the PGC's website. The only information about tagged deer I could find was this study done in 2014/15.

Deer Study

It talks about deer being cannon netted and tagged for a habitat study in in the Susquehannock State Forest. What's really interesting is how long ago this study was done. I am unable to find anything more current listed on the PGC's website. So if I'm reading this right, the deer I shot had to be tagged no later than March 2015! That means even if he was a fawn when tagged, that would make him at least 6.5 years old?! I find that almost impossible to believe, but without being able to talk to someone from PGC I've got nothing else to go on. Around home here, that rack would be a respectable 2 year old at best. I know there's not much for them to eat down there, but 6.5? I tried calling the regional office for PGC and couldn't get to a live person, so if anyone has a direct line to a biologist that might be able to help me out I'd love it if you could PM me.

Interesting hunt for you! Be curious what you find out.

Cool story - hope you get your hundred dollars.

Let us know what you find out. I'm curious too. Is he 6.5 years old?

Maybe post a pic of the lower jaw teeth and some folks on here smarter than me may have some insight on age.

Cool discovery. I'd be curious to see how old he actually is.

I would imagine deer die of old age in that part of the state. Not too many hunters put in the effort you did. Nice going!

Very cool deer.
My bud shoots ETAR..travels from IN.
Congrats on winning the lottery

Congrats. Great hunt even if you don't get the $100

Awesome stuff, keep us updated on the progress with the discovery process...
SnT

Congratulations on the fine deer and the reward! While a bit of a tough pack out.....at least you were prepared! memtb

It's a different world up there, 6.5 yr. old deer here are very common, not unheard of to see 8.5 yr.old here. I have killed Does that were over 10 yrs old. Rio7

Great story! I hope you do find out the age. Please share if you do. Like you said, antler size makes it look like a 2.5 yr-old buck, but maybe the body-size was that of a mature deer.

Anyway, good job!

Lonny I don't have any real experience with old deer. We don't let them get much beyond 3 1/2 in my neck of the woods. 4 1/2 is a real survivor here. That said, this deer didn't give me the impression of being real old. I finally did get through to their message line at PGC. they said if no one calls within 10 days to call back so we'll see.

That's a cool story. We come up from Virginia to shoot ETAR at Denton Hill. I hope they have it in 2021.

Awesome story BBassi. Thank you for sharing.

Used to see one with a radio collar near Gettysburg. Always joked about whacking it and putting the collar on semi heading South.

I dragged one out on a roll-up sled about half that far a few weeks ago. Thought I was gonna die on the hills.

Congratulations....you EARNED it bud.

Very Nice buck and tremendous story. Good luck on the 'tag'.

Jerry

Excellent!!

Wow that is a very cool story. I'll also be very interested to see what the PGC says about your buck. I'd guess they'll respond pretty quick to you inquiry.

I also used to shoot the ETAR but it was many moons ago. We probably started in 1992 or '93 I bet, good times!

Very interesting story. The age of the teeth will tell.

Brent, did you get ahold of PGC yet. If not I can't probably get you a Biologist contact info.

Great story and hunt.....Thanks for posting....And shot with an Amish machine gun...

Cool story. Have never seen a wild deer with tags.

That’s a super cool hunt you went on congrats on the genuine trophy (ear tags or no) deer there you earned it!

I love those big woods like and and share your sense of adventure that sounds like a ball buster hike but what satisfaction!

Thanks for sharing I look forward to hearing what comes of the mystery tags.

My favorite tagged animal story came from a friend of mine. It was a radio collared caribou, that he had helped release on a transplant some 50-60 miles away just a couple months before.

She was probably trying to go home, some 500 miles away, but ran into an arm of the ocean, short-stopping her intention even before he legally collected her from a different, already established and huntable herd.

No reward, though she was wearing a $1500 collar. He felt kind of bad, F&G having gone to all that expense only to have a collared animal killed that soon after the transplant, even if she was off her grounds.

The first caribou I ever killed came from that same established herd, a few years earlier, and was ear-tagged, showing she was one of the original transplants to establish that herd 13 years before. She was 15, old for a caribou, teeth very worn, fat and calf-less in mid-August.

A 12 mile pack out, more or less downhill... fair horse trail for 5 of that, good FS trail for the last 7..but we had horses that time. I killed a few more over the years back there, and back-packed them out.

I was much younger then.....

I;ve been using snow machines and an ATV for the last 10 years. Mo better!

Years ago here in PA they had something like a dog collar with a big battery/electronics packet on it.
I saw 2 a couple years apart, let them both pass. Both were doe.
Had Game commission guys give a talk on the tagged deer at my local club. Interesting how they scatter during rut, and the travel some do.
One swam the Susquehanna river almost every day. That was amazing.
Also had talks on elk, otters, bob cats, and fishers. All very interesting.

Very nice PA buck!

Super deer jackpot.

It did not escape notice that your pump was aiming at our groin/torso area in one of the pics, yikes!

Trust you dodged a muzzle sweep mishap!

Great story, looking forward to hearing the outcome of the tags.

Great story!....thanks for posting 👍.....Hb

Congrats on your success!

Ron

UPDATE - So I got a call back from a nice young woman working for PGC out of College Station today about those ear tags. I gave her all the information she needed and then she filled me in on the trapping program and this particular buck. Turns out he was trapped and tagged on May 18th, 2017 as a newborn fawn as part of an ongoing fawn survival study being conducted by PGC. So that would make him 3.5, much more believable than 6.5. She said according to the data she had that he was trapped within 24 hours of being born. I asked how she knew that and she said it's mother was also tagged and wore a GPS collar and had an implant that could tell them when she was giving birth (by body temperature). I asked about the 2 different tag numbers and she said that he was never re-trapped, but rather they don't sedate the fawns that young when they are trying to get them tagged, so they just grab 2 tags out of the bag and don't worry about matching them up as they want to release them ASAP.

What I did find interesting was that where he was trapped and where I shot him were only a couple miles apart. I had always been told that young, 1.5 year old bucks get kicked out of their mother's home range and need to find their own new territory. Sort of nature's way of preventing in-breeding. Apparently that is not always the case.

Anyway, she did say I would get the $100 reward for participating. I thanked her for the basically free deer tag this year and promised to reinvest it in next years tag. She told me there were plenty of tagged deer in that area so maybe we would talk again.

Cool story and info all the way around! Thanks for the update!

Great follow up Brent, thank you.

Thanks for the update bb. Interesting stuff.

Thanks for the update!

Very cool story. Thanks for sharing.

Cool story! Thanks.

So look what showed up in the mail today! Not exactly what I expected, but appreciated none the less! I guess this brings the story full circle.

Deciding a place is too perfect not to spend some time in is my primary scouting tactic

Well played!

Really enjoyed that and thank you for sharing.

Well done for taking matters into your own hands - that memory will live for a long time!

Nicely shared, thank you.


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I must have missed this the first time around. Pretty cool story - thanks for sharing.

Enjoyed that. Well done.

Congrats man, is that the 308 you talked me out of?

Awesome story, thanks for sharing

Super cool! Thanks for posting this thread.

It's a great experience. Thanks for sharing.

Sure is! Finally blooded it.

Awesome, happy for you.

Awesome story and congratulations on a nice deer. Did you get your reward, or are they still doing this?