SAXONBURG — Ben Cypher has been a hunter for decades.

His father and a couple of friends put together a camp in Cameron County in 1932 “and my family has been hunting up there ever since,” the 84-year-old Saxonburg man said.

Cypher estimates harvesting more than 30 deer through the years.

“I was 12 years old when I started,” he said. “When I was a kid, you were allowed to hunt on the way home from school.

“I attended the old Winfield school and remember hunting small game on my way home. Of course, that was way back in the day.”

A former Marine who served in the Korean War, Cypher has undergone three hip surgeries in the past 18 months.

He fell in a parking lot and broke his right hip in June of 2017. When that surgery didn't heal properly, he went in for a second surgery on that hip Dec. 6 of last year.

In May of this year, Cypher fell in the kitchen and broke his left hip. He suffered a hairline fracture in his knee as well.

“That's what's giving me the most trouble now,” he said of the knee.

Cypher has spent a few weeks of rehabilitation time in Concordia and a few weeks in the Butler V.A. community living center as he recovered from those operations.

But he wasn't about to miss out on the current deer hunting season.

“No chance,” said Mary Lou Cypher, his wife of 37 years. “There's too many family memories, the camaraderie, too much tradition for him not to go.

“Ben used to hunt for years with his father. He's been hunting with his own sons for a long time.”

Granted a disability license from the Pa. Game Commission to hunt from his truck, Cypher headed to Cameron County with his sons to hunt buck last week. He uses a walker to get around these days.

On the second day of hunting season, he landed the trophy of a lifetime — an 18-point buck.

“It was 2 in the afternoon and I'm in the truck with my son, Don,” Cypher recalled. “We saw a deer all by itself, grazing on a tree, but we couldn't see its head through the brush.

“We needed to get a better look. It looked sizable, but I wanted to make sure it was a buck.”

His son took a look through binoculars “and said he saw a couple of horns,” Cypher said.

Unable to maneuver for a shot from the bed of the truck, Cypher got out. His son set up the walker and handed him his rifle.

“(The buck) was about 120 yards down over a hill,” Cypher said. “I shot once and saw it flinch. I shot a second time, same thing. On the third shot, he went down.”

Once the buck was retrieved, Cypher said he noticed two bullet entry holes.

“My second shot probably missed,” he said. “Once we saw that rack and started counting points ... I had never bagged a buck like this.

“I got an 11-point a couple of years ago. That was the biggest for me.”

The buck is being measured for the Boone & Crocket record book. A score of 180 points gains entry into Boone & Crockett.

“I'm being told this will score at least 190 or 192. It's a big deer,” Cypher said.

This would be the first time Cypher would make Boone & Crockett.

“Never before,” he said, laughing. “Not even close.”

His wife admitted to trying to talk her husband into retiring from hunting.

“I'm always concerned for him, but he's a tough, tough man,” she said. “My talks have been pretty futile.

“After this, I told him that should be it, that he should go out on top. He looked at me, smiled and said, 'We'll see.' I know what that means. He'll be back out there next year.”

Cypher won't commit either way.

“I was born in 1934 and my dad took me up to camp when I was a baby,” he said. “Am I ready to give it up?

“We'll see ... but I doubt it.”