Without much ado I must admit that this deer season has been one of the most disappointing hunting experiences that I have personally experienced and according to many of my fellow hunters they too have had a less than stellar experience.

I am not blaming the PA Game Commission, or the lack of deer or even the weather…a little bit of everything has been a contributing factor.

I have hunted in three states in areas that I know hold great deer numbers and haven’t taken a shot. The only really nice buck that I have seen was high tailing it over a ridge top on the last day of my one hunt and I received an e-mail photo of another hunter who claimed that it just walked on by him. I believe it, those kind of things do happen…but not to me this year!

I was hunting with some young fellows on the first Saturday and they were hiking through some thick cover trying to bust out some hiding bucks.

Sure enough they spooked out a big one who took off for the flooded creek bottoms of Black Run a tributary of the Slippery Rock Creek.

It was disappointing that I never got a clear shot at this bruiser but when the boys emptied out their boots full of cold water I couldn’t say anything but thanks for trying so hard.

A little further along the creek we found a nice 8 point that was either wounded or succumbed from some other mishap and never recovered.

It was a sure waste of a nice deer that anyone would have claimed if they had found it.

That’s the problem with bare ground and rainy weather, it makes tracking a deer near impossible in some terrain.

One thing that we found in good numbers was deer ticks.

One night after the hunting was ended I personally found three of the nasty creatures but with no significant attachments.

My cousin wasn’t as lucky as one dug deep into his arm and required medical assistance to remove it from his upper arm.

A shot of antibiotics was the final solution and it sure put a damper on his hunting enthusiasm.

I noted that one area that we hunted appeared to have a heavy infestation of the creatures while other areas showed no signs of the ticks after we hunted them.

Some really exciting news from the PGC is that a Record Book Buck is to be scored live online on December 16th and it is given its official score.

Jeff Lenzi, of Allegheny County shot this buck during archery season on October 10th in Allegheny County.

This buck could be the all-time highest scoring typical deer in PA history. To date the top buck in the typical firearms category was taken way back in 1943 in Bradford County by Fritz Janowsky, of Wellsburg, NY.

That buck scored 189 inches based on the Boone and Crockett Club measuring system.

The top buck in the archery category also is a product of Allegheny County.

It was taken in 2004 by Michael Nicola Sr., of Waterford, and its official score is 178 2/8 inches.

The minimum qualification for the Pennsylvania Big Game Records book is 140 inches for typical bucks taken with firearms, and 115 inches for typical bucks taken with archery equipment.

The top two counties for bucks in the record books in Pennsylvania have come from Allegheny County and then Bradford County.

It appears that the Lenzi buck will be scored by Bob D’Angelo, who coordinates Pennsylvania’s Big Game Records Program.

For more information on the Lenzi Buck follow the scoring online on the PGC website on Dec. 16. For more information on the scoring your buck you can contact the PGC by February 9th, 2015.

Contact Bob D’Angelo at 717-787-4250 extension 3311.

Until Rifle Season and the late Christmas Primitive Season is over I will continue to beat the bush in search of my Boone and Crockett buck.

Years ago my wife would swear that I held out to the last days of hunting season to harvest a deer.

She thought that I did it to hide out from the winter chores, but the truth was that I needed those extra days to fill my tag!

Until we meet again don’t give up on that last minute buck and the chance at scoring a Pennsylvania Trophy.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.