The start of the Pennsylvania rifle season was slow to start, but things were starting to heat up, and I remembered an old adage of some of my mentors from years’ past.

They would say that when other hunters are giving up and leaving the woods, that is when you should be at the alert. Many of my successful hunts came after the noon hour when others were heading out and back to camp or their vehicles or to their favorite gathering place.

It was now shortly after noon and I was settled down watching a thicket that led to a swampy area. If I was a buck that is where I would be heading … thick and impenetrable swamp areas.

The day was turning out to be fairly pleasant and I did not see the deer that I had hoped to find on an any deer start in WMU 2D. I really figured that I would have had a chance on a deer by now. As with most deer hunts, you can always expect the unexpected and I soon found this to be truth.

The afternoon sun was shining in my face, which made me cover over my eyes from the glare. Then I thought I saw an outline of a deer’s hind legs moving in the thicket. After careful scrutiny, I quickly came to the conclusion that it was a deer and several more.

The problem with thickets is that it doesn’t give a hunter a clear view of their quarry, which is why game use these passageways. I put up the binoculars and studied the deer movement and discovered that at least one appeared to be a rack buck with decent, if not really nice antlers. Still no clear view nor confirmation of the points as we were in the three-up rule area.

Then a big doe looked over my way and made me freeze, lest she spotted me and put everyone on alert. Too late, they were on the move and I watched a great opportunity jog out of sight.

I didn’t and won’t shoot at deer wildly for many reasons … and I stood by my rule as three bucks and a doe disappeared into the brush. I met up with my companions and shared my story and we decided to try to cover the area and send one guy in to move the deer around.

I knew the area the best and drew the short straw and sent hunters to likely exit points. My brother Jim was hunting with me and was excited about using his new .308 rifle, which was really shooting well.

I sent him along a creek bank that had a rise where he could watch the creek bottom. I had everyone in place and I was about to head in the wetlands when I heard a shot and then a second report of a rifle. My phone rang and it was my brother, “I have a buck down, but he is on your side of the creek.” I told him to keep an eye on him and that I would work my way over to him.

It was late and I knew that our daylight was about an hour left and we were in thick cover. I finally located them, but to my surprise there was water between us. My brother was with a nice 8-point buck and they were on a spit of an island.

My brother relayed the story that he was standing on the rise when he heard a noise like a dog shaking off his coat and it drew his attention to the island. He carefully spied through the high grasses and much to his surprise spotted the buck. He decided to take the first clear shot and he was successful in putting the buck down.

The only way to get the buck out of there would be a water retrieval using a rope and hauling it up a bank. This called for help and just then my phone rang again. It was the Thompson boys and they wanted to check in on their neighbor.

Soon they showed up at my truck and I led them to the recovery area. Kevin, Jason, Shane and Zac had the rope we needed and I tied a broken branch to one end and the baseball players threw it across the creek and Jim tied it to the buck.

“Just push it in the water and we will pull it over!” I yelled. In went the buck and we pulled it towards us on the other bank. The antlers got stuck in tree roots and one of the young guys reached down over the bank and directed the antlers clear as we pulled the buck up.

Then I realized that Jim was still on the island.

“How did you get over there?” We asked. Jim showed us an old tree that had fallen across the water and made a tricky bridge that he had shinnied across. We watched him shinny back across the log with bets on whether he would make it … he did!

The boys made short work of the drag and put the buck in the bed of the truck. It was a good hunt, good team effort, and a great help by the neighbors! Until we meet again, stay with it in the woods and maybe your efforts will pay off, too!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle