MIDDLESEX TWP — They say you can’t keep a good man down.

Ray Schleiden, 84, of Middlesex Township certainly qualifies as a good man. And while he was down for the first day of buck season, he wasn’t down for long.

Schleiden shot a 200-pound, 8-point buck Dec. 2 in the woods behind his house. The rack was measured at 130 green points by the Boone & Crockett Club scoring system.

“That’s extremely high for this area. When we turned the buck into the taxidermist, he looked at us and said we had something special here,” said Schleiden’s eldest son, Bob, 59.

Whether it is the biggest buck ever bagged in the township is a question. Whether it’s near the top isn’t.

“I’ve been hunting for 72 years, been hunting in Middlesex Township for 45 years, and haven’t seen one bigger,” Schleiden said. “I haven’t heard of anyone else getting one bigger.”

“It’s the biggest I’ve seen around here,” Bob Schleiden agreed. “Of course, we have no proof it’s the biggest.”

Schleiden missed the opening day of buck season because of an inner ear infection. He didn’t go out during the first three days, in fact.

“Dad is an amazing guy. He never misses the first day of buck. Never, never, never,” his son said. “He’s gone out there with a broken hand, a bad back, in heavy rain and winds.

“He’s a persistent and patient hunter. For him not to answer the bell on the first day, he had to be feeling pretty sick.”

But Schleiden finally hit the woods Dec. 2. And with the help of longtime neighbor Paul Berrang, 65, he shot the biggest buck of his life.

“Paul told me he saw a big one running back behind his place,” Schleiden said. “I decided to go take a look. I was out there all day.

“Finally, come late afternoon, there it was. I never saw that deer until I got it.”

Problem was, no one knew where the buck was located. Darkness fell before Schleiden could find it.

He called his son, who came over with a flashlight to help with the search.

“Dad was sure he hit it and we don’t let any animal suffer, so we weren’t going to quit until we found it,” Bob Schleiden said. “We followed his shot, and, around 8:30 p.m., we found it.

“Paul helped me drag it out of there. It took well over an hour, the thing was so big.”

Bagging a big buck just adds to Ray Schleiden’s legacy.

He is a cancer survivor, being diagnosed with leukemia in 1999.

He played in the 1945 Rose Bowl as a freshman tight end with the University of Tennessee. In fact, Schleiden always hunts while wearing his orange Tennessee cap.

He left the school to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1945.

Schleiden has hunted with sons Bob, Roger, Roy, Russell for years. The family hunts at a camp in Venango County, as well as locally, though the elder Schleiden doesn’t make the trip to the camp anymore.

He remains a vibrant hunter, however.

“As long as I can walk and hit a target, I’ll be out there,” he said.

Like himself, all four of Schleiden’s sons have military backgrounds. Bob was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, Roger the same at the U.S. Military Academy. Roy is a retired Marine major, Russell is a retired Army captain.

All four sons bagged a deer each year from age 12 to 18 before joining the service. Roger Schleiden has 19 mounted North American big game animals.

Their father bagged a 10-point buck in 2007, but its overall size paled in comparison with this year’s catch.

“We’re a military family,” Schleiden said proudly. “We’re a hunting family, too, and I’ve got the biggest now.

“That rack and head are going on the wall. It’s a wall hanger, for sure.”