DSS: 3 Year Quest for a Pennsylvania Giant

On this week's Deer Season Special bonus episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman, Mitch is joined by long time friend Travis Bailey.  Mitch and Travis grew up hunting deer and small game together.  We take a trip down memory lane and revisit the story of a buck Travis harvested in 2013 after following along for 3 seasons.  Travis shares that the first two years of trail camera inventory felt like he was hunting a ghost.  He had one late season encounter with the buck in year 1, but chose to pass as the deer had shed one of his antlers.The story ramps up when in year 3 the camera inventory drastically picks up, as the amount of daylight images increased providing hope.  After harvesting the buck, Mitch and Travis discuss what it was like for each of them to achieve a high level hunting goal of killing a big mature buck of this caliber.  While another deer this size may happen again in the future, the areas we hunt in Pennsylvania don't have this class animal behind every tree each season.  The guys discuss recalibrating their hunting goals and expectations.  This includes a change in hunting scenery, as Travis shares a new passion of hunting bucks on the public land mountains near his home.  This story is one for the record books, enjoy! Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.