The Story of a 187" Pennsylvania GIANT Mountain Buck!
Beau Martonik
Story by: Joshua Pearce
On October 28th, I had this buck at 70 yards, in the adrenaline rush of seeing the biggest buck of my life on stand, I blew my grunt call too loud at him, he spooked and trotted off. I’ve had big bucks run off before and I usually get a sinking feeling I’ll never see them again.
The year before, in bear season, my buddy saw “the biggest buck of his life” in the same drainage, and now I believed him. That sighting and being early in the rut made me think this may be his core area. I hunted the area for the rest of the season, when I could and the wind allowed. Had a hot doe and small buck come in range on November 2, there was a dominant buck with deep long grunts at 60 yards that stayed out of sight, and the doe went back up the hillside towards him, I’m sure it had to be him. Had no more sightings or possible encounters for the remainder of archery.
The first morning of rifle, I passed a 120” 8 point. Which normally I’d have taken, and thought I may regret. Sat the rest of the day and froze in my saddle in a cold stiff wind, which was probably the toughest sit I’ve ever done.
A few days later, I stood till 8:30 in the drainage where I saw him, stuck with my plan to make a big loop across the top, drop onto a hillside, and work back around to the bottom of the drainage and eventually on the next hillside above where I’d been hunting. Jumped multiple deer I couldn’t identify. Eventually, I crossed the drainage onto the other hillside and started working through the tree tops and rocks. I headed back up the hill to ditch my pack and take a buck track that I didn’t think was him. It was tough going, trying to stay quiet, and I felt some frustration and doubt creeping in. I stopped for a while, shed a layer, and regrouped. Shortly after, I stepped around a big rock, and he jumped right into the bottom of the drainage. I immediately knew it was him, he ran 5-6 jumps and stopped in the brush at @100 yards, when he did, I was already on him and let the 30-06 rip! He disappeared. I was sure my crosshairs were on him, but it is a high stem count area. I hustled down the mountain to find him piled up within 15 yards!
There’s so much more to the story, but in short, I was truly blessed to actually have it happen on this 187” gross giant Pennsylvania mountain buck! Praise the Lord!
Send in your Mountain Buck Monday submissions via email to beau@eastmeetswesthunt.com