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Knock, Knock … No Joke

Knock, Knock … No Joke

By Mike Handley

When he was a tyke, Tyler Gladu might’ve been told not to talk to strangers. But that was then, obviously.

Now 27, he’s fearless when it comes to striking up conversations with people he’s never met, or at least that’s the case when he stands to gain permission to hunt where he’s seen a world-class whitetail.

His boldness was rewarded big time in 2019.

Tyler became an instant extrovert after spotting a huge buck in a bean field while driving home from work one evening. Figuring the worst he could get was a “no,” he pulled into the next driveway and knocked on the door.

“They were great; gave me permission to hunt. No questions,” he told Gita Smith, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “After promising them meat if I shot anything on their land, I drove home a happy man.”

The property is in St Mary’s County, Maryland.

On Oct. 12, the 27-year-old noticed a weather front was on its way and announced to his wife he was going to spend the afternoon deer hunting. He wound up going to a ground blind.

Aware that (freshly receded) floodwaters had washed away all the corn in his bait pile, he purchased a 75-pound bag of the stuff from a local farmer en route to his spot.

When he got to his blind at 5:40, he spread the entire bag’s contents on the ground, cocked his crossbow and set it aside, and then he began eating a granola bar. Just as he tipped a bottle of water to wash it down, he glimpsed something at the corn pile.

That quick, the very buck responsible for his being there, the one he’d seen in the bean field while driving past, was standing at the freshly replenished buffet.

“While I was lifting my bow, the buck lifted its head,” he said. “I knew I was busted. It was quartering toward me, not my preferred position, so I aimed for the deer’s right shoulder.”

After being thwacked, the still-hungry deer bolted.

“When I jumped out of the chair, I hit my head on the roof of the blind, which flipped out in front of me,” Tyler said.

On shaky legs, he walked out and plucked his blood-soaked bolt from the ground. His new friends’ venison hadn’t run far.

Tyler’s deer hasn’t yet been scored.

— Read Recent Blog! Post-op, Ohio-style: While many patients about to go under the knife worry about waking up, Ohio’s Jeff Mason was worried about missing his 2019 deer season, and that was the least of it.

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