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Right Tree, Right Time

Right Tree, Right Time

By Patrick Dunning

Scared of heights? No problem. A canvas stool against a white oak will do just fine. Three days into Pennsylvania’s 2022 archery opener, 71-year-old David Putt did just that and caught this 16-pointer with his nose down along a gas line in Indiana County. The mainframe 12-pointer scored just shy of 200 inches, with 198 6/8 inches of bone and 26-inch beams.

“The first few weeks of hunting season I normally go in the evenings because its warmer. I use a little fold-up stool and lean up against a tree because I’m scared of heights. Pretty simple,” David joked. “I’m sitting there just before dark with about two minutes of shooting time left and had just taken my gloves and mask off and put on my orange hat that I always wear out of the woods when I saw movement coming up the gas line.”

David became friends with a farmer who owns a 160-acre buffalo farm in southwest Pennsylvania and has hunted his property for more than a decade. Unbeknownst to David, the neighbors knew this giant was in the area and had been hunting it for two years. There were a couple stray photos of David’s buck on camera traveling along the gas line this year, once in August and one the Friday before archery season opened, but nowhere near enough data to pattern the deer.

Right Tree, Right TimeStill, David had a feeling if the buck did daylight, it’d be near the gas line. He got settled under the tree around 5 p.m. with a 15-foot shooting lane carved out to his front with foliage on his right for cover.

When the buck stepped into his shooting lane at 7 p.m., the only thought David had time to process was, “Yep, that’s him,” before connecting behind the shoulder with a Horton crossbow from 25 yards.

“He stepped into my shooting lane, and I nailed him. As soon as I shot, I was a wreck,” David said. “I’ve been hunting for 58 years and finally got a wall-hanger. Never shot anything more than 8 points with a 14-inch spread before.”

David called his son and the two drug out the 225-pound brute together.

“It was a lot just to get him in the truck,” David said. “I couldn’t even gut it. My son had to because I was shaking so hard I thought I’d cut my fingers off.”

— Read Recent Blog! Fuzzy Racks, Beware! Realtree’s Tyler Jordan got his boots wet in Mississippi during the state’s 2022 inaugural three-day velvet season.

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