Pennsylvania Game News - January 2025 - 16

Ulrich said. " I was heartbroken. "
With nothing to do but wait for Tim to
fi nish the drive, though, Ulrich cleaned
his frizzen, dried his fl int, brushed out
his priming powder, cleaned the touch
hole, put more priming powder in and
sat back, dejected.
" But I was ready, " he said. " And
it wasn't 10 minutes before I caught
movement and there were antlers
again, right where I saw the fi rst buck
come through. I thought, is this really
happening? "
There wasn't just one buck
approaching, though. There were four,
all headed straight for him. The fi rst,
obviously legal, came within 15 yards,
but never even paused, and since Ulrich
doesn't shoot at moving deer with his
fl intlock, it escaped.
The second, though - a twin to the
fi rst in terms of its rack - followed in its
footsteps but stopped to stare at Ulrich.
" And that was his last mistake, " Ulrich
said. " The gun went off . I dropped the
hammer and he dropped in his tracks "
That was a fi rst, not just for him,
but for his extended hunting crew. His
dad never took a racked buck with a
fl intlock; neither has Tim. A brother-inlaw
once tagged a small buck with his
smokepole, but " he shot it, it ran, and the
antlers fell off .
" So this was very thrilling, " Ulrich
said.
The buck was a nice one, too: an
8-point with an 18-inch spread.
Of course, any buck taken with a
fl intlock is memorable. Pennsylvania has
about 70,000 to 80,000 fl intlock hunters
and they harvest, on average, fewer than
2,000 bucks - about 1% of the annual
estimated overall buck harvest - in any
given season, said David Stainbrook,
Deer and Elk Section Supervisor for the
16
Game Commission.
There are a number of reasons for
that, he said.
For starters, " buck numbers are at
their lowest point of the deer season, "
Stainbrook said.
Those that remain aren't inclined
to move much on their own, he added,
what with the rut over, and the relatively
few hunters in the woods aren't enough
to consistently bump them, at least not
like in the fi rearms deer season.
Then, too, after facing months of
hunting pressure, they often retreat to
places where hunter access is more
diffi cult, Stainbrook said.
Places like the one where Ulrich, Tim
and Dave were hunting. Moore got a
deer - a large doe - on the same drive
that resulted in Ulrich's buck.
That's not necessarily unusual. The
men are in the woods all the time, Ulrich
said, hunting and scouting and hiking
and just enjoying the outdoors. They
understand food and cover change,
sometimes from one season to the next,
and they move with those things to keep
up with deer.
" The deer at that time of year can be
hard to fi nd, " Ulrich said. " But generally,
once we fi nd them and the cover they're
in, we can usually make something
happen. We're very adaptable. "
Before last season, though, that had
never produced a fl intlock buck still
carrying its antlers. Getting one, in the
way he did, was " just so intense, " Ulrich
said.
" The fl intlock season's probably my
favorite season, " he added. " There's
usually some snow and there's hardly
any people in the woods, so it's just fun
to get out.
" And to get this buck, I was tickled
with it. It was a long time coming. "
Pennsylvania Game News - January 2025

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