86-year-old Pa. man hunts from recliner, bags buck By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press Posted: 12/07/2010 04:49:01 PM EST   ALLENTOWN, Pa.—Lester Warner left the hospital in a weakened state last month, his frail body wracked by late-stage cancer. At 86 years old, he and his family had decided to stop treatment. But that didn't mean he planned to stop hunting. Pennsylvania's highly anticipated two-week rifle deer season was fast approaching, and the lifelong hunter from Dover Township, about 30 miles south of Harrisburg, wanted to take to the woods one last time. "He just assumed he would be going. We decided we were going to play along with it: 'Yeah, we can't wait for hunting season, Dad,'" recalled Warner's son, Brian. Brian and his brother Scott were skeptical. But when their father started to rally—gaining strength with the help of a physical therapist—they decided they had better accommodate him, said Brian, 51. So Brian lugged an old recliner up the side of Broadtop Mountain, near his Huntingdon County dairy farm, to the small hut the family had built for Les Warner years ago. His father would hunt in comfort. It was 19 degrees as the sun rose on opening day last week, the valley floor white with frost. Warner eased his old man's frame into the recliner, sipped his coffee, and waited, armed with the .243 Winchester that Brian had selected for its mild recoil. It wasn't long before a huge 8-point buck emerged from the woods, the biggest that Warner or his son had ever had the opportunity to take. They marveled at their good fortune. A hunter can go days without seeing a buck. "Well, shoot it," Warner told Brian. "No, you're gonna shoot it," his son replied. Warner stood up from the recliner and took aim. The buck bolted. He followed it for 80 or 90 yards. Then, as it slowed down, he pulled the trigger. A perfect shot. Lowering the gun, Warner turned to his son and said: "Never give up." "That's right, Dad." Brian called his mother. Shirley Warner could scarcely believe it. "Knowing what he's been through in the last six months, in and out of the hospital, radiation and chemo and physical therapy and really sick at times, I was shocked. In my wildest dreams I didn't think he would get a buck this year," said Shirley, who's been married to Les for 53 years. "My son and I cried because it was a miracle ... there's no other explanation." A week later, the retired pretzel baker remains thankful. "I know I've had many blessings through this situation," said Les Warner, whose story was first reported by the York Daily Record. "Everything seems to be turning out well for me, and I know the Lord's been with us."

A friend sent me this story on email it's been around for a while but I still laugh every time I read it. I've been told it's an Urban Legend. If you know the author please share his name, I'd like to give him credit for this fantastic story. And remember don't try this at home, I don't think it's legal anyway. I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it. It took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope - and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer - No Chance! That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this since the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head had mostly blinded me. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between that deer and me. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go.A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer. So obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are lying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope. Sort of even the odds!! All these events are true so help me God.... An Anonymous Educated Farmer

My 2014 Season started off pretty slow, however it turned out to be pretty darn good! Dec 1 found me in Dawson GA, a beautiful place about 30 minutes east of Albany Ga.  Beautiful morning, temps were perfect and the rut was on....at 820 the biggest deer I have ever killed showed up, one shot at 93 yards, put him down for good! He wasnt a massive 140" 8 point but he may as well have been! The best part of the whole thing was that the rifle I shot him with was my Grandfathers....come to find out after talking with my Dad that he had never shot at or killed a deer with it....its been over 30 years that the rifle had never been used to kill one! Then to top it off, my wife wants to start going with me to hunt! Im super excited for next season already! Overall, my season was super! Its not done yet, have about 30 days left in our season down here, so Im going to try to put at least one more in the freezer!!! Here is the picture of my deer-The blood you see on the towards his hip is where the bullet exited.....He was quartering pretty hard, and I was up 22 feet in a tree when I shot him!  

Understanding Buck Rubs Hunters have long used the size, location and number of buck rubs to select hunting locations and to help understand how bucks move throughout their property. by Brian Murphy The Study The study was spearheaded by wildlife consultant Bryan Kinkel on a 488-acre property in west-central Tennessee. The property is best described as a Ridge and Valley system featuring long, narrow, hardwood ridges separated by steep, narrow valleys containing food plots and old fields. The study took place over a 10-year period from the winter of 1995 to the winter of 2004. The first step of the project involved classifying the habitat into one of several categories. The defining lines between categories were classified as habitat edges. To produce rub sampling areas, long transit lines were randomly placed across the landscape. Rub data were collected by walking each transit line and recording the number of rubs within 10 meters of the transit line. Each rub was classified by the habitat type in which it was located and the distance of the rub to the nearest habitat edge was recorded. All sampling was conducted in late winter after the majority of rubbing had concluded. It's All About Edge The results of the study revealed strong relationships between habitat edges and rub densities. Kinkel's research revealed that the highest rub densities (27.9 rubs per acre) occurred within a narrow strip within 5 meters of habitat edges. Rub densities declined with distance from habitat edges, with the strips 5 to 10 meters from habitat edges averaging 17.0 rubs per acre and the strips 10 to 20 meters from habitat edges averaging 7.7 rubs per acre. The "edge effect" appeared to end approximately 20 meters from habitat edges, as rub densities averaged 1.8 rubs per acre beyond this distance. In addition to habitat edges, other linear features such as roads and creeks were analyzed (see Figure 1). Both roads and creeks displayed some "edge effect," but not nearly as strong as habitat edges, with the exception of old, abandoned log-skidder trails. Rub densities averaged 12.4 rubs per acre within 5 meters of these trails and 5.5 rubs per acre within 5 to 10 meters of these trails. The data also suggested that the less a road is used and maintained by people, the more often it is incorporated into a buck's travel patterns. However, no matter the habitat type, rub densities were much higher within 20 meters of the outer edge of each habitat type or near linear features such as skidder trails. In fact, some habitat types displayed nearly 15-fold increases in rub densities in the 20-meter zone bordering the outer edge of the habitat or paralleling other linear features (see Figure 2). This suggests bucks are using these habitat edges as travel corridors or concentrated activity areas. Topography and Deer Rubs   The influence of topography on buck rubbing also was examined. Kinkel and his research team classified the study area into one of five categories: Hillsides, Ridges, Valleys, Primary Points and Secondary Points. The tops of ridgelines and level upland plateau regions were classified as Ridges. Narrow valleys or level bottomland areas were classified as Valleys. The slopes off ridgelines or plateaus to where valleys or bottomlands began were classified as Hillsides. However, two types of slopes received unique classifications. Topographic points that were terminal ends of ridgelines were classified as Primary Points, and small topographic points that descended from the side of a ridgelines or upland plateau areas were classified as Secondary Points (refer to the map on this page). When the researchers analyzed the relationship between rub densities and topography they found that two terrain features—Valleys and Secondary Points—displayed significantly higher rub densities. Both had rub densities 250 to 300 percent higher than the other three topographic features. While unsure exactly why these features were used so heavily, they discovered a strong correlation between good cover and rub densities associated with valleys. Where valleys contained good cover, rub densities were high. However where valley cover was lacking, such as in open hardwood forests, rub densities were low. In fact, cover habitat located in valleys and bottomlands displayed considerably higher rub densities than the same habitat located on other topographic features. They speculated that the reason Secondary Points were used more for buck rubbing activity likely was due to bucks using these slowly descending points as "ramps" for easy access between valleys and uplands. When the effects of 20-meter "edge zones" were analyzed for topography, all topographic features displayed large increases in rub densities. The already higher rub densities for Secondary Points and Valleys were increased dramatically when edge zones were present (refer to Figure 3). Hunting Implications As bowhunters, you realize that hunting the edges of large food sources such as food plots or stands of oak trees can be frustrating because deer can enter or exit these areas at numerous points out of bow range. However, using the results of this study to fine-tune your hunting setups can greatly increase your odds of hanging a tag on a mature buck this fall. According to Kinkel, "One of the best hunting locations is a valley or bottomland food source with habitat edges running from adjacent uplands down descending secondary points and intersecting with the food source. Hunting habitat edges that run from thick cover in valleys/bottomlands up the spine of secondary points to a ridge-top/upland food plot also can be very productive. And, don't overlook those seldom-used, unmaintained roads." In addition to helping locate the best hunting locations on a property, the results of this study also can be used to better distribute hunting pressure. A common mistake by hunters is over-hunting a handful of areas while avoiding others altogether. Savvy hunters realize that mature bucks are extremely sensitive to hunting pressure and will quickly learn to avoid those locations during daylight hours. Identifying numerous hot spots scattered throughout the property can greatly increase hunting success. Thankfully, armed with the latest "Whitetail Science," researchers and hunters alike continue to learn more about North America's most-hunted and most-important game animal—the white-tailed deer.