Congratulations, great story and beautiful deer!

@Brent Frontino thank you! once in a lifetime for sure

@Judah Tiede thank you Judah! you just never know

Good job man! And yeah this time of year photoperiod is all that matters. They will be moving in November regardless of the weather.

Great story on getting this awesome buck. Congratulations!🦌👍👊

Hell of a buck for Pennsylvania. Give us an update on the estimated score.

@Kyle Shrecengost it was "officially" unofficial. will let you know after the 60 day frying period

congrats Steve, that is no doubt a reward of a lot of hard work and self control! beautiful buck!

Nice Buck! congratulations!! Also kudos to you for passing on that shot to start with. especially with a huge deer in front of you, most would.have show because who knows when you would see them ever again. You were ethical and thats fantastic! good shot and congratulations again!

Incredible buck man. Hard work paying off! Congrats!

@Owen Howson yeah there was multiple reasons for not taking a quartered to shot in this case. 1. Im willing to bet we never have a deer reach that size again and had no intentions of flinging a hail Mary.. 2. I was shooting a 415 gr arrow with a swhacker mechanical that I was testing, not the best setup for that.. 3. I wounded an elk in September not waiting for an ideal shot and I still haven't recovered.

Damn, look at that mass! Congratulations on a great hunt and great buck.

We have had this buck on our farm for the last 3 seasons. I would have shot him last year, but only saw him once at dark while I was climbing down.  I was contemplating hunting on Nov. 4 because it was so hot, but a friend at work said "you never know during the rut." I walked to the back of our property with my dad who was hunting the north side of an old AG field and I was about 200 yards south of him in a drainage. We hadn't seen the deer for 2 weeks until 6 am on Nov 4 where he was chasing a doe around the brassica footplot that sits in between my dad and I. Around 5 pm I noticed a bigger bodied deer emerge from the thicket and when I pulled out my binos I was shocked to see him- 70 degrees broad daylight. Turns out he was tending a doe that I didn't notice; he would let her go about 50 yards and cut her off, much like a cattle dog would get around a stray. He followed her around the few acres of foodplot for about 45 minutes and I was curious why my dad hadn't shot yet. Apparently the doe picked him off trying to get set for the shot and had him pegged. She didn't blow or anything, but slowly trotted down to my direction. The buck followed and he stopped 37 yards quartered to. I elected to pass on that shot for obvious reasons. They both walked the trail back toward the field and met up with 4 other does. The buck sat there and watched until a Forky started chasing and the doe the mature buck was following bolted out of the field and back the same direction they originally came. He stopped at the exact same spot he did 5 minutes prior, but this time slightly quartered away. I split my 30/40 pins and tried to control my shot. My lighted nock malfunctioned and I wasn't able to see where I hit.him, but he hauled ass out of there and 5 seconds later I could hear him crashing/coughing. This is my first PA archery buck and I now know what people mean when they say it's bittersweet. When my grandfather bought this farm in the early 90s, you would be lucky to shoot an 80" deer. We are far from professional property managers, but we (before I had a say) elected to only shoot 3 year olds+. Since 92, we have only shot ~10 bucks off the property and the last 10 years we are starting to see the benefits. This is by far the largest deer I have ever seen and most likely ever will. I had a P&Y scorer measure him the next day at 164&7/8"

Bittersweet Success: 164&7/8

Steve M

Are you sure?

Whitetail Buck

Gear tagged in this post

Gear tagged in this post

Brent F

Judah T

Steve M

Steve M

Steve T

Rich P

Brad L

Appalachian A

David N

Kyle S

Steve M

Tyler C

Ron K

AJ C

Owen H

Mike L

Steve M

Whiskey & Whitetails® -

Bittersweet Success: 164&7/8

Steve M

Are you sure?

Whitetail Buck

Gear tagged in this post

Gear tagged in this post

Brent F

Judah T

Steve M

Steve M

Steve T

Rich P

Brad L

Appalachian A

David N

Kyle S

Steve M

Tyler C

Ron K

AJ C

Owen H

Mike L

Steve M

Whiskey & Whitetails­® -

Whiskey & Whitetails® -