By Cory Weleski, Cabot, Pennsylvania

The day of December 6, 2007 is a date that I will never forget. It was a day that proved that putting in the time  and sticking it out through the elements pays off, and it this case at least for  me it paid of well. It was the last Thursday of rifle season and it also seemed to be the coldest day of the winter so far it was a high of 7 degrees.

Thirteen point 18 3/4 inside spread

I was hunting with my dad at our family farm.  During the first week we hunted hard dusk to dawn every single day with very little luck but of course it was better than being at work.  We had tried two different spots in the morning but with the temperature and my dad just having hand surgery we had to move because his fresh wounds were chilling him to the bone.  We had left our first spot around 8:30 and we decided we would stay at the second spot till about 12:00.  By time noon rolled around we had only saw a hand full of doe and a young buck.

So now we decide that I was going to sit on a quarry wall and he was going to do a little walking to try to get the woods moving. I argued that for a short amount of time then gave in due to he is the dad. So I get to the rock I was sitting on and I was there for  about and hour or so and I finally see some movement in the hollow I was  checking it out and it ended up being two doe and eventually a legal buck came  through. At this time that buck was looking pretty dang good to me and I was trying my best to get a decent shot on this buck, but every time I pulled up on him his vitals were behind a tree.  Then all of the sudden I see all the deer run out of the area. I initially thought that they had winded me and that the hunt was over. So I lower my rifle and I was honestly pretty disappointed and I am sitting there trying to figure out what just happened and all of  the sudden I look to my left and there he was.

The once in a life time buck coming down the hollow. It all makes sense now. He pushed the smaller buck right out of the hollow. I instantly drew my rifle and got on his vitals. He was trotting parallel to me 85 yards through the hollow. I was just praying he would stop and before I knew it he was standing there broadside. I let the 270 bark and down he went, he never took another step. I let the woods settle for a short amount of time and before I knew it I was trotting through the hollow to find were my largest buck ever lie. Shooting that deer was a huge accomplishment for me, but the best part of the day was to see how proud my father was. He could not control himself and that to me was even better than harvesting the  buck. That is what hunting is really about, sharing those wonderful experiences with family and friends.