Jordan Poplaskie has been chasing the same giant buck on public land near his home in Shamokin Township, Pennsylvania for the better part of four years. Last week, he finally caught up with the deer, the hunter tells F&S, when it chased a doe beneath his climber shortly after sunrise. Though he’s photographed the buck with trail cameras for years, Poplaskie was shocked by the size of its 16-point rack after shooting it with his Raven crossbow. Even allowing for shrinkage, the deer's unofficial green score of 217 2/8 could land it a top-ten spot in the Boone & Crockett's record books for non-typical whitetails in Pennsylvania.
Poplaskie said he and a group of friends found out about the buck several rifle seasons ago. “He was like Houdini,” he said. “We could never really pattern him precisely, but he always ran in the same circles. Then he would just disappear.”
This year, Poplaskie only captured one photo of the buck on his trail cam. “They started clear cutting the county property I hunt in the summer so I pulled all my cameras,” he said. “By archery season, I was pretty much going in blind.”
Poplaskie sat all day on Sunday, November 17 but only saw a few small bucks chasing does, he said. “I was undecided about getting out the following Monday,” he said. “But come 5 a.m. I was on my Sportsmen headed up the mountain to get a little closer to a new spot I was planning to hunt.”
Once situated, Poplaskie could hear deer chasing in the distance. “There was quite a bit of commotion, but I couldn’t see much,” he said. “Then, as it started to get light, I saw a doe running toward me, and she had a big buck tailing her. He was about 30 yards behind her but hot on her trail.”
The doe tore through the woods past Poplaskie's stand, and when the buck followed her, Poplaskie stopped it with a quick mouth grunt. "I put the scope on him and got a good hit," he said. "He kind of kicked his back legs then ran straight back down the mountain where he came from. He disappeared over a ridge where I couldn't see him anymore."
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Confident in the shot, Poplaskie waited a short time for the deer to expire then climbed out of his tree. He got on blood immediately, he said, and followed the trail for about 100 yards before catching a glmipse of the buck. "I saw that huge rack sticking up. I was hoping and praying it was him—the one we’ve been after forever," he said. "Once I got my hands on him, I knew it was. I couldn't believe the chase was finally over."
The buck had 8 scoreale points on each side, Poplasky said. Its left main beam measured 26 and 5/8 inches while the right was 25 and 4/8 inches long. He plans to have is re-scored in 60 days after B&C's mandatory drying period.
