What 6 Years of PA Public Land Hunting Taught Me About Mature Bucks w/ Ryan Leary

So I'm looking forward to the next five, 10 years when you just keep snowballing these spots and-

Yep.

Oh, for sure.

Well, how about you start by going through your, your...

I actually c- I'd like you to start in reverse order as far as starting with your buck last year and telling that story, your 25, '25 deer, and I kind of want to work backwards in a way and, uh, learn a little bit about your evolution with it.

But let's, let's-

Okay

... go from start to finish, 'cause I know that was a multi-year kind of history with that deer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that was a deer that I never planned on actually targeting.

Like, I, I don't target a specific buck anymore.

I, I kind of learned that lesson in the beginning of my Big Woods adventure 'cause I thought I was gonna be that guy who could just go out there and target, you know, one buck, but I'm not him.

But-

[laughs]

...

there was, there was a couple other deer in the area that I had history with and I've had encounters with, and this buck I've had on camera, but just the first time I got him on camera, I'm like, "That's an old deer." I think that was in 2023 or 2024 I had him on camera, and I was like, "He's mature," like beautiful eight-point.

But, you know, I, I was like, "I'm never gonna see that deer." He was jumping from ridge to ridge, just all over the place.

And, uh, yeah, this past season was rough because I know you know, there was that bug that kind of wiped out all the acorns.

I know when you were at Seven Springs for the tack event-

Yep

... we noticed it and talked about it.

But-

The gypsy moth

Yeah.