EDITOR'S NOTE: Steve Waters is a sportswriter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Miami, Fla., who went deer hunting recently in western Pennsylvania.
EVANS CITY - Just when you're ready to climb down from your treestand and call it a day, the buck of a lifetime shows up and gets your heart pounding so hard, you'd swear he can hear it.
This buck, a huge 8-pointer that went about 200 pounds, was ready to give me a pounding. I had been using a grunt call to imitate the sounds of a buck, and the big bruiser had come out of the thick woods to my right looking to take on the intruder.
Darkness was ready to descend as I watched the buck walk along the edge of a food plot. He stopped to thrash a bush with his antlers and continued in my direction, coming to an opening between the trees where I could see his impressive antlers. So intent was he on fighting that he never noticed me draw back my bow, but I just didn't have enough light to be sure of the shot, so I let down and watched him amble away.
I had been tipped off to the presence of a good buck by my hunting companions: Brian Sanders, Casey Hunt and Ed Gaw, three Florida men who own the 100-acre farm near Pittsburgh where we were hunting.
Gaw, who purchased the property four years ago to be close to his sons, Eddie and Timmy, who live nearby with their mother, had pointed out numerous rubs in this particular patch of woods as he showed me the farm.
I had already seen a bunch of deer my first day in the woods, including a young 6-pointer that would have been a trophy on any of the wildlife management areas I frequent in Florida.
In an effort to grow big bucks, Pennsylvania recently enacted regulations that require bucks in much of the state to have at least three points on one antler to be legal. In the southwestern part of the state, bucks must have four points on an antler.
Gaw further bolsters the buck potential of his property by following the guidelines of the Georgia-based Quality Deer Management Association. QDMA promotes the taking of adult does and restraint in killing young bucks. With a balanced deer herd, only the bigger, better bucks do the breeding, which results in healthier deer. By not shooting young bucks, they grow bigger bodies and antlers.
In addition, Gaw provides plenty of food for deer by planting corn, oats and other deer favorites. On his 100 acres, there are seven food plots totaling 17 acres. Last year, which was only the second season the farm was hunted, Gaw shot a 160-class buck, which refers to the total inches of its antlers. Anything over 150 inches is considered a trophy anywhere in the country.
"It is a science," Gaw said of deer management. He keeps data on his property's deer and takes the jawbones out of all does killed so a state wildlife biologist can determine their ages.
The main thing for Gaw is for his guests to have fun. With all the deer on his farm, and knowing that you could have a shot at a huge buck at any moment, hunting there is a blast.
Fortunately, Sanders and Hunt performed much better. Sanders, 38, shot a doe at about 10 yards first thing one morning, which gave us plenty of time to cut her up - after Gaw examined her stomach contents to see what she'd been eating - and ready the meat for a dinner of fried backstrap and grilled rump roast.
Hunt, 32, who has hunted with a Hoyt bow since he was 13, made a great shot on a doe the final afternoon. He drew back his Viper Tech bow and dropped the deer at 37 yards, taking out her heart and lungs.
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