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Nineteen years waiting for your first buck can be a long time, or an enjoyable journey in learning the traits of a whitetail. Whichever it was, John Dora enjoyed every minute hunting during those nineteen years almost as much as he enjoyed taking his first 8-point.

Philadelphian, John Dora had tried a number of places and done well every year on Pennsylvania’s abundant doe herd but was never quite able to close the deal on a buck.
He was hunting a friend’s 17 acres in Montgomery County, in the south east corner of the state that lay adjacent to an 83 acre woodland park that was off limits to hunting but loaded with deer.

John’s treestand had given up at least one doe every year for quite some time. He would have shot buck but in all those years of hunting only does were visible. He knew that the bucks were there because during the night, when the landowner drove up his driveway, he would see all sizes of bucks running across the long lane leading up to the house. Over the years, the bucks had learned to limit their movement until after dark and never left the woodland park even during the rut. Why should they? The park has water, cover and food. Usually, the best way to lure a buck into range is with doe and although John had plenty of lures, still no buck.

Walking to his stand on the second to last day of the December season, about 2:30 P.M. he spotted a very good buck.  It had entered the 17 acres but was standing on the other side of the pond. The pond area was quite marshy and John had always avoided travel there and continued to his tree stand. Tomorrow he said to himself. “Tomorrow I will come in at noon, set up at the base of a tree across the pond and be close enough to get him.  Tomorrow would be the day!”

Now, because of the small hunting area and the inherent risk of wounding a deer and having it go back over the fence into the woodland park, his choice of weapon was a 12 gauge Mossberg pump with open sights and a rifled barrel. The one-ounce slug hits hard at close range and would provide either a clean miss or a devastating hit. John hoped for the second of the two possibilities.

The next afternoon he took off work early planning to arrive at his new location and enter the woods quietly then wait for the deer to move. About 4:00 P.M., the buck appeared just 75 yards away with eyes and nose fixed directly on John. There was no way to lift the gun to shoot without spooking the buck, the biggest he had ever seen in the wild!

He watched intently as the buck did the “head bob thing” then walked slowly toward him concentrating on the human figure. John was under intense scrutiny as the buck tried to figure out what the unusual glob was at the base of the tree and barely dared breath before it became evident that the buck’s route would take it behind a pile of logs and brush where it may disappear and slip away without a shot if he didn’t act quickly.

A rapid series of options flashed through his head.  The thought that the buck would have his eyes hidden when he passed behind the logs and provide a chance to get the gun up before it came out from behind the log pile sounded like the best chance for a shot. John sat ever so still as the buck’s head slipped behind the woodpile then he quickly got the shotgun up and aimed where he thought the buck would reappear.  Seconds later the head appeared but the buck noticed the change and froze offering just a head shot. That was more than John would risk, so he held still hoping the buck would step out rather than turn and run.

The bucks left leg finally appeared and when the second front leg moved into the open the chest was exposed. His thumb pushed the safety forward then his index finger wrapped around the trigger. The big 12-gauge slug hit the deer squarely in the ribs with a loud thump. John fired two more times as the deer turned and ran and bark flew off threes above the buck’s back. Jumping to his feet, it took only seconds for John to round the corner of the wood pile where lay the biggest buck he had ever seen in the wild.