Buck Tales: Rickson’s hunt especially rewarding

PHOTOGRAPHER: EmilyRose

This week’s Buck Tales report is quite diverse, featuring successful hunters who collected whitetail bucks with bows and arrows and muzzleloaders, and one beautiful Adirondack buck taken with a rifle.

But first, here’s one very special tale of a different kind of hunt, a perfect anecdote for this Thanksgiving day.

Fifteen-year-old Ryan Rickson of Schenectady started hunting wild turkeys when he was 12 with his grandfather Lee Pigliavento, also of Schenectady. At 13, Ryan was diagnosed with leukemia, which would require a bone marrow transplant. Without hesitation, his 12-year-old sister, Ashley, volunteered to be the donor. It was a rough road, and Ryan spent nine months in isolation. Turkey hunting had to wait, but he didn’t forget about it. By this October, Ryan was healthy enough to resume his turkey hunting, and he was determined to provide the bird for Thanksgiving dinner.

Lee said they spent six days hunting Jack Mazzie’s property in Sloansville. On Nov. 11 at 4:10 p.m., a big tom came into range, and Ryan was right on target with one shot from his 20-gauge Fox Sterlingworth double barrel that had belonged to his great-grandmother. Ryan said he felt his great-grandmother was with him during his hospital stay and he felt she was also with him on this hunt.

The tom weighed 20 pounds, had a 1 3⁄4-inch beard and 1 1⁄4-inch spurs. Not bad for his first turkey. Ryan, by the way, has his lifetime NYS hunting and fishing license, that he received from his grandfather when he was 1 year old. If you’d like to see a photo of Ryan and his first turkey, go to noonanpics.blogspot.com.

This year’s bow-and-arrow hunters continue to have a good season.

We’ll begin with a first bow buck tale I received from Jeremiah Senecal of Clifton Park. Hunting in Stillwater, Jeremiah had two nice spikes come in to his tree stand and chose to let them pass. At abou 11 a.m., he went to check his trail cam at another location and saw that three-, four- and eight-pointers had all been through the area, and he decided to hunt that stand that afternoon.

First in was a small spike horn, a non-shooter, but not long thereafter, he saw three doe and another small buck. Minutes later, he heard a low grunt and then he saw the horns. Slowl,y he drew back his Hoyt Powerhawk compound bow and when the buck was within 10 yards of the stand, released the arrow. Jeremiah’s first bow buck was a big eight-pointer that dressed out at 170 pounds.

Joe Beaver’s opening day bowhunting tale took place in Harpersfield, Delaware County. The Clifton Park resident was settled into his tree stand for about two hours when he noticed a doe making her way down a row of pines toward him. But before she got to him she became a little nervous and then took off on the run with her tail held high. About 20 minutes later, a buck appeared in the same place with his nose to the ground and he never looked up. At 25 yards, Joe drew back his 15-year-old Martin Prowler compound and let fly when the buck was broadside to him. He quickly climbed down out of the stand, and his second arrow ended the hunt. The seven-pointer field dressed at 180 pounds.

The broadhead of Don Wood of Glenmont found its mark in the Guilderland deer woods early in the archery season in the Southern Zone. Hunting from a tree stand, he watched five does go by before the 140 pound, six-pointer appeared. One shot from his Hoyt compound at 20 yards ended the hunt.

A canister scent trail was John D’Amico’s key to luring in his big bow-and-arrow buck. Hunting in the Princetown area from a tree stand, the Schenectady resident downed a big seven-pointer that dressed out at 183 pounds, which he had to drag out by himself. He shot the buck with a Matthew compound bow.

Dan Ladd of adkhunter.com and author of Deer Hunting In The Adirondacks, is a true Adirondack hunter who recently downed his biggest north country whitetail buck hunting in the northwestern Adirondacks on state land with his brother, Bill, and several other members of the “Backyard Boyz” camp.

While sitting on his afternoon watch, Dan saw movement in the spruces off to his right and watched a big doe step out, followed by big buck. Dan’s first shot put the buck in high gear but follow-up shots ended the hunt. The big nine-pointer dressed out at 205 pounds, 42 pounds more than his previous big buck. He used a Winchester Trapper model 30-30 carbine given to him by his dad when he first started deer hunting. By the end of the week, the club had taken three other bucks, one of which was an eight-pointer. You can see Dan’s buck and other successful hunters’ deer at www.adkhunter.com.

HUNTER’S WEB SITE

If you enjoy hunting, you might want to visit www.theheritagehunters.com. It’s a free online membership community of like-minded hunters.

Their members have had their lives enriched by their hunting experiences, and their goal is to create a landscape of hunting stories full of tactics and strategies, and even share a few laughs.

Here you’ll be able to participate in online forums as well as have a chance to field test products, access monthly field-trip video segments and participate in contests and giveaways.