{"id":99291,"date":"2026-01-29T00:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99291\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:19:14","slug":"pennsylvania-hunter-tags-a-giant-buck-with-his-flintlock-it-should-become-a-new-state-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99291\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Hunter Tags a Giant Buck with His Flintlock. It Should Become a New State Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for the Deer Camp Newsletter<\/p>\n

Get everything from whitetail news and opinion pieces, to advanced hunting tactics and cutting-edge gear reviews.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s early archery and rifle deer seasons had ended, and Chris Rhoades was still waiting for a chance to take an especially huge buck. He\u2019d seen the deer on trail camera photos and just once in late December on his hunting property, where he\u2019d set a blind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the buck very late [that] day in the cornfield on my 165-acre farm,\u201d Rhoades tells Outdoor Life. \u201cBut it was too late to shoot.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rhoades was hunting with his .45-caliber CVA as part of Pennsylvania\u2019s traditional flintlock season<\/a> that runs from late December through much of January.<\/p>\n

The blind that Rhoades had set up in his Erie County cornfield was well-camouflaged. It has sturdy walls and windows to buffer Pennsylvania\u2019s bitter-cold winter weather, but he always waited until conditions were perfect before hunting the blind. And on the afternoon of Jan. 1, the wind was perfect.<\/p>\n

\"ARhoades\u2019 blind was set up in the middle of a cornfield on his farm. Photo courtesy Chris Rhoades<\/p>\n

Rhoades has hunted deer for most of his 54 years and knows that patience and stealth pay big dividends. So that New Year\u2019s afternoon, he walked several hundred yards along a railroad track to slip into the cornfield and settle quietly into his hide.<\/p>\n

The ground was covered with snow. It was 15 degrees and a bit overcast with a slight wind. But it was snug inside the blind, and a few does and small bucks eventually fed out in the cornfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, about 5 p.m. the buck I was after stepped into the corn, apart from the other deer,\u201d says Rhoades. \u201cI waited for him to get a little closer, and when he stood at 55 yards I put the iron sights of my rifle on his shoulder and fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smoke billowed from his flintlock and Rhoades didn\u2019t see where the buck ran after the shot. With night falling, Rhoades went to where the buck had stood but found no blood. Deer tracks were everywhere in the field, so he couldn\u2019t tell which way the deer had ran. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely shaking. He was a magnificent animal,\u201d Rhoades told GoErie.com<\/a>, which first reported the hunt. \u201cI had to calm myself down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA nighttime trail cam photo of the buck taken in October. Photo courtesy Chris Rhoades<\/p>\n

Rhoades phoned his local hunting buddy Kurt Hotchkiss and told him he\u2019d shot the deer but had no track to follow. He decided to leave the area, then return later with Hotchkiss and another friend, Brent Soety, to look for the buck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got back there about 7 p.m. and started walking the edge of the cornfield looking for sign,\u201d says Rhoades, who had been hunting with a 240-grain hollow point. \u201cKurt found him just inside the woods [along the] edge of the field. He\u2019d only traveled 60 yards from where I hit him. But there was no blood at all, and no exit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hunters then loaded the estimated 200-pound deer onto an ATV and drove to a nearby home to dress the buck. The deer is a main-frame 10-pointer with heavy mass. It has been green scored at better than 170 inches, with a 24-inch spread. Rhoades will have the buck mounted on a pedestal to display on a whiskey barrel in his business office.<\/p>\n

\"AAlthough it can\u2019t be officially scored until March, Rhoades says the buck had a green score in the 170-inch range. Photo courtesy Chris Rhoades<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think the buck was between 5.5 and 7.5 years old,\u201d said Rhoades, who\u2019s taken other big bucks during the flintlock season. \u201cI have to wait 60 days before the buck can be officially scored. But he\u2019s been green-scored in the 170-inch range.\u201d<\/p>\n

While tagging a buck like Rhoades is an accomplishment with any method, it\u2019s particularly impressive with a flintlock. The current No. 1 Pennsylvania flintlock buck scored 146 4\/8 and was taken by John Martin in 2003 in Armstrong County. Another flintlock hunter, Larry Oswald, shot an 8-point earlier this season that scored 150 2\/8. <\/p>\n

Related: 19 Timeless Photos from Pennsylvania\u2019s Flintlock Season, the Last of Its Kind in the Country<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to Brian Knightlinger who\u2019s an official scorer and he believes my 10-pointer will be a new Pennsylvania state record buck taken with a flintlock rifle when it\u2019s scored in March.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for the Deer Camp Newsletter Get everything from whitetail news and opinion pieces, to advanced hunting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-99291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}