A hunter in Pennsylvania bagged a huge buck with his cremex loader while slowly walking through the woods.
Larry Oswald, 25, of Crawford County, feels lucky to have had a close encounter with an older buck during the late hunting season for primitive guns.
On the afternoon of Jan. 2, the Hartstown resident was hunting on a property with white oaks and hemlocks that provided food and cover for the deer.
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Larry Oswald holds his 8-pointer with an outside reach of 20.5 inches that he harvested with his flintlock muzzleloader in Crawford County.
He still hunted the area with the wind in his head, watching the movement of the deer. “I knew the deer liked to sleep there. It’s a good bedding area and the snow was deep,” Oswald said.
“The forest was very quiet and I had my white flat,” he said of mingling with the snow. Soon he picked up a deer sitting by a tree. With his binoculars, he could tell it was an antlerless deer. “As I’m looking at this deer, the buck that I killed comes into my line of sight. I’m like, ‘Wow. He’s 50 yards away.’ I put my binoculars away and raised my gun, cocked the hammer,” he said.
But Oswald soon realized that he couldn’t know for sure if it was a safe direction to shoot because he remembered there was a house in that direction. He let the two deer go.
Oswald slowly walked in their direction and picked up another group of deer. He moves behind a large hemlock tree for cover. “I look at them and there’s a group of four of them and they came running right at me,” he said.
Another deer that had a small rack followed the deer and watched them approach about 25 yards away. “I had no idea the big buck was in this group of deer, and sure enough, he was right behind that little buck,” he said. “The next thing I know, it’s 25 meters away.”
Oswald made a few deer bleats at the big buck. “He stopped, looked right into my soul, and there was a big, old stump covering all his lungs right behind that front shoulder. There was nothing I could do at that point. He got me. I mean, I’m standing eye to eye at 25 yards with this 150-inch buck — it’s now or never tight in the front (so I half-tightened the trigger) and I let him go,” he said.
The dollar jumped. After a short time, Oswald checked the deer tracks and did not immediately see a trace of blood. However, he soon received a call from his brother-in-law, who knew he was hunting there. The relative was driving past the area and just saw a buck crash into the field.
“I don’t think there’s any way it’s going that way,” he said as he followed the tracks to the field. However, he soon found the deer expired. “I was just in awe,” Oswald said of how big his antlers are.
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Larry Oswald holds his cremex charger dollar he received Jan. 2 in Crawford County.
The tall buck has 8 points and a small hit point on one of the bases.
Oswald had his taxidermist mark the buck and it has a green score of 150.25 inches. He said the photos don’t do it justice.
“You have to see it in person,” he said of the long shelf. “It’s got 25-inch main beams and 20.5 (inches) outboard. But it hides it pretty well though,” he said.
The Pennsylvania State Record Program, which is administered by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, recognizes bucks for firearms that have a net score of at least 140 inches.
“With 8 points to get to 150, I couldn’t believe it,” Oswald said.
It is a challenge to score a buck during flint season, which occurs after the early archery and rifle deer seasons.
During the 2024-25 hunting year, the Game Commission reported that boiler hunters harvested approximately 1,210 antlered deer statewide.
The buck wasn’t his first deer of the primitive gun late season. The week before, he had managed to catch a deer with his flintlock while hunting along the edge of a field.
Looking back on that day, Oswald said it was an emotional experience, even just meeting the old buck for the first time.
“I was just crawling through the woods, late season, there’s snow on the ground. It’s snowing. You know, I had that encounter and it was just a beautiful thing. I was thinking it’s just awesome and I didn’t even get to fire my gun. Little did I know that about 25 minutes later, I was going to think I messed it up completely and then I completely messed it up. It missed my deer. So I was really low, and then I was crazy, it was crazy.
While this is his first flint buck, it is not his biggest deer. In 2023, he was able to harvest a 10-pointer that cashed about 6 inches more than this deer. “I was really lucky,” he said.
The buck is mounted on a stand on a fence post. He plans to display it with a big buck his wife Bella harvested last year with a crossbow. “It’s also an absolute hammer,” he said of her stag.
Oswald enjoys the challenge that comes with hunting with a muzzleloader late in the season. “It’s just going out there and knowing that your chances of getting one are very slim, and that’s what’s been great about it,” he said. “I love the challenge and how it can humble you.”
Reflecting on his deer, he said, “I thank the good Lord for the opportunities he has given me. I am grateful and fortunate to be able to do what I do.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA email on the home page of this site under your login. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on the Erie Times-News: Pennsylvania hunter gets plenty of bucks at 25 yards with his loader