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Massachusetts Best Bow Buck Taken With Traditional Bow – Again!
New State Record Archery Typical Buck Taken in 2006
By Jeff Brown

A year ago Massachusetts hunter Larry Berestka took the state’s new archery non-typical record buck with a traditional bow in Worcester County. The 178 0/8” 14-point buck was big news, particularly because so few hunters today use traditional equipment. With the speed, accuracy and forgiveness provided by single CAM compound bow manufacturers like Mathews, most hunters would not even dream of shooting a traditional recurve or long bow. So what would you say the odds would be that, just one year after Larry shot his new state record non-typical with traditional equipment, Worcester County would also produce a new state record archery typical buck, and that buck would also fall to a traditional archer? Next to impossible, right? Well, regardless of the odds, it happened. But you can bet that there is nothing “traditional” about the buck – or the story! After all, our hunter shot the buck from the ground! With a treestand strapped to his back! After missing a shot at a four-pointer! Got your attention yet?

Becoming a Deer Hunter Paul Buccacio has been hunting since he was about twenty years old. Early in his hunting career while hunting with his friend John, the two men dragged out a deer shot by John, when they saw another deer. With his treestand on his back, Paul took aim and fired, and the deer dropped right in its tracks. This was an incredible start to an enjoyable hunting career. This would not be the only deer he shot with a treestand on his back...

When Paul got out of the Marines in 1999 he got his first deer with a bow. After that year he took at least one deer a year with his bow, and he was hooked on bow-hunting for life! His love for bow-hunting made him decide to look at shooting a traditional recurve. He decided to purchase a Hoyt recurve in March of 2006, but figured he wouldn‘t hunt with it that season. He just planned to shoot it for the pure fun of it. He practiced with it as much as possible and became so comfortable with it he decided he would try hunting with it. There is no way he could have known as he entered the woods on October 23rd of 2006 that hunting with his recurve would turn out to be a very good decision…

If At First You Don’t Succeed… Paul arrived at his hunting spot around 3:30PM and headed towards a well traveled trail. He found the trail full of fresh tracks and deer droppings, and got pumped up by the fresh sign. He continued down the trail until he could find an oak big enough to support his climber. He found one with three or four intersecting trails, a favorable wind, and good cover for an ambush. He was set up before 4:00, and felt very confident about the area and the day. It was a very cool fall day with light winds and a clear sky. The leaves and acorns were still falling from the young oaks. The leaves on the ground were crunchy, but the wind was enough to prevent the sound of an approaching deer, so Paul was very alert.

Just after 5PM Paul heard a deer approaching from behind on the left side. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction so the deer could not detect his scent. It was a big 4-point buck – unusually big for a 4-point, and Paul could believe the size of this deer and its antlers. He had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t more than a four pointer. The buck was approaching slowly and appeared very relaxed, unaware that a hunter was lurking above him. Paul decided he would take this awesome 4-point, if given the opportunity, and would be pumped to have him as his first recurve bow kill. Buck fever got the better part of his judgment and he decided to draw back and shoot once the deer was quartering away at 25 yards. The arrow flew perfectly straight towards the buck, but ducked under his belly throwing up a spark from a rock. The deer did a little jump and looked around, wondering what the loud noise was. Then he just continued about his business. Disappointed in himself, the dejected hunter got down from his stand and walked over to confirm that the arrow had missed the deer completely. He then packed up his gear and tree stand, and headed out of the woods with a half hour of hunting time left – that’s how upset he was for missing the buck.

He started following the deer path out and heard a lot of crunching of the leaves, and then a couple of grunts. He stopped and got tight to a tree to hide himself so he wouldn’t spook the deer if it came towards him. He then let out his own grunt, and he heard the deer start to weave back and forth, grunting the whole way. His heart started pounding and the deer kept coming towards him. He was astounded that the deer was actually coming into the sound of his grunt. When the massive buck came into view, all Paul could see was antlers. HUGE antlers! He tried to keep his composure and wait for the deer to get perfectly broadside. As luck would have it, the monster buck got to a mere ten yards and turned broadside. With his treestand on his back, Paul aimed and drew back. The amorous buck turned slightly quartering towards Paul as he let the arrow fly towards the base of the neck. The shot was a quarter of the way back into his vitals as it hit the opposite shoulder. The surprised buck bolted with his tail tucked tight, and Paul watched him go about 30 yards with his tail popping up and then back down. The deer ran out of sight, and then Paul heard a loud thud! The leaves rustled for a moment, and then there was nothing… Nothing but the sound Paul’s pounding heart.

The Recovery Paul collected himself. He knew he hit the buck hard, but he should get out of there and let the buck expire. With heart pounding and mind racing, Paul took off for his truck as fast as possible to get some help finding this monster buck. Unfortunately, no one was available right away. Too anxious to wait, Paul decided everyone else was too far away and too busy. So he decided to head in by himself and find the animal (hopefully!) and then maybe get help. He went back to the area looking for a blood trail and searched for an hour or so. He looked around the area of the shot and found nothing. He decided he would head past where he thought the buck had headed. His emotions rode the roller-coaster ride from worried to elated when he picked up the beginnings of a blood trail. Within sixty yards from where he shot at the massive buck, he found it dead! Paul could not believe the size of this deer. It was truly a monster buck! Full of excitement and amazement, he could not bring himself to leave the animal there again, so he decided to make use of the adrenaline flowing through his body to drag the big buck out himself. This was a deer of a lifetime and there was no way he was going to leave it there in the dark.

After getting the buck in the truck, he drove home to show his girlfriend and her mother. Then he showered quickly and made phone calls to all his friends. Paul says that his heart pounds and he gets even more excited for the next hunt every time he sets his eyes on that deer. And he should, because the deer is what every hunter’s dreams are made of!

The Score The Buccacio buck scored an amazing 185 7/8” (gross) and 172 1/8” net B&C as a typical 10-point. It is the new state record archery buck for Massachusetts, replacing the Mark Thomas buck – a 175 6/8” 10-Point from 2005. The Buccacio buck is strong in every “scoring aspect” with an inside spread of 18 5/8”; main beams over 27” each, and tines over 11” long. The bases are outstanding at 5 2/8” and 5 1/8”. In other words, this buck has everything – beam length, tine length and mass. Interestingly enough, Buccacio could have chosen to enter his buck as a non-typical, at a score of 194 1/8” gross and 188 5/8” net. It could have been the MA State Record Non-Typical archery buck as well! But it should be noted that 180-class typicals are very rare in the Northeast. In fact, there are only three archery deer in the NBBC records that gross over 180” typical, and fewer than ten that gross over 185” when you consider all hunter-harvested bucks. And Paul’s buck is the largest archery typical ever taken any where in New England.

Regardless of the score, this certainly is one special buck. And the fact that Paul took him with traditional archery equipment just makes it that much more special!

Note: The Northeast Big Buck Club recently published its fifth record book – Northeast Trophy Whitetails V. This hard-cover 336 page collectors item includes nearly 6,000 of the best bucks ever to come from New England and New York. To order your copy, visit www.bigbuckclub.com, or contact the NBBC at 508.752.8762.