The early archery season ended at sunset Friday, and four bow hunters came home with tales

of trophy takes this mild, generally sunny fall season.

Dan Bedell of Lancaster may have a non-typical state record for deer taken with a bow this

season. Bedell has a super stand in Barre from which he took a trophy whitetail in 2007. That

deer scored 147 in the Pope and Young measuring system. This year, his trophy take will

definitely top all non-typs taken in Orleans County and might take statewide honors when

points get scored after the mandatory 60-day waiting period.

On Nov. 14 Bedell used his Hoyt bow to get off a clean kill shot at 42 yards on a buck that

weighed in just above 230 pounds and totaled a raw/green score of 182 after

deductions.

"The gross score before deductions was 194⅛," Bedell said of his buck that came in

sniffing a locally produced scent product.

He credits the Northern Whitetail Scents' Intruder odor with drawing the buck to his stand

at 3:10 p.m. "I prefer to hunt afternoons; I seem to see more deer movement at that time," he

said of this and previous bow hunting years.

Earlier in the season, John Grieco of Clarence Center hunted near home and, using Pati

Vacanti's Northern Whitetail Scents, drew in a big buck at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 21. Grieco, a

hunter since age 12, took a nice 11-pointer with a 15-yard shot. "The nice-buck excitement was

there, but he'd shot a 13-pointer last season," boasted his dad, Mark Grieco.

Attica archer Bill Pearce Jr. likes to hunt public lands. "That's all I do," Pearce said of

his bow and gun hunts shared with his dad, Bill Pearce Sr. "I got this nice 12-pointer on

Sunday, Nov. 8, in the same spot where my dad hunted when my younger brother was born Nov. 13,

1965," Bill Jr. said of a stretch of state land in Allegany County.

The rack gross scored at 151 with only 4 inches of deductions for a raw score of 147. This

area of Rattlesnake Hill has been a big-buck bonanza for Bill Jr. In 2002 he used a shotgun to

take a thick-tined 10-pointer on the same hillside.

Patti Wattengel, featured in a column last week on trapping pursuits, also gets up early to

bow hunt near home in Lawtons.

Her kill this year — and in previous bow seasons — deserves note more for the

means than the measurement of antler lengths, spread, and configuration.

"I got a spike early in the season," she casually said while relating details on the

trapping season progress and changes. But Wattengel takes deer with purely primitive archery

gear.

She shoots a Big Horn recurve bow made in Colorado. A recurve has no let-off of string

tension. Her model is not equipped with sights. "I only shoot instinctive," she said of her

sighting system, "and I can still hold a 45-pound [draw] pull on this bow." Not set up with

carbon, fiberglass, or composite bow shafts, her kills come with basic wooden arrows.

Any archer who has seriously tried to shoot a stick, self, or recurve bow without the use

of sights knows the degree of difficulty to hold and accurately sight and shoot. Weighing

about 100 pounds, Patti Wattengel deserves trophy honors for any deer taken with her gear.

Archery clinic





The early bow season has ended, but beginning archers can gear up and practice shooting for

the late season and beyond during a free clinic at C&C Archery on Main Street (Route 5) in

LeRoy. Archers ages 7 and older can sign up for four sessions, which start at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

For complete details, call (585) 768-6637 or go to cncarchery.com.