From Strangers to Friends – United in Pursuit of a Big Buck

“Talk about the highs and the lows,” my friend Adam Kahora said.

That’s not what you want to hear when a hunter calls you during the peak rut time of archery season.

“Would have been my biggest buck to date,” he added, devastated. 

Adam had arrowed the buck during the afternoon of November 4 in eastern Schuylkill County. He’s an experienced archer, but couldn’t figure out what happened with his shot, which ended up hitting the buck in the neck.

Still, initially it seemed the outcome would be positive.

“The blood trail was heavy and easy to follow,” Adam said. He’d called in some buddies for assistance. After dark, they followed the promising blood trail for several hundred yards, finding spots where the buck had bedded or stood, saturating the ground. They expected their flashlight beams to find him at any moment.

And then, the trail ended. Mystified, Adam and some friends continued the search in the morning with no luck. Adam then enlisted the services of a tracker with a dog, and again, no luck.

“So, I was done hunting. That’s how we do it – if you wound one or can’t find one, you don’t keep hunting,” Adam said. He and friends have been hunting the same 4C property for years, with the goal of harvesting big bucks.

“I was really disappointed, felt sure he was dead somewhere, but we couldn’t find him,” he added.

Then five days later, the same buck showed up on one of Adam’s trail cameras, trotting down a path as if nothing had happened to him. The next day, Adam was back on his tree stand, hoping for a second chance.

It was not to be. Fifteen days after he’d first shot the buck, Adam heard of a big buck harvest picture posted on a local website. He took a look – definitely the same buck. He decided to contact the hunter, Terry Snyder, to congratulate him and fill him in on the backstory. 

“I don’t do that internet stuff,” Snyder told me. He and his wife Ruth Ann, married 42 years, keep to a simple lifestyle. Someone else had posted Snyder’s buck picture online.

“When he (Adam) called me, I invited him to bring his hunting buddies and help me celebrate,” he added.

Snyder had trekked up the mountain behind his house and chose to take a break using a large tree to break up his silhouette. 

“When I saw the buck, it was chasing a doe,” Snyder said. “It was just remarkable; he never saw me, just had his head turned watching that doe. I didn’t know it had been hit in archery season until I was skinning it out and found five inches of arrow and a broad head.”

“When any of the guys I hunt with shoot a buck, we have a party afterward,” he added. “When I heard from Adam, I invited him to come over, bring his hunting buddies if he wanted, and they all came here to see the deer.”

Adam and his friends were treated to a buck celebration at Snyder’s “Trailer Number Two.” Adam described Trailer Number Two as “awesome” with an impressive assembly of racks from the bucks Snyder has taken over the years – some bigger than his 2024 buck. Snyder had lived in the trailer before moving to his current home nearby.

Snyder said that they all had a lot of fun, getting to know each other and telling hunting stories until about 11 p.m. that evening. 

“We told him that if there’s ever anything he needs, any help during hunting season or any time, all he has to do is call us,” Adam said. “We exchanged phone numbers.”

“The next morning, I got a slow start,” Snyder said. “But I didn’t mind, that night was special, and we were all so happy to be together and having so much fun – I’ll see them again, for sure.”

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