Sabrina Ascani, 14, shot her first buck today in Lower Mount Bethel Township. Vote in the NEWS POLL.
Sabrina Ascani, 14, shot her first buck today in Lower Mount Bethel Township.
This hunting season is one Sabrina Ascani won’t soon forget.
The 14-year-old bagged her first buck three hours after dawn on the first day of Pennsylvania's two-week firearm deer season. She and her father watched the buck from 75 feet as it wandered from a wooded area into an open field in Lower Mount Bethel Township.
“I sat next to her, guiding her and telling her what to do,” Dave Ascani said. “She’s a better shot than I am.”
The weather was great: clear and cool. Colder weather keeps the deer moving, according to Stewart Kessler, owner of Kessler’s Locker Plant in Plainfield Township. He had 34 deer processed by mid-afternoon and expected numbers to increase by evening and Tuesday when snow is expected. He expects to process about 100 deer a day within the next few days.
“This is probably really good weather for hunting,” Kessler said. “Everybody who has the day off should be actively looking.”
Dave Ascani said his daughter had a clear shot through the buck's lung. She has shot some large does in prior years, but never a buck.
Ascani, 47, has been hunting deer since he was age 12 when his father let him test his 30.06 military gun. Then, he bought his own rifle and has used it ever since.
The father-child tradition is living on through Sabrina, who also began hunting with her father at age 12.
Sabrina Ascani said she wanted to hunt ever since she was a small girl. She never expected to see a buck today.
“It was a surprise,” she said.
The pair planned to bring Sabrina’s buck to Nello’s butcher shop in Bushkill Township to turn it into myriad meat products, such as deer cubes, chops and roasts.
Kessler said his bow season numbers have decreased within the past decade mostly due to changes in hunting laws and the economy. Some hunters fear they could lose their jobs if they take off of work, he said. Licensing fees and expensive equipment also deter hunters, he said.
Kessler estimated in 2002, his Sullivan Trail store processed about 1,400 deer. That number fell each year until he hit the 500 mark, which he now averages per season
This year’s deer season includes special restrictions on some central Pennsylvania hunters because of a deadly disease found in captive deer earlier this year.
Hunters who take deer in a 600-square-mile area covering parts of York and Adams counties must have them tested for chronic wasting disease. The neurological infection can’t be transmitted to humans but is deadly to elk, moose and deer.
Two deer on Adams County farms died of the disease earlier this year, making them the first cases reported in the state. No infections have been reported in the wild population.
About 750,000 hunters are expected to take part in deer season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.