Outside Life reported final December that Ray Swingle achieved a deer hunting milestone that few individuals will stay to high. At age 100, Swingle shot a Pennsylvania buck on the Union Dale space household farm along with his outdated Winchester Mannequin 70 Featherweight rifle in .30-06. This yr, Swingle killed one other PA buck, however this time with a crossbow the day after his one hundred and first birthday.
“I didn’t suppose Ray may high final yr’s deer looking achievement – however he has,” Ray’s grandson-in-law Mike Mancuso tells Outside Life. “He was looking alone the afternoon of Oct. 9 when he used his TenPoint Crossbow to take an 8-point buck at 30 yards. The buck had a 17-inch unfold, weighed about 175 kilos, and we expect it was a three-year outdated buck.”
The whitetail dropped in its tracks, because the arrow went via the buck’s neck and ribs, clipping the deer’s backbone and anchoring it.
“Ray referred to as me instantly, and I obtained to his wood-frame capturing hut [that he had handmade] quickly thereafter. Then we loaded it up, took it again to the farmhouse and cleaned it.”
Mancuso says Ray tried onerous to shoot a buck on his 101st birthday, which was on Oct. 8. However he by no means obtained a crack at an older buck that day. So, he opted to hunt once more the subsequent day (Oct. 9) to hopefully punch a tag.
“He handed smaller bucks as a result of he knew there have been higher ones on the farm,” Mancuso says. “Getting a very good buck the day after your 101st birthday is an unimaginable achievement. And he did it with a crossbow – whereas looking alone.”
The buck Swingle arrowed was taken solely about 50 yards from the place he shot an 8-pointer final yr when he was 100 years outdated.
Ray was born on the Susquehanna County dairy farm in 1923, and Mancuso says he nonetheless works on the farm doing a big selection of initiatives. Mancuso believes that the hard-working farm way of life retains Ray match, self-sufficient, and able to hunt.
Mancuso says Ray bowhunted deer yearly for 30 years, residing via the evolution of recurve and compound bows. Swingle started utilizing a crossbow when his shoulders may not deal with the push-pull of drawing a normal bow.
Whereas most of Swingle’s deer have been taken in his residence state of Pennsylvania, as a youthful man he had additionally traveled broadly for looking journeys.
“He’s taken moose in Newfoundland, caribou in Quebec, elk and mule deer in Colorado, mountain goats in British Columbia, Dall sheep within the Yukon,” says Mancuso. “He shot his first deer at age 15 with a .22 rifle again in 1938, (when it was lawful to hunt in Pennsylvania with a .22).”
Photograph courtesy of Ray Swingle
Ray typically hunts with Mancuso or his grandchildren. However since he hunts nearly every day throughout the Pennsylvania season, he typically hunts alone, too.
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“He’s labored onerous passing on out of doors traditions and takes his nice grandson fishing on farm ponds.”
“There’s little question that Ray shall be again subsequent fall to strive for an additional buck round his 102nd birthday – God keen.”
