About this episode

Beau Martonik interviews Ryan Leary about his experiences hunting mature bucks in Pennsylvania's public lands over six years.

Beau Martonik sits down with Ryan Leary, a PA hunter who has been grinding big woods public land for six years and put together back-to-back mature buck kills including a 7.5 year old eight point in 2025. Ryan breaks down both hunts — the 2025 buck he killed at 10 yards after trusting his gut on fresh sign mid-morning, and the 2024 deer he killed the same evening he bumped on foot while hunting with a broken shoulder he probably shouldn't have been in the woods on. They also get into how he reads finger ridges and micro terrain, why getting into the nasty stuff changed his success rate, how the gypsy moth acorn wipeout forced him to rethink his whole approach, and what he's learned about mature bucks in the Pennsylvania mountains. Topics: 00:00:00 – Intro 00:04:34 – Background and How Ryan Got Into Big Woods Hunting 00:14:29 – The 2025 Buck — Setup, Sign, and the Kill 00:23:41 – Breaking Down the Terrain and Why the Tree Made the Difference 00:29:48 – Trusting Your Gut in the Big Woods 00:39:13 – Reading Mature Buck Bodies vs. Antlers 00:49:52 – The 2024 Season — Broken Shoulder, Big Encounters, and the Kill 01:00:22 – How Late October 2024 Was Unlike Any Season Recently 01:02:33…

People in this episode

Host: Beau Martonik

Guest: Ryan Leary

Topics covered

• public land hunting
• mature bucks
• big woods hunting
• hunting strategies
• terrain reading
• hunting injuries

Keywords

• PA hunting
• mature bucks
• big woods
• hunting strategies
• terrain
• hunting injuries
• acorn wipeout

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Pennsylvania

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