Outdoor living reported last December that Ray Swingle achieved a deer hunting milestone that few will survive. At the age of 100, Swingle shot a Pennsylvania buck on the family farm in the Union Dale area with his old Winchester Model 70 featherweight rifle in .30-06. This year, Swingle killed another PA buck, but this time with a crossbow the day after his 101st birthday.
“I didn’t think Ray could top last year’s deer hunt performance, but he has,” said Ray’s grandson Mike Mancuso Outdoor living. “He was hunting alone on the afternoon of October 9 when he used his TenPoint crossbow to take an 8-point buck at 30 yards. The buck measured 17 inches across and weighed about 175 pounds, and we believe it was a three-year-old buck.
The whitetail fell on its trail as the arrow passed through the buck’s neck and ribs, severing the deer’s spine and anchoring it.
“Ray called me immediately and I reached his wooden shooting hut [that he had handmade] shortly afterwards. Then we loaded it up, brought it back to the farm and cleaned it.”
Mancuso says Ray tried his best to shoot a dollar on his 101st birthday, which was on October 8. But he never got a shot at an older buck that day. So he opted to hunt again the next day (October 9) to hopefully make a tag.
“He passed on smaller amounts because he knew there were better ones on the farm,” Mancuso said. “Earn a good penny the day after your 101st birthday is an incredible achievement. And he did it with a crossbow – while he was hunting alone.”
The buck with Swingle’s arrow was taken only about 50 yards from where he shot an 8-pointer last year, when he was 100 years old.
Ray was born on the Susquehanna County dairy farm in 1923, and Mancuso says he still works on the farm doing a wide variety of projects. Mancuso believes the hardworking lifestyle on the ranch keeps Ray fit, self-sufficient and ready for the hunt.
Mancuso says Ray hunted deer annually for 30 years, witnessing the evolution of recurve and compound bows. Swingle began using a crossbow when his shoulders could no longer handle the push-pull of drawing a standard bow.
Although most of Swingle’s deer were taken to his home state of Pennsylvania, he had also traveled extensively on hunting trips as a younger man.
“He has taken elk in Newfoundland, caribou in Quebec, elk and mule deer in Colorado, mountain goats in British Columbia, Dall sheep in the Yukon,” says Mancuso. “He shot his first deer at age 15 with a .22 rifle in 1938 (when it was legal to hunt in Pennsylvania with a .22 rifle).”
Ray often hunts with Mancuso or his grandchildren. But since he hunts almost every day during the Pennsylvania season, he often hunts alone.
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“He has worked hard to pass on the traditions of the outdoors and takes his great-grandson fishing in farm ponds.”
“There is no doubt that Ray will be back next fall to try and make another dollar around his $102i.e birthday – God willing.”
Bob McNally