Former Horseheads resident shoots 16-point buck

Former Horseheads resident Nick Erway returned to the Southern Tier for deer season and tagged this 16-point monster.

When Thomas Wolfe once famously wrote, “You can’t go home again,” it was obvious he hadn’t met Nick Erway.

The former Horseheads resident, who now lives in Newport, Pa., comes home every year to hunt a few days in the Southern Tier. This year, however, proved to be special.

Accompanied by his 13-year-old grandson Brenden, Erway shot a massive 16-point buck that may be one of the largest taken in New York state this season.

Erway’s adventure started early on opening morning, and he saw several does and bucks run past his ground blind not far from the Murray Athletic Center on Route 14.

It wasn’t until around 9 a.m. that a really impressive buck sauntered into view, and even then, because of all the intervening brush, Erway didn’t realize just how big his buck was until one shot from his .270 rifle put it down.

“Once we got past the last of the stuff and the goldenrod where I saw the deer lying there on the ground, I realized what a large buck I had just taken,” Erway said. “I just looked and started to tremble with excitement and said to Brenden slowly, ‘Oh my god! Look at that buck!’”

Erway’s buck weighed 175 pounds field dressed, and the rack had an outside spread of 21 1/8 inches. He had it scored by Mike Deming of Elmira, an official scorer for the New York State Big Buck Club. Deming gave the buck a gross score of 180 2/8 points with a final net score of 162 4/8 points. That score makes Erway’s trophy the second-largest typical buck ever taken in Chemung County, Deming said.