Homey, Roy and all Pa. archers, Good luck next Saturday. Stay safe, hunt ethically and take good care of your meat.
Share your success or lack thereof. We all live and learn through our and others experiences.
Enjoy Mom nature's bounty.
Thanks Howard and you have a great season also..
Wow, spell check and fat fingers are the curse of old guy typing. No idea where that dead horse imogee came from.
It's gone like magic.
LOL
We're not worthy!!!!!
Thanks Howitser! Keep us posted as well!
Hope all my fellow Pa. stick and stringers have a great, safe season, gotta be the best time of the year, stands are hung, heads are sharpened and clothes are hanging out, and there is that touch of fall in the air, good luck and keep us posted. :thumbsup:
This will be my first year hunting in PA since I moved away in 1995. It's good to be back and there's a ton of public land near our new place in Port Matilda, so I'm excited to hit the woods.
I'm pretty bummed about no Sunday hunting, though. After being able to hunt a full weekend for nearly 25 years, it's tough to see half your weekend hunting time go up in smoke.
Also...best of luck to everyone and please be safe.
Good luck. Maybe it won't rain!
This one is still out there
Hi Tedd,
Did that guy follow you to Wyoming? Looks like the one you just Popped!! :clapper:
Howitzer, no the PA bucks are too smart for me to kill
I'm excited to get into my spot next week. Got some trail cam pics of some of the biggest bucks I've ever had on the property coming through my pinch point. Will have to see what God has in store for me.
Welcome back and best of luck to you this season Jerry!
I still have a ladder stand to place yet. Hoping to take advantage of the cooler days this week.
This is my 5th trad season so hoping to finally score.
Good luck everyone! I cant wait!
How are those deer focus areas working out. Thinking of coming over from NJ to have a look this year. What is happening in jersey these days barely resembles hunting and I'm looking for someplace to stretch my legs and get away from the crowds. Thanks Bruce
Really nice to hit the opener for sunrise. The first truly clear, sunny day in almost 2months in my area. Temps at 51 to start. 0800 a doe n her lil button walked passed my ground seat at 12 ft. I'm sitting behind a little birch brush outcrop. Just enjoyed watching them and let her pass. Cool way to start. The afternoon. I moved to another laurel brush trail but had nothing by. Checking the cam on the way out showed a medium bear by the stand Thursday.
All in all a very enjoyable opener, might have even caught a few winks in the sunshine.
Got out a couple hours in the morning and evening, No deer spotted.
They have their calendars out again!!!!! Not one deer on the trail cams since the season opener. A nice bear made an appearance 2 days before. That doe and button first day is all I've seen walkin'. Come on cold weather...at least chase away the Skeeters.
Whew, I have covered some ground. (public north). All my winter scouting was a waste of time. No acorns at all. Deer have vacated completely from a very large area around where I normally hunt. I relocated farther away, searching for some feed or sign. No luck. I have to try somewhere else. Darn! I was really optimistic this year. I had really had some good sign last fall and winter.
Sign is very hard to see because of the constant wash out rains. But we had a day or so without and I should have picked up something.
I had to got to the one "sure thing" spot I was saving for the rut that I went to. Nothing! Almost no deer on the 2 cameras I left there.
last week 7 miles. This week 9 miles of sneaking around scouting yesterday according to the GPS, with the whole pile of gear on my back. I finally set up over on old trail, currently appearing unused at 4:00. A thunderstorm washed me out at 5:00
The woods is really dead looking inside from no sunshine and constant rain.
If you are the guy to find acorns your going to have a zoo around you.
One thing I noticed was 3 different hens with no poults. Rain must have killed them. You don't supposed they would close fall turkey in the area?
I'll be back next weekend for 2 days to keep up the search.
Tedd
Ted,Same here went to my area on Bald Eagle state forest I was optimistic about no acorns and minimal deer sign.Lots of Acorns lower wood lots.
You need a horse to cover enough ground in a hurry. Someday when I retire and move up there, I'm going to have a horse.
Tedd
Funny about the horse, wife and I have quarter horses and while riding woods trails seems like the deer aren't as skittish of person on horseback, if its legal in Pa,? and I could get him to whoa at the right time think it would be cool to go all Native American and take one from horseback, but about the time I'd drop the reigns and nock an arrow is when my horse would decide its time to move, seriously though its a good way to cover a lot of ground, Weather is supposed to break on Friday, just been to hot and muggy for me so far, lots of mulies but no desire to mess with one in these temps.
Got out last night for the first time in Bald Eagle State Forest. Did not see any deer but it was great to get out int he woods.
Found a few rubs though.
Nice rubs, at least you know they are there!
I finally found a huntable spot.
I moved 2 mountains over and scouted, with the treestand on my back but again found nothing. It was a lot of uphill and then fighting beech saplings for an hour. I came out and took a quick nap in the truck while trying to think of another location. While studying Onx maps I pinpointed a southeast facing point about 4-5 miles away by road from my usual location, It looked like an ideal buck bed area. Also seemed like it could be an overlooked spot. I thought I would check it out since I had no other ideas. Just where I wanted park I looked in the woods and saw some rubs. It was the first actual sign of a living deer I saw so far! The long narrow ridge appeared to be about a mile to the point I wanted to check out. I got 100 yards in an hit a wall of laurel that only a desperate dumbass would try to go into. So in I went. Hoping it would open a little as I went. I stumbled a 1/4 mile and hit some game trails and slightly open spots. Then acorns!!!. 1 tree has them! But they are all hidden on the leave and laurel bushes. The area had stunted very short scraggly oak trees. (opposite of the grand 100' massive oaks where I usually hunt). Top soil must have been shallow, huge rocks were every where. The biggest trees might have been 30' an hundred years old, but they had acorns and deer sign, fresh. And bear sign. I moved another 25 yards a bumped a deer but couldn't see it's head. I'm only a 1/4 way to my destination but slowed up looking for more sign. I found at least 6-8 acorn producing trees with deer sign and decided not to continue in case I ran off more deer. So I hung a camera on a trail then thinking I put down too much sent I moved on another 75 yards. And found a tree to hang a stand. It was 4:00 PM. I was in the stand with an arrow on the string a 4:14. At about 6:00 I saw some deer going right past the camera I just hung. Dang it! One was a buck and 3-4 doe. I snuck out at about 10 min before dark trying to skirt the deer sign but the laurel got so thick I crashed like a bull dozer. Defiantly going back. 4 days of hunting. Sat in stand for about 2 1/2 hours. Feel great!!
Tedd
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This is a bear path coming to the oak trees. It doesn't show up on the camera. But you could easily see the steps where a bear puts his foot the same place every time. Not sure why the paw placements don't show up it was really obvious.
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Tedd looks like a great spot! Keep us posted!
Got out for an evening hunt in Bald Eagle State Forest this evening. Had a very nice 8pt buck about 10 yards from me and couldn't get a shot.
I was sitting on my Waldron Pack seat and where I was hunting was close to Route 80 and a creek. So it is very hard to hear anything. Close to quitting time I stood up and heard a sound like something raking the leaves. I froze and heard it a couple of more times. I looked to my left and standing about 10 yds away was a really nice 8pt buck staring at me. He looked at me for a couple of minutes and wasn't quite sure what I was. He looked up towards Route 80 then looked back at me then trotted away. When he got to about 40 or 50 yds away he snorted once and continued on his way.
Super exciting encounter from the ground!