Pennsylvania Deer Season Went Well

[Indian Summer]

We had a good year of whitetail hunting here in Pennsylvania this year. PA used to sell more hunting licenses than any state in the country. First day of rifle season was madness. If you went to a deer processor, you would see piles of spikes fork horns and six point bucks. The average deer harvested was 1 1/2 years old. Any eight point buck was a trophy.

For a guy who was hunting elk and mule deer it was hard to stay interested in deer hunting back here. And with a freezer full of elk, I was in no hurry to shoot a deer. I quit shooting antlerless deer about 10 years ago. When it came to hunting at home, I was strictly a horn hunter. It took a long time to get to the point. We’re not punching my tag didn’t matter to me. Before that I was stacking them up.

In 2002 our wildlife biologist Gary Alt finally won a long fought battle to get the Pa Game Commission to implement antler restrictions. He was nearly tarred feathered and lynched by the “if it’s brown it’s down” crowd. But it didn’t take long for the naysayers to sayers to see the results. We now have mature bucks…. on public land. That’s something that is even rare in some of the Midwest states known for big bucks. Quite often the case is you need private land if you expect quality deer. The small amount of public land are over hunted. Hunting overall is a declining thing here. We definitely have a handful of hard-core young hunters, but with today’s generation is being distracted by so many other things the number of hunters has declined quite a bit. Especially archery hunting.

During those season tree stand hunting is the name of the game. Do your homework and pick the perfect tree. Put in your time and keep adjusting your stand location until you get it right. Early gun season I often use the same stands. But that doesn’t last long. The does are literally everywhere. I could shoot deer every day no problem. Even during gun season. But the box, especially the ones I’m looking for, become nocturnal real quick. They are pretty much nocturnal year-round to begin with. But when the orange army hits the woods, they hide under rocks. They go up into the neighborhoods where a patch of woods is no bigger than the house it’s behind. So by the 2nd week of firearms season we start driving deer.

It’s a great way to get deer up and moving from the impenetrable thickets that they lay in. We hunt some extremely thick and very steep country. There are benches and cliffs along the river valleys here. If I was a buck there, you would never kill me! It is really fun and rewarding to put young hunters on their very first deer. I love that! It’s good for getting them opportunities at bucks too. But in addition to that it can be our only chance of getting those big bucks out of their daytime bedding fortresses and actually see them. Otherwise they are ghosts. You wouldn’t know they even exist if it weren’t for trail cameras, seeing pictures of deer taken by other lucky hunters, or road kills.

We don’t have big groups. Usually 3-4 shooters posted where we know from experience the deer will run too. Places where there are some open lanes in cover so thick you wouldn’t be able to hunt it otherwise. Places where even though we get the deer moving they still slip past us and get away more often they not. Lots of times they double back and get around the pushers. That’s pretty common. They are slick!!! But every once in awhile we get it right.

Both of these ladies hunted hard during archery season and had some really close calls on some decent bucks but never flung an arrow. Amy on the left got her first buck last year, a small 8 point. She got it during archery season after hunting only 2 days. I pushed it to her as she sat in a small hunting blind chair with her crossbow on a tripod. We were pretty happy. She made a perfect shot and the deer went down on the spot.

She got it reality. Check this year after hunting hard in October and November with no luck. She was a little burned out by the end of the rut but gun season was around the corner.

On the first day of the season we went to the spot where she killed her buck last year. We spotted a nice 8 point first thing in the morning. He was across a road in a cemetery but crossed onto a hardwood ridge on our side. We repositioned trying to get closer and to a good vantage point we knew. On the way we spooked a big doe and small fork horn buck. They both ran toward the bigger box so we were worried they would put him on full alert. We got to our spot and Amy got settled in. We glass for a while, but couldn’t see him. I thought he might have better down. I laughed and made a big circle back past the truck to see if I could relocate him and maybe bump him in her direction. While I was gone, she spotted him. He was hanging out in the very bottom of a steep ravine. He was in range, but there were a lot of branches in the way. He finally moved to a spot where she had a small opening. She had him in the crosshairs with the safety off, waiting to squeeze off a shot. It didn’t happen. At that moment a single doe came rocketing by with a coyote hot on her trail. The buck took off and vanished, and that was the end of that.

We hunted some more that morning with no luck before I decided I needed to get some gas in the tank. I was starving. When we got back, I decided I was going post her and push through some thick stuff where there are always box bedded down during the day. Always! I pulled in and parked in another truck pulled up beside me. It was my partners. They said we could have the spot and they would go elsewhere. They were about to do some pushing too. I told them to count us in and we all set up to push deer in an area we are very familiar with. A place where I have the escape routes all figured out.

In the back of their truck was a nice doe. It was Erica’s very first deer! How exciting! She saw some big bucks during archery season and it was time to get her some action. She was really happy about it. So was I. She’s a great kid.

Amy wasn’t too comfortable at all. She had never done deer drives before. Stands only. She was nervous about shooting running deer. Worried about missing. Worried about wounding a deer. At one point she handed me the gun and said here you hunt I can’t do this. I coached her. Told her there was no pressure. That deer blow past us all the time with no shots fired. It’s simple….. if you don’t have an ethical shot don’t shoot. But…. If you do do NOT hesitate! Seize the moment. As soon as you settle the crosshairs let it fly! She said ok.

Within 20 minutes I see movement across the power line. It’s SUPER thick coming across. You’re lucky to get a glimpse let alone a shot unless things go perfectly. The deer disappeared but then popped up only 60 yards away. Buck! Shooter! Two of them! They never slowed down. As they got closer they stay low to our right and passed us at only 30 yards but moving fast and on the other side of thick cover. Not chance of a shot. But wait… here comes another one! He’s bigger than the first two. In typical Pennsylvania buck fashion he held up and let the other two go ahead to make sure it was safe.

He was on the same path as the first two. Not good. But he was reluctant to leave the cover and enter the more open woods. He stopped just on the other side of the thick patch that saved the first two. I couldn’t see him at all but I knew he was there. And at only 20 yards! Then like a gift from God he decided to turn uphill and use the trail that entered to woods above where the other two bucks went. He cleared the cover at 20 yards and stopped dead. That was the chance right there. But she didn’t have the same view as me and didn’t shoot. He stared at me for 2 seconds and turned right back downhill. I thought it was game over for sure. Nope. Boom! She took the shot. He went immediately out of sight… straight to the ground. I said he’s down! She asked “Did I get him!!!” As soon as she asked a long loud grunt came from the other side of the brush. I smiled and said uh yeah… he’s down. Her first gun buck. She said maybe this deer drive thing isn’t so bad.

We walk over and there he was. We were high fiving and getting the camera out when BOOM! A shot from where Erica was with her dad. We looked that way and here he comes. A nice tall 8 point I had on camera earlier in the season. Darn nice but not quite enough for me. He stopped at 50 yards and stood there for way longer than I needed to shoot him. Then he kept coming and ran right by at 25 yards and hit the woods right where Amy’s buck had been heading.

Pretty soon Erica showed up asking if there was any sign that she hit him. There was fresh snow on the ground. Amy and I saw where he ran so we followed him for a bit and determined he got away unharmed. Good for him! See you next year!

We left that spot and drove a short distance to our next spot. Amy was done so now she got to see things from the driver’s perspective. We got dropped off by Erica’s brother Luke. He drove further and entered the woods first. We stay put as blocks because the deer run tight to yards there and cross the road into a steep valley with super thick’s jungles where the trails turn into tunnels and you can’t shoot at all. Within 5 minutes 5 deer ran right between us and the yards, darted across the road and vanished. (thought they had seen the last of us) We started moving but within a minute a shot rang out. It turns out that before we even got started Erica sat down to wait with her dad and looked over and an 8 point buck was standing in the edge of the trees just looking at them. Whammo game over. She got her very first doe ever AND her first buck in the same day. Wow!!! The ladies sure made us proud that day!

[Indian Summer]

The following Saturday was epic! I was hunting alone in the morning. I was running a little late. But I had a great spot I planned on sitting at. I got ahold of the other group to find out that they were already there and about to push out my area! Crap! So I decided on another spot. I had never hunted it before but knew it was a great place. I walked through it one time last year. I got there and sat down. I could see far across the valley but not much across the top. It was thick. So I moved a little and sat. Not quite the spot so I moved again just a little bit and found an open lane that ran all the way up to a high chain link fence. On top there are old government buildings that were abandoned decades ago. There are big holes in the fence that have deer trails running through them.

After about a half an hour Erica’s dad Eric texted saying they were going to come over and drive my side of the road. He asked where I was and I told him. By then it was 10:30 so deer were laying low for the day. I had thought about still hunting but walking isn’t the best way to hope for a shot at a mature buck. So I was happy they were going to stir things up. After an hour I saw orange across the valley. Luke. That kid is like a hound dog! He killed a big 10 point in archery so he was a full time pusher in gun season. He was raised right and knows how to get the deer going where he wants them to go. If I could see him I figured anything ahead of him was about due to pop up on my side of the valley. Next thing I know BOOM! A young guy that joined us for the day busted a coyote running out ahead of the drivers. Nice! We see too many coyotes in that area.

When the cover is that heavy we know enough to not lean your gun against a tree while you wait. Opportunities come and go in the blink of an eye. So not only did I have the rifle pointed in the right direction but something told me to click the safety off. I had seen a bright red cardinal there earlier which is a reminder of my grandmother and has always been a lucky sign for me. Sure enough I saw movement. Way at the top where it’s the thickest. Then I see antlers. Buck! He’s right at the fence. Sneaking not running. He took 2 or three steps but still in the thick. By now I had seen enough to know he was worth punching my tag. Three more steps and game over. I didn’t see the non typical side of his antlers until I walked over to him. He’s an old warrior. I already had his skull beetle cleaned. He had a broken nose and a missing tooth both on the same side as the deformed antler.

We got the deer out and relocated over to the place where Erica scored the previous Saturday. But instead of hunting high we decided to push the really thick cover on the lower side of the road where the deer escaped past me and Amy the week before. I was done so I was a pusher. Erica’s uncle Eugene had twisted an ankle earlier that day so we let him sit at the “old folk spot” at the very top not far from the trucks. The young guy who shot the coyote earlier was way down low in the valley below the thickets. Good shooting down there. And we had one guy in the middle. This spot hold a ton of deer but 9 times out of 10 they get away from us.

I was crawling through the tunnels and was blown away by how much fresh sign there was. The place was torn up! Beds trails yellow snow and deer duds all over. After awhile I could see the long skid marks from deer bolting ahead of me. I texted everyone and said guns up there are deer galore moving in here. A mid sized 8 point busted out of the cover and went low. All the way low past the young buck. But it was doing the speed of sound and he never had a shot. And…. BOOM! And another BOOM! Shots fired from the old folks spot above me. My phone died just then so I have no clue what happened. I pushed up higher heading towards the shot. Then I hear my name… Joe… Joe… up here! I see orange above me. Only 40 yards away but it’s so thick I can barely make a guy out. I start trucking up there and at about 15 yards I see a deer laying there. Body size not very big at all. It’s facing uphill away from me so I can’t see the head at all. Eugene had worked tons of overtime out of state and hadn’t really been able to join us the past 2 seasons. And this year his luck has been terrible. He lives an hour and a half away and hunting by his house is terrible. He was pretty frustrated and was really needing some deer meat. So I figured cool Gene got a nice doe and it’s an easy drag from here. I yelled through the vine “Good job Gene what did ya’ get??!”

He was beyond excited. I got a 15 point brother! What!!! I kept walking and holy smokes that ain’t no doe! A 12 point main frame with matching split brownies and a 4 inch kicker off the back of the right beam. Monster. The G4 on the front of the right beam is broken off. Otherwise perfect. I was proud just to have been a part on f that hunt and to be the one to send that buck Eugene’s way. We made the ladies proud that day!

[Lefty]

Thanks for the invite(story)

Kind of sweet when it all works better

[WapitiTalk1]

Holy heck, PA season went well is an understatement! Great bucks and exceptional write up mister! Thank you for sharing