New Year, New Season

[petey]

Tomorrow is our opening day here in PA, which starts another season for me.

I made it out one last time since the weekend last night and to my suprise found 4 more fresh rubs that were not there on Sunday. Even more coincidentail, I ran into a deer last night while in the middle of making one of those rubs.

I didn't really get to see the rack because of how thick it was. After he left I walked over to see the tree he was picking on and it was a pretty good sized tree. Hopefully he's bigger than what I think, though.

I haven't seen anything great yet this year, other than what's on my trail cams, but I am finding scrapes and rubs already. There are so many acorns this year you need to watch where you walk, otherwise you might twist your ankle!

I know they are there...they were there last year and we didn't have a good kill ratio in the area last year so all those monster bucks I saw last year are one year older, one year wiser, and one year bigger!!

Hopefully I'll be posting pictures by Monday.... Heck maybe not, why end it so quick? I know the camera is coming along, so whatever isn't worth shooting with the bow will almost certianly be worth shooting with the video camera.

[gd357]

Good luck to Petey, and all the rest of us going out tomorrow. If you don't see anything to shoot, you'll at least get to spend some quality time in the great outdoors, and that my friends is what it's all about. Have a safe and productive archery season!

gd

[petey]

I didn't see a deer until 9:30, but after that they pretty much kept me in the tree until noon.

The first to come by was a scrub 5 point (or 2x3 for you westerners ) He was all but 8 yards at his closest point, I let him be. Next he pushed out 2 does from a thicket that was to the South. They passed within 25 yards and fed for a while around 40-50 yards. During that time I watch the mamma doe stare down further into the woods and I knew something else was coming. I could see a large grey bodied deer coming her way. It turned out to be another momma doe an fawn. When the two met, the began a boxing match for about 30 secs. Both standing on their hind legs kicking one another. It was quite comical to watch.

Those now 4 does fed right by me, closest they came was about 5 yards. I let them be. Next came a 4 point (or forkhorn for you westerners ) He's not legal since we have a 3 point rule in my unit. He passed at 12 yards. The next to come was two does hauling the mail being chased by another buck... I'm thinking he was another 5 point. They were running, so it was hard to tell if he had brow tines...Either way I let him be too.

The next deer to come was a 3rd 5 point in tote of a spike. Both of those fed within 10 yards of me. I let them be.

I left the stand around noon once movement stopped for a while.

At 3:30 I was back up in my stand to a hot 75 degrees. I did not see a deer until 6:30. During that final half hour of daylight I saw 4 bucks, no does.

Total tally for the first morning... 6 different does, 7 different bucks. Nothing that I wanted to shoot. I passed up 4 "legal" bucks, but as they say don't pass up on the first day what you would shoot on the last. I wouldn't have shoot those even on the last day. I think I'll just let them grow

I'm saving my doe tags for 2 weeks during our early muzzleloader season, plus I'm a 30 min straight walk to where I'm hunting. I didn't want to drag a deer up out of their unless he's a nice one.

All in all, it was a good day. I was pleasantly surprised to see as many deer as I did.