2011 PA Season

[bmstaaf]

Dispute the busy day after work I was able to make it out for a late sit...(getting Windows Saturday had to fix some light fixtures and run cable). I entered the stand I call the low stand at 410 to a north wind with a front coming in. At 440 a single doe walked by above me 75 yards away. At 520 a six point who had a white small rack appeared infront of me at about 70 yards he fed and walked through..at 550 I see another buck coming down the same path the 6 point came down, but this time it was a nice 8 point..when I pit the binos on him he appeared to be wide I would guess 18 inches with decent g2s 8-10 inches, he decided he was only going to come within 50-55 yards of me but that's a bit far for my liking..this was the first shooter sighting of the year! At 620 a group of three doe came down from the top, they stayed a ways out probably 90 yards or so...that was all that came bt for the evening...my brother was out he saw 6 doe and 2 bucks so the front had them up and feeding early...the thing that bothered me the most is a have a stand set up 100 yards from my low stand I intended to hunt but I let time become an issue! (every deer came or went that way!) The deer are here and there is always the next hunt!

[SwampLife]

Reading through these posts is driving me NUTS! I'm leaving for my annual PA archery trip on Oct 27. Reading about your encounters and the buck sign popping up is pushing my anticipation off the charts. I just hope the weather cooperates that week!

Good Luck and please keep the stories coming.

[bmstaaf]

Today was a bust, took the day off 30-40 mph winds, and solid rain.set up a stand on one of the farms I hunt yesterday inbetween the rains . Did not hunt same wind and rain. ( had some big trees tore apart on this farm tons of sign). Headed to camp Sunday night for a early Monday hunt I will let you kbow how the big woods go..from my scouting report NO acorns some apples so will see..(decided not to put in foodplots at camp due to time restraints and I go there to drink beer and hang with the guys, so I don't hunt it much![quote][/quote]

[mhouck06]

My 7 day break started wednesday, I did not hunt, had a rough couple days at work but figured I would at least go walk around, it was raining pretty much all day but I wanted to at least hit the woods on foot, reason being.. all summer we had three very nice bucks on trail cam, but we have not had any sightings of them yet and the camera pictures have dropped off dramatically... actually we had no pictures of those three bucks since a couple days before the season. I had not heard of anyone harvesting them either, but on public land in PA.. you never know. Anyway, I went out to a patch of woods across the road from where we had been seeing these bucks. In the area we were hunting them, there was not much sign and our mock scrapes were not getting hit as often. In this new patch, I ended up finding a really nice rub line.. probably spanned 300 yards total along a fence thru the woods. There was a concentration of about 10 rubs in about a 10 yard radius so I decided that I would hang a stand there, I made a mock scrape and left. Thursday I went in and hung the stand around noon. My dad got home from work around 330 and I told him to hit that stand. I figured there would be a good chance of him seeing something and I figured he would have the best shot out of that one compared to our other stands. This was his first year back to archery after a couple years just rifle hunting. Its been nice to have him back in the woods this time of year so I wanted to set him up good. At 6:45 I was sitting in my tree hoping for something to move when my phone rang. Talked to him, said he hit a nice 8 point. I said I would drive over and help him track it. Got there at about 7:30... there was not much tracking to be done, blood was light at first, but after about 15 yards you could tell it was pouring out of both sides of the deer. We tracked about 50 yards to find a 9 point with a 16 and 1/4 inch inside spread down. It was a main frame 8 with a kicker off the G2. That buck came right in, messed with the mock scrape a bit then gave my dad a nice 25 yard shot. It was his biggest bow buck ever. Great day!!

We always like to have our scouting done and stands hung before season, but sometimes you cant beat hitting a new patch of woods, finding a nice spot, hangin the stand and seeing what happens. It seems like I have caught more big bucks off guard doing that than any other tactic.

There was no other stands in that area, so we figured leading up to the season and durring the season, while the other parts of the woods were getting pounded, this buck was nice and secluded in his own area with no one pressuring him.

I am glad my dad was succesful, because I did not see much since he dropped that buck thursday. I hunted friday morning in the rain, didnt last long and did not see anything. Friday night I scouted for ducks, hunted ducks saturday morning and I went out in the wind last night and saw one button buck, a spike and a doe. Hoping to get out tomorrow and tuesday for morning and evening hunts.

Good luck to the rest of you guys. Ill get a pick of the buck on here asap.

[bmstaaf]

Congrats to your dad! I was finally able to make it out yesterday, entered the woods at 330 to a straight west wind..I have not hunted the back plot stand in a little over a week, sitting in my stand 20 yards out is a huge fresh rub, with scrapes not far! The squirrels and chipmunks kept me company for the first few hours..at 615 I had two 1.5 year old bucks enter the plot a 4 point and a 7 point...they fed until dark and moved on...while walking back to the car I kicked 1 out below me (i hate that)...the weather has been anything but pleasant and I'm out of town this week so will see when I make it in the woods again! Do you have a pic of the 9 point?

[ishman]

Saw some this morning but no shooters. But i did see a something ive never seen before. A fisher. Ive heard of others seeing them before but this is the first ive ever seen one. Got to watch it for a good five minutes. And of course i forgot my video camera!

[bmstaaf]

I went down to camp this weekend on Friday, but didn't get down till late so I was unable to hunt, then we stayed up a bit too late Friday night playing cards and drinking beverages so out the window went my sat am hunt! I did walk for an hour attempting to hit some grouse haha went 0-3 and saw 12 take off, that was a blast...I was about to head home and my uncle who had already shot his buck offered me his stand...(he has probably 10 acres of food plots down there the deer are crushing so I said sure..entered his plot stand at 330 and the deer never stopped coming...saw a total of 19 doe, had 17 in front of me at one time, I felt like I was on a game farm! Out of the 19 deer I saw, not a single horn! It was an exciting hunt none the less...I have already heard the small bucks are starting to harass the doe so maybe soon! I am out oc town for another weekend for work so will see...anyone else been seeing bucks?

[bmstaaf]

Entered the blind today with a nw wind at 315, at 530 I had a four point come thru grunting his life away...at 630 has a buck behind me in a thicket rubbing and scraping..I could see rack and the body, but how big Idk! He circled me down wind and made his way across the bottom, and that concluded my night! No does to shoot! Won't make it out till next Monday then it OS game on!

[bmstaaf]

Well the lady had to work late today so I decided to try my luck..I entered a stand that I had not hunted all year.. there was absolutely no wind when I got in, about 515 the wind started coming out of the se, for this stand it sucks! Sometimes I will back out, but figuring they would be early I opted to suck up the bad wind. At 615 I had an Idk deer come through straight into the wind to the north west he was in the thick cover and eventually got behind me but never showed his/her face...just before dark at about 650 I had to small bucks come running down from behind me (with the wind), they eventually got infront of me by about 60 yards and kept heading down...I could not tell how many points because of light but I could tell they were both about 8-10 inches wide.. anytime you see deer it makes for an exciting hunt so that's good..and being the wind we had I never got busted so two positives in 1 day...hopefully soon the bigger deer will stand up! Those leaves and apples are falling and getting ate up, almost time for the next food source!

[mhouck06]

Ive been out a hand ful of times with mixed results. Recently, the activity has picked up. I was out monday morning and had deer movement until about 9 am when I left. All does, but it was a good morning. I was skunked in the evening. Went to a spot that I keep getting pictures of a big ten, near where my dad shot his 9 point (pictures still to come... tried loading off my phone, but too big.. need to get them on and downsize them or get the sd card off my dad) No luck tho on the big ten, havent had a picture of him in a couple days either. Tuesday morning, went to the same farm I hunted monday morning, different stand tho. No luck, it was pretty windy.. stayed until about 9 and scouted my way out.. there was a lot more sign though that has shown up in the past week. Tuesday night I went out to the same stand my dad shot his 9 point out of because there has been increased sign near there and im thinking that 10 point is working it since I have not got him on cam on his normal route and Im 90% sure he has not been shot by anyone else. Around 545 pm, I had 4 does come running in, stopped about 40 yards from my stand, about 30 seconds later a nice 6 point came in and proceeded to chase the does around for a good 30 minutes. Exciting to see him chasing. He was on them hard... chasing in circles, they would disappear and then come running back. He would have been a nice one to shoot, but considering that 10 point is probably still in the area, I decided to hold off.. Next time he may not be so lucky. I exited the stand around 715 after all the deer had cleared out, got to my truck and drove to the adjacent field, saw that 6 still pushing those does around. I was using the scwt regular doe urine, he had no interest.. i think it may be getting time to put out the good stuff. I figure by saturday, if I still see chasing for the rest of the week, Ill be putting out the good stuff. My mock scarpes made with their buck urine are still getting hit good so im happy about that.. Im getting close, just need everything to fall into order now. I leave for my ohio and indiana trip a week from saturday, so its getting to crunch time. Hopefully that 10 will show himself.