My Archery Season here in Pa.
Well this year has been crazy. I didn't make it into the woods untill Oct. 26th and sat in the same stand I had harvested my first archery buck a year before and had the opportunity on a doe that evening and for what ever reason,was not able to find my arrow, blood, or the deer. I looked for nearly 15 hours between that evening and into the next day and was not successful to locate anything... My conclusion is that I missed and my arrow was sent flying. I saw a total of 8 deer including one small buck that day. I was only able to hunt for around 3 hours and felt it was a great day!
With sick kids, work and life in general I wasn't able to get any time in the woods again until Nov. 2nd. and was able to hunt with John. He arrived from VT. on friday Nov. 1st and was able to take a fantastic Pa. buck. (He will post the story later)... We sat in the stand I had hunted in and missed the doe the week before and only saw one doe that morning and was not in range. We had to leave early as I had a 50th wedding Anniversary party for Nicole's Grandparents not allowing us to hunt the whole day.
With not being able to hunt Sunday's in Pa. and having little free time thought out the week we were not able to get back out again until Nov. 8th. I had a parent teach conference that morning so we didn't get into the woods until 10am or so. John had been doing some scouting all week and with the cold and wind we decided to hunt the top ridge. We had winds close to 20mph and snowed on and off all day long. Sadly we didn't see a single deer. I also learned that day my back isn't what it use to be and was hurting for a few days after such a long sit in the stand...
Saturday Nov 9th was John's last day in Pa and needed to be on the road for Vt. by mid afternoon we weren't able to sit all day as we planned to. We got into our stands Right at first light and got to watch an amazing sun rise. There wasn't much deer activity until about 7:30am when I noticed a young deer out in the field feeding. We watched as the deer walked away from us across the field until it was out of sight never coming into range. So as time went by we hadn't been seeing much other then the dozen or more squirrels busily looking for food. But all that changed around 9:30am when shortly after John hitting the grunt tube a nice buck showed up in the same area that we had seen the young deer earlier. We watched as this deer made its way to us on the same trail we walked in a few hours before. It stopped only 20 yards form the base of our tree but with all the brush in the way I was not able to shoot quite yet. We hoped this deer would follow the trail leading in-front of my stand. Sadly this wasn't the case it decided to cut into the woods behind me, requiring me to turn 180° in the stand to get the shoot. So as I began to make the turn with the deer no more than 10 yards form the tree I ended up bumping the tip of my arrow on a bow hanger strapped to the tree next to me sending the deer on his way. I was not able to get a shot and sat hanging my head as we watched him walk away... We had to leave shortly after so John was able to get on the road to Vt. and home at a descent time...
Again work and the time change kept me out of the woods until Nov. 16th which was the last day of the Pa. archery season. I opted to sit near the area john and I had sat in the snow thinking with the wind blowing from the south and having good rut activity I may find a nice deer cruising the top of the bedding area...I did see a lone doe at 8:00am well out of range and that was all I saw on my last day. I was a bit disappointed, but I can say I had a fun Archery season despite not harvesting a deer or getting much time in the woods...Keep your eye out for Pa. Rifle season update it could be interesting :-) Dec. 2nd starts it off!
