2013 What a Great Year in the Woods!!!

What a great hunting season! 

I had the opportunity to hunt with some of the finest sportsmen I know!
I was able to harvest my first spring Gobbler this year,
Saw more buck from the stand than any other year in the past. 


Spring Gobbler

 I shared my turkey season with 3 great guys, and came so close to getting a double.

Doug and I chasing Swamp Chickens

Matt & I waiting and ready!

Matt & I had only been in our spot for maybe an hour when the gobbles started to hammer from the ridge in front of us. With a few Yelps we had them coming on a string.
Matt was the first to see them at the field edge and the adrenaline kicked in.
We had 3 birds coming into our set up on a string.
We waited for what seamed like for ever for them to come into range.
I whispered to Matt once they were in range that at the count of 3 we would shoot.
With the adrenalin rolling and so focused on the shot I didn't notice Matt wasn't quite ready when my count hit 3. Two shotgun blast and one bird flopping...

 Not only was this my first Spring Gobbler it was also my first turkey ever. had a 5 1/2 beard and weighted around 12 to 15 pounds I was using Winchester Super mag's  #4 copper plated 3" mag with a Remington 870 Sure shot express Turkey

Archery

I had a late start getting into the woods this fall. 

I made my first trip Oct 26th and had action in the stand none stop all season.

I only hunted 7 days in archery and only two days were skunked days.

I saw at least 4 deer each time i was out and almost every trip a legal buck was seen.

I have really worked hard to figure out the deer the last couple years where John and I have been hunting and it really paid off this year!

John was able to get a fantastic buck and we had more encounters in archery with legal bucks then any year before. I wasn't able to put it together in archery but was one of the most successful seasons I have had in a long time!  

 

 Rifle

My rifle season was one of the quickest and most successful seasons I have ever had.

John and I hit the woods early in hopes of anyone else in the area would push deer to us.

After a hour in the dark the first shoot rang out at 6:45am. and the action started.

 With in minuets of the first shoot we had deer coming in. 4 or 5 doe worked there way thought but decided to let them walk.

It wasn't to long a we spotted a lone deer working its way to us. So John hit the grunt tube and got the camera rolling. She came in to about 60 or so yards and my dad's Ruger 7mm Mauser dropped her in her tracks...

I quickly climbed out of my tree got her tagged and drug her back to the tree. Jumped right back in my stand in hopes of more action since it was only 7:30am.

It wasn't 10min. and John tells me to get ready there are more deer coming.

I spot 2 then 3 then 4 deer working there way down the hill. I notice the 3rd deer is a buck and appears to be legal.

John gets the Camera rolling and hits the grunt tube, and he breaks from the group and come in to about 50 yards.

I took a quoting tortes shot and he took off like a rocket, but only a short distance before we could tell he was hit. I was so amped up and shaking that John was picking on me for making the tree shake.

well i quickly climb down and after some "Hang ups" getting out of the stand I was off to do a quick tracking job, and had a tag on him by 7:45am.

He ran about 150 yards from where I shot to the point he died. This buck is the second biggest buck for me to date.

8 point inside spread 13 3/4" and an outside of 14 3/4"

After some photos and the excitement subsided and with the help of John we were back to the truck and on our way home by 9:30am.

I didn't get back in the woods to hunt the rest of the season, but have already started scouting for the 2014 seasons!

I hope 2014 is as fun and successful of a year in the woods as 2013 was for us!

2013 PA Buck

I had been planing a trip to PA for the last two months. The time has finally come to load up the car and make the six hour trip to Tioga county.

 My brother had been sending me trail cam pics of a hand full of buck. I had high hopes to kill my biggest buck to date on this trip. So far my best buck is a eight point I killed in rifle season many years ago. I now use the antlers from that deer as my rattling antlers.

The drive was nice. I decided to push straight threw so I would be able to hunt that night when I got in.

I stopped at the local shop and picked up my tags. I called my brother and asked what he thought for the night. Temps were in the fifties and wind out of the north west. He gave me a few tips and said good luck. Once I got to the farm I got a call from my brother saying he was going to stop by on his way home because of a cat wreck he needed to go the long way. I get all my gear out and getting dressed when he shows up. We chat for a bit and we decide I need to go to a spot that does not get hunted that much becuas a north west wind is the only wind that works. We say bye and I head to my spot.

On the way in  I see more deer sign on the edge of the field than I have seen all season in Vermont.
I find a few good looking rubs and scrapes on the field edge.

I notice the tracks in the scrapes are some of the largest tracks I have seen. I Start feeling like it is going to be a good night. I have only been in the state for two hours. 

I find a good tree form my climber and get set up. Not much comer so I climb about twenty five feet up and pull up all my gear. I am facing not looking up the hill with the field to my right. Not expecting something to come fro the field I have that as my weak side.  The sun is warm to warm. It is still in the fifties. I am getting away with hunting in November with only a long sleeve shirt on.

I sat with out seeing anything but squirrels. I hit my rattling antlers together and do a few grunts and got ready.  Then it was like someone flipped a switch a little spike chased a doe right in front of me and out of sight. Another doe came by and then the spike chased the doe back by again.  Then I noticed a deer out by the field. I look and see a nice buck working his way to me. He is down wind of me. I am thinking there is no way he will come in. Just then the spike comes back with the two doe right in front of him.  The spike stops and makes a rub on a sapling.

 I am surrounded by deer. The doe are at fifteen yards and the spike is off to my left at ten yards. At this point I'm sure one of them are going to pick me off. I slowly get turned to get a shot to where I think the buck I think is a nice ten pointer will come by my stand. He sees that little spike with the doe and you can tell he is not happy about it. He starts coming in. I can now see his left antler is crazy looking, two long spikes super cool looking.  He stops at twenty yards and makes a scrape and then turns and enters the woods. This took me off guard. I wanted him to keep walking the field edge for a nice easy fifteen yard shot. Now I need to get set up on the right side of the tree. Some how I get my bow between the tree and my self with out spooking him or the other deer right around me. He is still coming towards me. Working his way to the little spike. He heads behind a tree and I draw my bow and go threw the motions. He is less than ten yards now.  This is one of the harder shots to make twenty five feet up and under ten yards.

He comes out the other side of the tree and stops. I set the pin right on him and squeeze the the trigger and heat that hollow thump up a good shot. He bucks and then slams into a tree and then gets up and runs fifty yards and drops insight of my tree.


I text my brother from the stand and could not text because I was shaking so bad. All i got back was ?
So I called him. I said I shot a big buck and he is down can you bring the cart from the house. he said your shitting me and hung up on me. I climb down and go look for my arrow and blood. No arrow but so much blood. I follow the blood trail to the buck and find half my arrow on the way.

 I take a moment to get calmed down and tag my buck.

My brother calls me back and asked if I had found him. I said yes. He asked how many  points and I start counting and got to nine and he hung up on me again. I go back to my stand and pack things up and head to the car and meet my brother there. He meet me in the field with the cart and walked back in with me. I pose for a few pics and get to work field dressing him.

This is by far the biggest bodied deer I have ever killed. dressed out at 178lbs. It also my best buck to date. We drug him to the field and get him loaded on the game cart. My brother had called a few  friends to see if they wanted to come help. They showed up about the time we made it to the cart and helped pull him out.Thanks for the help guys.

And my 2013 PA season was over in the first night. I would not have got this deer if it was not for my brothers hard work and time he puts into scouting. Thanks so much.

On the first day of rifle season my brother killed a nice eight and a doe from the same spot. 

First VT Buck

 

The hunt started on Oct 11th. I meet Kyhl at the end of the logging road at around 3pm

Kyhl headed to his stand on the north end of the clover field and I had my climbing stand and was going to see if I could find where the deer were. We were into the second week of archery and had not seen a deer yet.

I followed a logging road till an intersection with two other roads. The trees to pick from were few and far between. I finally decided on a maple tree that I might be able to get a shot to all three roads. I could only climb fifteen or sixteen feet because of branches.

I noticed that I would be able to shot to the road up hill from me. Only a small shooting lane but could pull of a 30 yard shot.

After about 1/2 hour I heard something coming down the road on the up hill side. 

I grab my bow and get turned around and see a small buck walk into the lane. I see he has a y on the right side and draw my bow. I put the pin right behind the shoulder and let it fly. The deer takes a step at the same time and I watched the arrow drill him right in the gut. My hard drops, This is a first for me. All the years of hunting and this is my first gut shot deer. I watched the deer bound off about 30 yards and stop, tail flickering and hunched up. Then he walks in to the brush. I could still make out the deer with my binoculars. After ten of fifteen minutes I loose sight of the deer.  I set the first of  two timers on my phone. One is for the time after shot. The other is last time I saw the deer alive. I check my phone and thirty minutes have passed so it is time to climb down. I sneak up to the road and do a quick look for my arrow but cant find it. I do see some blood and it has all the signs of a gut shot deer.  Brown chunks in a dark red blood.I follow it to the where I was him go in the brush and take a quick look for my arrow there, That is when he jumped up right in front of me and disappeared. Disgusted with my self I set timer number two and walk back to the field.

 Sitting at the edge of the field waiting for Kyhl the shot plays out over and over in my head. Kyhl walked up and noticed I was missing an arrow and got excited for me. Then I had to tell him what had happened. Bummed out we head for the cars and a sleepless night for me. This property has a lot of predators on it. Opening day I saw a two hundred pound black bear and there are always coyote tracks on the road.

I get an early start at first light. I head for the last place I saw the deer. I pick up blood right away. I used a grim reaper whitetail special that has a two inch cut. The blood trail is much better than I thought I would have. The blackberry bushes are head high and visibility is only about ten feet.  Following  the trail about sixty yards and there he is laying dead. I dig my tag out and put it on his ear and took a few minutes to think about the hunt and what I could have done to make a better shot next time. After dressing and dragging the deer out of the thicket time to find my arrow. The arrow was laying right where I shot the deer. With low light and excitement I over looked it.

2013 Pa Archery...

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...

  Since Veterans day was the following Monday I was able to hunt most of that day as well.. So after taking the kids to School I was in my Stand by 10am and ready for action. My hopes were high as the rut was starting and the activity was picking up. I had put scent lines out along the fields edge and lead them right to my shooting lane 20 yards away... I was nearly noon and I had just received a text form John when I looked up and saw a nice buck standing 40 yards from me. I had no idea where this deer came form he just showed up. I slowly stood up in my stand and waited as he appeared to be following my scent trail. He came in to about 35 yards and stopped, put his nose in the air and didn't move for what felt like for ever. He then put his head down tucked his tail and went into the brush, walking directly away from me up the hill never giving me shoot again. I saw 2 doe shortly after, but that was about it until the last part of the day. I had a big four point come in to about 60 yards and make a scrape and move on in the opposite direction just before I left at last light.




   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!

Success! & a close call.

We get to turkey ridge and Kyhl and I head to the field. Just about at the field I do my best bard owl hoot. Right away two toms gobble about one hundred and fifty yards away. This is going to get good I tell Kyhl. We make our way into the field and look for the best place to get set up. It is getting light out fast. I stick Wilma out in the field at fifteen yards and scramble back into the brush. Kyhl is set up just in front of me and to the right. He has a good view of the field. I get my bow all set up with my bow sticks and dig my calls out.
I grab my slate pot call and do a few yelps and clucks. They both gobble again. They know we are here.

I look at my clock and it is 5:45am. We sit quiet for about ten more minutes and I call again. This time nothing. I get a little down. My brain just starts running a mile a minute. Did we make to much noise getting set up? Did my calling spook them? Maybe someone else is in here? So many possibility. I was convinced that they were gone. I let what feels like and hour go by and I grab my call again. Again a few light yelps and a cluck or tow. They hammer right at the end of the field. My heard skips a beat and Kyhl said he can see them. Three! and they are running at us. The first bird in was a big hen.

 She ran right up to Wilma and started pecking and kicking the crap out of here. Then the two jakes came in. One in full strut and the other is quarter strut. I tell Kyhl to kill the one in full strut. But to wait a second and see if I could get a shot off with my bow. Now we have a hen and Two jakes at fifteen yards. Both jakes are in full strut. spitting and drumming. All three are very interested in Wilma. I wait for the toms to turn away so their tail feathers block their view of me and draw my bow. I line up my top pin on the closest tome and squeeze my release trigger.
I watch the arrow hit the bird and hear the sound of the hit. All hell breaks loose. The bird I shot starts flopping like crazy. I tell Kyhl to kill the other tom and he throws the safety off the mossburg and pulls the trigger. The tom is still standing! get him again I said as he takes two more shots. The smoke clears and we watch the tom and hen fly away. Talk about some excitement. I look back at my clock and it is only 6:02am

We gather our selves and head out to have a look at the aftermath. I walk up to my turkey and he is dead. Hop down on my knees and take a closer look. This is the first tom I have killed with a bow. I tag my bird and snap a few pics. Find my arrow about twenty yards past the turkey.  I stash the bird along the road so I can grab it on the way out and Khyl and Igo after the one that got away.

We head in the direction the tom flew and set up and call. Nothing. The temperature is starting to rise so I would like to get my bird taken care of before the temps get into the high seventies

 One more set up. a little farther down the logging road and set up. Call a few times and nothing. Back to the car we go.



 Kyle wanted to see the check station process and cleaning of the animal.

He came in at 14lbs and had a 3.5 inch double beard.

Turkey Ridge.

After a few days of seeing nothing on the properties I had permission to hunt. Kyhl had one more farm we could go look at. This one looked good on the map. Had a 12 acre hay field smack dab in the middle of the woods. We quit hunting early and came back to my place and Kyhl gives them a call to see if it is okay if we stop by. The farm owner said "sure but I don't think we have many turkeys". The farm is a little over 400 acres. It takes about twenty minuets to get there from my house. We arrive at the farm and chat a bit with the property owner and his kids. He grabs a map for us and sends us on our way. The hay field is our first stop. Looks nice. Has a lot of clover. We made it about half way across the field and Kyhl said look, turkeys! I grab the binoculars and two jakes, a hen and one more I cant make out go running into the woods. Time to back out. Back at the road we debate on going back to the car and getting our shotgun and bow. But decide that looking around today is a bit more important.
After wandering around for an hour or so we decide we will be coming here in the morning.

2013 Spring Turkey

This year I had a partner in crime. My friend Kyhl had just finished his hunter ed class the week before spring turkey opened up. We decided that I would take my bow and he would carry the shotgun to improve his chances of bagging his first bird. I went out the night before opening day to roost a bird on out neighbors property. As I pull up into the field I notice a pickup truck parked in the field. So I hope out and see what is up. He is from up the road and said he is planning on hunting here in the morning. As we are chatting I can hear a tom gobbling on the side hill.That is when he said that there are two more people up there already.
I hung out a bit longer and chatted about what our plans were for the following day and decided I was going to head someplace else in the morning. The last thing I wanted to be in the middle of is five people all hunting the same bird on a small farm. I got home and called Kyhl and asked if he wanted to try out a new farm he had gotten permission to hunt a few weeks back. He said that it would be fine to head over there. I set my alarm for 3:30 and time to catch some Zzz's.


Opening day up and atom. Grab breakfast and throw everything in the car and take off to meet Khyl.
I have not been to this farm at all. Going in blind  always sucks. We make the long walk up the driveway and hit the fields. I spot a logging road that leads back into the woods and up the ridge a bit. The road ends at a steep drop into a big valley. This looks like as good as spot as any so we set the decoy on the road and get set up. We sit for about two hours and hear nothing and see nothing. Time to move. It has not rained in almost two weeks and the woods are very noise. Trying to sneak along the ridge we come to the property line and call and try and get something going but nothing.

We walk back down the road to the fields and set up there for two more hours and nothing again. We decide to call it a day at around eleven.