Here we go week vacation

[nomad_archer]

Well never made the evening stand. I pulled out one ladder stand and setup the shooting rail on the other for rifle season. Plus my old man thought he missed a doe at 16 yards since his arrow only had mud on the first 6 inches. Under closer inspection I saw 1 drop of blood in the arrow. My dad waited until lunch time so I could help him look. Well a few feet later we had a blood trail of sprayed blood on the snow. 70 yards later was his deer. So between butchering and pulling stands I did not make it out in the afternoon. Final score for 5 archery hunters in two cabins. 1 buck 2 antlerless a everyone had an opportunity some did not connect. Heck of an archery season. Now it is time for rifle season.

[mrbb]

Well congrats to your Dad,
and that's hunting.
as long as everyone had fun, sounds like a good week.
Best of luck in gun season, these cold temps should make for a good gun season, will have a lot of guys walking and moving deer IMO

[nomad_archer]

The cold will help move the people which will move the deer. For archery the really cold temps we had basically shut down the deer movement since were was a great mast crop the deer didn't have to go far for food so they would stand up eat and bed down and not cover any ground.

[mrbb]

I agree when there is a lot of mast crops and hunting big woods, its a challange for sure, all you hope for in that is bucks be on the move looking for hot does, and even that is hard as they search bedding area's, and its rather hard to set up in one of them LOL

but the cold weather does make them feed mroe, and then come rifle season, here, the cold will have folks walking sooner and more often, BUT at the same time, I think with todays hunter numbers in PA, the cold might keep a lot mroe folks home too!
all the old timers in my hunting camp won't go out anymore if its cold?? they hunt more for fun and the cold isn't fun for them no more
I think the same is for a lot of even the newer hunters, there good weather types. but its rifle season, it brings out a crowd every yr and this yr will be the same, maybe not the million plus we used to have, but there will be a lot of orange out there on the move
best of luck to you and your friends/family too!

[nomad_archer]

Thanks mrbb. It seemed like temps between 34-45 ish really have the deer moving up there. But as soon as the lake effect snow and the temps dropped below 30 the deer movement really slowed down. But rifle is coming. My dad is going to sit in my rifle stand since I wont be there opening day. We know there is a shooter in the neighborhood but he never came into anyone that had a buck tag, he was always at rifle ranges. So I hope my dad puts a tag on him on opening day. Otherwise I hope it is me come first Saturday when I am up there.

[mrbb]

well I hope you or your dad gets him, and then you can show us here what it looks like up close
that's one great thing about the rifle, it allows you to get a liitle farther out there and fill a tag LOL
rifle hunting is PA tradition, something I gather a lot of bow hunting sites members don't get LOL
I never picked a fav weapon, as I just loved hunting, and used every weapon I could to extend my time in the woods
there is a challange to all seasons if you set goals, and stick to them!
hasn't ben above 35 here is a few days, and calling for high this week in the 20's
if this weather lasts, opening deer season will be full of a lot of road hunters in cars and trucks LOL
I think that is also a PA tradition sadly LOL
but? hey, the good hunters get out there, and do there best, and many fill there tags doing so!
best of luck again

[nomad_archer]

I enjoy rifle season. Not as much as archery but rifle is now I started and is in my blood. It used to be the big show but now it is the last chance opportunity. Most of my stands I hunt in archery work in rifle since they are in escape routes. Here is to hoping one of them puts a shooter buck in front of me. I have yet to see a shooter this year so lets hope that changes.