shed33

Thanks guys, the country out here is nice. I find myself attracted to the kinds of country you guys hunt, I guess we all are interested in what we don't have. A corn field and big midwestern buck sounds pretty good to me, if you know what I mean Dave. Hardwoods intrigue meperiod, It's pretty much all conifer timber here. I love it here but would like to see other parts of the county before I am done.

We recieved another 3-4 inches of snow at my place yesterday. I am going to travel over to the area where Ole grey lives this weekend and do some more scouting. I'll hit the southern slopes over there and see if I can't find out some more about him, I sure would like to find his sheds and from what I know, no one killed him, he's be a buck that everyone would have talked about if killed. I know his Northern bed that he uses in the late summer, but I have a feeling hes moved over the mountain now. I will take more pics. Did I say I am ready to find some bone.

Have a nice weekend guys, you and yours.

Troy

quiksilver

I agree Troy - there's definitely something to mixing it up and hunting different areas. I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to hunt three separate types of country every year, even without leaving the state.

I live right at the base of the appalachian mountains, so if you go west, you're into some rich, hilly lowland that is really patchy with lots of agricultural lands in the SW corner of PA. No huge farms, mostly 100-200 acre plots, but it's still a patchwork of hills, draws, hollows, hillsides, fields, corn, beans, hay,flats and hardwoods. Great whitetail habitat - very good carrying capacity. It's PRIME deer hunting, but finding a good place to yourself is becoming difficult. Similar to the habitat in Ohio.

To the east, it's rugged, rockymountainous hardwoods (not like the Rockies, but still a large, round old mountain range). Big mountains, almost no fields, nothing but varying plots of timber - some freshly cut off, some old standing timber, lots of tangled evergreen laurel thickets. Fair deer density.

Then, there's deer camp, which is on the PA/NY border 3 hrs north - it's more coniferous, with eastern hemlock interspersed through the range. Still lots of hardwoods, but the pines give it a different feel. Very open understory and low deer density. Three totally different types of habitat/hunting. Neat to get to experience the different ecosystems.There are even a few species up there that I've never seen back home (porcupine, fisher, black squirrel).

Finally got some snow on the ground here too, maybe 1/2". I thought Old Man Winter might have forgotten about us.

shed33

Quick you really ought to be an outdoor writer, you have a way with words.After readingyour post I feel as if I have seen your woods.Quite a diversityin comparison to what I had pictured before.Get some pics this spring when you have time to get out and shed hunt/scout/turkeyhunt. I'd love to see them.

quiksilver

Thanks Troy, right now I'm training to be an essay question answer writer [8D] but after that little experiment is over, who knows? Hey - new shed picture? Is that the first of 07? Whether that's a freshie or one from before, that's a hog of a buck either way.

Man, I really need to get outside - stricken with a bad case of cabin fever.

rybohunter

I am headed out tomorrow morning for my first walk thru of the new place. I hope to cover as much as possible, when I called to ask if it was ok for me to check the place out, it was like they couldn't understand why I wanted to be there if there were no (deer) hunting seasons in. So we'll see how it goes. I'll post some pics of anything interesting.

Quick,
Maybe its just me but I had a rough time adjusting to the "big woods" mountain areas of state college. Granted I only hunted there 1 season, but it seemed over whelming. Give me my chopped up farmland any day.

rybohunter

Scouting report..... Not as excited as I was hoping to be. Very few trees to get up in with a hang on let alone a climber. The few places that had accessable trees either had hang ons in them or marks where they've been used for climbers. Orange ribbons flagged almost the whole property with trails leading to stand sites. I found one area with no hunter sign, yet decent to hunt in. Going to be a tough entrance to it though. Although I found no beds that day, I know deer will bed there.
As far as deer sign, I'd rate it about moderate. Some tracks, probably less than a half dozen rubs though, some real good trails here and there. LOTS of gray fox tracks all over. Saw one set of red fox.

quiksilver

Ryan - bummer on the new spot, but I'm sure you'll get a better feel for the place over the summer. You might have to resort to some hang-on stands or even a ground blind. I know that sucks when you're amped about a new spot, only to go in there and realize that it's already getting pounded by 10 other guys. Downer. Oh well, maybe they don't spend much time in there, or it's just gunners.

On the big woods, it's definitely hard hunting. Since I cut my teeth in the patchy farmland, I tend to look for smaller benches, formations, funnels, etc...and those just aren't very common in the big mountains. So I wind up covering miles just to find one spot, and usually the spots that I pick out or like are just too far away to bowhunt. Even with that said, I've spent a lot of time playing in the big woods, and made it work. You're definitely right though - harder hunting for sure. The plus-side is that most of the farmland I hunt is becoming overrun with hunting pressure, while the big mountains are a ghost-town in bow season. Lots of positives/negatives on both sides.

rybohunter

From what the land owner has told me, its only supposed to be hunted by 1 guy, and sometimes his Dad.(both gun and bow)I just hate going to a place where someone has stands up everywhere. He can only hunt 1 at a time, but if I set up 20 yds from a stand and he happens to pick that one, I look like the bad guy for crowding him.

buttonbuckmaster

Sounds like hunting the farm ground around here Rybo. The best spots have flags, trail reflectors, or homemade tree stands that look like hickory Hiltons. Hope it works out for you.

shed33

Howdy Guys,

Scouting report. I got a full foot of fresh snow at my place between Friday and Sat. We got pounded. I spent Sunday on the snowmobile checking tracks in all the areas up behind my place. I saw very little deer movement. I didnt bother hiking into any souths because the norths at the higher elevations were packed with snow. I would have needed snow shoes and only had 4 hours to scout.

I am actually happy about the snow. Many of the deer will pack into the souths and shed in there now. The shed hunters will stay out of the woods for the most part now due to the depth. This will keep the deer from being scattered all over. It looks like we have a few more inches coming this week.

Quick I found that shed in the photo in very close to where the Ole Grey buck beds in the summers. Not sure if its his or not, I dont think so, I believe it belongs to another buck that I saw last summer and videod in there. I call him "Robs" buck since Rob saw him with me and Rob was instantly fascinated, man I want to hunt that dude, hes got mass..rob said! Anyway hes a heavy racked 5x6 with some junk at his bases. Found that shed last spring.