mauser06

looking grim guys. been hunting hard. WITH THE BOW!! i cant remember the last time i seen a shootable deer even with the guns..i havent seen much of ANYTHING all week. good fresh sign...but its gotta be night movement..i sit in the mornings with the bow then we drive with the flintlock in the afternoon. we havent even had anyone fire a flintlock yet. the deer are scarce..the ones left are hiding allllll too well and i can tell by tracks they are moving at night. full moon and 50+ degree temps are killlllllin me!! i might go sit this evening since were not driving...i dont know...im loosing hope..cant even find a doe..cant even drive a doe out..i cant say there arent any deer...they are just moving at night. i think its a mix of the pressure of rifle season/moon/temperature. i forget what a deer looks like

Rob/PA Bowyer

The season ain't over captain. Ya never know but one thing is positive, you can't kill one from the couch.

Look at it this way, your still hunting, wish I was (not withstanding my awesome bowkill...lol )....but hunting whitetails. ya know.

dukemichaels

I am with you Rob.. I still wish I was hunting whitetail regularly. I have no local spots (within 4 hours) to hunt. I have done some public ground, but it's hard to get into because they only allow 10 hunters per day.

I long to chase big antlered whitetail.. but I'll just have to wait again.

Keep tryin' Captain as you never know when it's gonna happen! Good Luck!

mauser06

thanx guys..trying to keep the faith for the last week...but i dont even know if ill make meat with the flinter on the days we drive. next week looks better. moon should be gone and colder temps look like they may come.

one wierd thing i noticed today is new rubs popping up. 2 spots ive regularly sat on and off all year(and hard this passed week because they are the only spots with deer sign and deer coming from the flintlock drives) but im certain they are new. one i walked by 10 times this week and it was NEW as of today..i was there last evening..went back this evening and it was there. bad thing is im almost posative both are made by 2 diffrent 4pts. both areas the only bucks we know living in them are 4pts. next years crop...so long they dont get hit on the road or poached next year sporting that big ole 2.5yr old racker rack lol. just odd ive never noticed rubs popping up this late.

on a good note...havent made it to the orchard yet as of the late season. i dont know how itll produce..but im going to give it one more morning..

on a sad/wierd feeling note...im pretty sure the buck i hit with my bow is now dead. someone shot a 9pt across the road in the next set of woods this late season...all the detail i got was he was a heavy beamed nice tine leghnth 14 inch wide 9pt. after all the spotting my buddys done we have an invetory of pretty much all the bucks in that area. they all hit the corn fields through the summer and fall. that one REALLY fits the bill of the one i shot. i want to know if he was hit..but dont personally know the guy that got him.

i need a new game plan and new land next year...if im not fighting wildfires over the summer im going to be wearing out my knuckles beating on doors and wearing out boots scouting.

been a longggggg frustrating season...been hunting since sept 30th every chance i get..figure by now i would had more then ONE shot at a legal buck

we will see what next week brings me....cant say i didnt TRY...although frustrated i still love going out and HUNTING. thats what its all about. itll make killing a buck all the more sweeter..

Germ

I have a theory onwhythis happens. I believe when a dominant buck gets killed during the hunting season, the next in line bucks takes over his area. I was going to take some pics of same thing, but my battery died. My guess is the big boy got waxed in your area, and the new guy is moving in.

mauser06

Germ..thats not a bad theory!! i'll go with that. both of the areas i noticed them i know the bigger bucks been killed. kinda sad that 2 4pts took over but this years 4pt should be a nice one next year! rub away little buddies...i got sharp muzzys waitin for ya! that does make sense though...establishing THEIR territory and showing dominance ect while they still have head gear.

how about scrapes this time of year? when i was at my buddies camp i found a couple scrapes i believe were new. all had fresh tracks and scat all around and one i could smell..i think we pushed him off that scrape there was freshly kicked up leaves coming off the scrape like we kicked him up..think the scrapes are the same deal?? or just still searching for does that may be in esterus or what?

GR8atta2d

Those rubs and scrapes are all made by Rob. He is sneaking in at night, trying to keep your moral up.

Germ

Nice, LOL I did that to my uncle once. I felt bad he hunted area the whole year and never seen a deer, LOL

captain I do not, have not and never will understand scrapes. I have seen a 1.5 year buck make 15 scrapes on field edge. I only take notice of scrapes in the woods near bedding areas. I ignore scrapes along field edges. I am not the scrape masters, lOL It sounds like a good theory, I have seen it happen. 10 years ago I shot a big 8 off my mock scrape, I went checked in in Jan and it was being used by a buck.

mauser06

GR8....that might just be it! lol...he better buy a record book buck and tie it up to my tree stand tree for me!!

i agree Germ...though you got alot more years under your belt ive already learned scrapes can me ALOT or nothing. funny thing is i find more in the woods then field edges. guess they are kinda one of them things...be there at the right time and youll score..

that scrape dripper i put up this year really crushed me. there was like 6 scrapes in the immediate area..scent free as could be..AND it was raining hard the day i hung it. snuck in there, hung it and snuck out. buck abondoned all the scrapes...

this coming fall im going to buy R E A L deer urine bottled from SINGLE deer on a private farm. im going to make my own scrape concoction for the drippers...i think if anything will work that something like that will work best.

im excited for next year...and the snow fall that we lack. if nothing else my first year was a success. i dont know many other people that get a chance to shoot a 2.5yo(mature for pa...equivilent to a 6.5yo most other states) buck their first year. i learned alot...enjoyed being part of a great team...snow fall will help me scout for next year...and i learned alot and will be a better hunter next fall. right now i cant get at the deer. people dont like ya in their back yard hunting from their kids tree house...thats where the deer went..as they do every year.

next week is it for me boys...gunna keep shootin all year...gunna keep scouting, planning, knocking on doors and keeping my head up...its been a long while since i went deerless..wait..have i EVER went deerless??

hopefully the rain lets up. i found a spot behind my house i want to sneak into. 2 hard core trails coming through behind a highschool. dont know why i didnt look back their earlier. hopefully the school is cleared out and the rain lets up and i can sneak in there...its legal...just dont like people seeing me and such..already got my tree picked out...150yd walk down a ATV trail and im climbing!

Mantis Mayer

Last week for me fellas I better get my arse in gear and quit screwin off. The weather has been nice for bowhunting I'm just not seeing much. I'll get to spend a ton of time in the field this week so my luck could change.

Thiswill be my first year not killing a deer sinceI was15andbreaks my five yearstreek atanother mounter but it's been funnon the less.