Ok first, almost everyone thinks my bucks come from allegheny co, because I live here & they are big[8D]
While I do hunt here, I do so only because it beats sitting at home. My spots aren't that great, so I often travel 45 minutes to hunt elsewhere. (even though if you took the P&Y bucks per square mile, I'm sure I'm headed to a statistically less productive area)
So the FIRST night you hunted, you.. (how should I put this....Hmmmm...) you didn't see, but heard, then subsequently found out, there was a decent size buck (good enough?) in your hunting area.I wonder how that happened......location??
I'll recap the whole story, it's painful, but I can laugh at myself. I met quik & his buddy over "there" late sunday morning, they had hunted that morning, I didn't. We roamed around all midday looking for a good spot. We found squat. Finally late afternoon we hit an area COMPLETELY tore up with rubs & scrapes. HOT & FRESH. So we grabbed our stuff and spread out as best we could. I was using stix & a hangon, and somehow left at home the belt/strap that holds the hangon to the tree. I tried to find an alternate ground location to watch over this scrape, but nothing suitable was there. I ventured off set the rest of the night. Coming back shortly before dark to get my gear. Me & quik text back & forth to make sure I don't mess anything up for him. He tells me to hold tight as he heard crashing over my direction and saw a deer go right past where he thought I was to be. Moments later the buck goes crashing out and he gets a better view of the shooter. And my heart sinks even lower.
[:@]