Originally Posted by
bronko22000
This has been a brutal primitive season here in PA. Temps I don't think have gotten above freezing with most days in the teens and nights in the single digits and less. And to make matters worse walking in the woods in some of my favorite haunts has showed zero tracks! I have no idea where these critters went. I've even checked patches of pines, low areas out of the wind, sunny sides of the mountain etc. Seems like the deer just vanished. Maybe they took a hint from the birds and all went south!!!!!!
Bronko...
Yer preachin' to the choir Clem! I've only been out once and saw nothing after sitting in single digits for 2-1/2 hours. I have been seeing a few deer on my back yard most nights in the middle of the night (when I get up to pee) but they're gone before daybreak. I had 9 deer out on the yard last night before they moved on.
I have not seen any deer passing through my woods so I think they're going across the state line into NY before daybreak and bedding in a huge overgrown field that used to be a hay field when I was a kid. It's grown so thick now with Amur Honeysuckle (invasive specie) that it blocks the wind well and still gets a good bit of sun.
What sucks is my neighbor used to leave his corn standing until February before picking it, this year he decided to pick it in late November so now they have nothing to come to but stubble. I could almost always count on getting a deer in flintlock season because they would hit that standing corn hard.
The forecast locally is for extreme cold Friday and Saturday with daytime highs in the low singles and nights well below zero but it's supposed to break by Sunday with Monday's high in the 30's... deer will be moving! Good luck to you during the remainder of our season Bud!!
BPS