MY 2009 HUNTING JOURNAL

OCTOBER HUNTING

OCTOBER 15th
Today seemed like the ideal day to start my hunting journal for 2009. It's raining and snowing outside and an over-all miserable day so far.
I have taken several walking trips into the local woods already and am amazed at the number of acorns on the ground, I can not remember ever seeing this many, they are everywhere. I sure hope this is not a sign of the coming winter...
With all the acorns around here it is going to be hard to pattern deer movements for food.. they certainly are not going to have to travel far to get those..
I took my fishing buddy Todd out for squirrel on the 10th but it was too windy and we did not get a shot at any squirrels.. only saw one and a deer as we got out of my truck.
I am looking forward to participating in this year Senior Antlerless Season on October 22nd,23rd, and 24th. I have a 2F tag and a DMAP tag for Clear Creek State Forest to fill this year.
So far it looks like a great year. There appears to be deer in most areas and I am seeing some nice bucks as well as lots of does.
LOOKS LIKE A PROMISING YEAR !!!!

OCTOBER 22nd
Well today was my 1st opportunity to take advantage of the Junior and Senior Hunter October Antlerless Season.
I arrived at my spot in the Hemlock Grove behind my house at 7:15am. I had taken my time and walked down very slowly, the leaves were making enough racket so I moved slow and tried to be as quiet as possible. As the skies lightened and shooting hours began I found myself thinking about how good it felt to be in the woods at this time of the year. Over the year it is not often I am in the Hemlocks this time of year. One of the first things I noticed is how different it looked with alot of leaves still on the trees. I could not see as far as I can later in the year. Deer would be able to get closer without me seeing them now, which only added to the excitement of the morning. It did not take long and I could hear the squirrels and birds coming to life in the hemlock trees. I stayed there until 9:30 and had nothing come into view...
I backed out and went up on top of the flats and watched down into the hollow for another hour then headed home to do some barn chores and then move my ladder stand further from the house so I can see deer moving towards the fields better with all the leaves still on the trees
Nice morning but no deer... I'll be back out this afternoon in my ladder stand trying to fill my 2F tag behind the house.
I just returned from moving my tree stand to the path going to the fields. Hunted the late afternoon on "the flats" near home, did not see any deer,. will have to rely on tomorrow.

OCTOBER 23rd
Traveled over to Bond Road this morning for a couple hours at a place I used to see alot of deer movement at first light. Saw a gray squirrel and a coyote run by but no deer. Decided to move to another spot, but when I got to the parking lot there was a crew there from the PGC. I started talking to them and they told me they were giving a presentation on pheasants to a local high school class at the old game school parking lot and I was welcome to come along.. so that's what I did. Here's a report on the event..

Pheasant Program

It started raining in the afternoon and I went out at 5:30 and hunted for just an hour at Clear Creek watching a gas line and small food plot when it really started to pour, so I left and did not even see deer in the fields on the way home.

OCTOBER 24th
Pouring rain when I awoke so there was no hunting for me today. My first Senior October Deer Hunt turned into what I must say was a BUST !!!! At least I still have rifle season... I do not imagine I'll go out archery hunting at all this year even though I have the license to.

OCTOBER 26th
Something a little different today.
I had been hearing about a large buck taken on the first day of archery season over by Kyle Lake and the Airport. Yesterday the guy who shot the deer came into the store and we talked about it.
This morning he E-mailed me and asked me to come to his home for a visit. I was more than willing to meet him and get more info on the hunter and his trophy buck. I spent about an hour with him and this is my report on the visit and the deer...

THE PISARCHICK BUCK
NOVEMBER HUNTING

NOVEMBER 2nd

Walked down into the hemlock grove behind the house and watched for squirrels or any crazy turkeys that might walk by. I saw absolutely nothing as I sat there for two hours. Just as I was getting ready to head back home I heard a crack of a branch out in front of me and looked and here came a really nice 8 pointer and he walked straight thru the hemlock grove, never stopping and headed down into the hollow. This surprised me because he was headed in the exact opposite direction of any crop fields ??? Too dark for any photos but I think I'll go back down in there in the morning.

NOVEMBER 3rd

I took a small walk around he woods behind my home and found a lot of rubs that were not here two weeks ago. Here's one that appeared next to my ladder stand after I moved it..

NOVEMBER 23rd
Today was the first day of a three day black bear season here in Pa. I went to a friends place and stand behind his property and waited for a bear to come by. I was aware there were bears in the area and figured I would have as much chance sitting there as any where else I had heard of that had bear sightings. Sat for 4 hours and only heard 3 shoots near-by at 8:05am. Enjoyed the morning even though I saw nothing in the way of bear, deer, squirrels, birds... yep .. saw absolutely nothing while there..

NOVEMBER 30th

FIRST DAY OF DEER RIFLE SEASON

Wow-- very very little deer movement and very few hunters behind the house in the hollow.
The neighboring camp shot an 8 pointer at 7:40 am on the way down behind my place into the hemlock. I was in the hemlock and harvested a doe at 10:45am, just like every year 8-) Most guys only saw one of two deer , the mature doe I shot was traveling with her two fawns from this spring and a daughter from last year... I have a bunch of photos of the 4 of them feeding at the feeder this summer...
Another of the group had a doe and two young ones come to within 35 yards of his tree stand and bedded down for an hour and a half about 8AM...
guys saw a total of maybe 4 bucks most of them small.
One camp has ZERO deer and I can not even begin to remember the last time that meat pole was empty the night of first day ????
Another camp has only a small doe hanging and that's it for the immediate area around where I live... even very few shots this year...

Tomorrow looks promising. Traveling tomorrow not hunting here....

DECEMBER 1st
I hunted behind the country store for 3 hours this morning, I did not dress well I FROZE !!!
Went home grab some lunch and headed down to the hemlock grove behind the house again... long story short.. I could have shot two fawns.. a doe.. and if it would have been legal a spike...
not much shooting today ... and 1/2 the hunters as yesterday...
I'll concentration hunting from my ladder stand for the next few days (I think) I found a bed in the snow on the way down and it must be a buck, I could have laid down in it easily.. there was no other bed sight in the area... and I found another area close that has another dozen trees with rubs and gouges and two scrapes. Here's a photo of one of the small deer I saw this afternoon... This rascal stood there looking at me for almost 5 minutes only looking away once and shaking off the wet melted snow on her body.. It was cute staring her down.. I finally waved at her and off she went only to be replaced by the spike about 5 minutes later that busted me reaching for the camera...
Good afternoon of hunting...
I found out my nephew got his first buck and my niece's husband took a doe.
DECEMBER 2nd
Sat for two hours in my ladder stand behind the house before I had to quit to go to work.. saw nothing..
this morning I saw 3 striped maples trees that I SWEAR were not rubbed on Monday.... In fact I did not notice them yesterday and I walked right by where they are this morning..they are within a foot of each other and are directly beside the trail Scott dragged my doe up to the house for me on ?????
DECEMBER 3rd
Rained most of the morning and the winds were terrible here... sat for four hours in the hemlocks under my tree umbrella (I LOVE THAT THING !!!)then took a walk around the ridge.. saw about 60 turkeys .. spent two hours this afternoon on the ridge north of the hemlock grove on a neighbor's property.. nothing.. I did not even see any sign of deer being there.... and where I stopped looking was only about 1/4 mile from all the stuff in my back yard... guess the deer are at my place and no over at his ?????

DECEMBER 4th
I drove down to the end of the lane and moved into the woods several hundred yards. I'm figuring the deer are getting hungry and were probably in the fields last night gouging themselves on grasses and what ever else is in the hay field, because all is quiet agagin, the camps are all empty. Turned out to be the right plan but I made the wrong decision. There are a couple huge blow-downs and I was going to hide in them. Well with all the rain I would have had to stand the whole time in water, thought that was not a good idea, so I moved back 200 yards away.. 8:00am.. I look and there is a doe standing right beside the blow-down staring at me.. I froze and we had a stand -off for about 5 minutes, she started stomping her foot and then a flip of the tail and she was gone... trouble was there were three tail flying behind her... BUMMER!!! .. well have to get ready for work but I'll be in those blow-downs tomorrow water or not !!! DECEMBER 5th
I returned to the blow-downs for two hours before work and I did not see any deer. I think I'll give it one more try Monday morning.

DECEMBER 7th
Well not a good day for seeing deer, in fact except for a few birds I saw nothing....
I hunted the blow-downs until 11:00am ..
Nothing..I went home to warm up and get lunch of soup and a sandwich.
12:30 hit the hemlocks until 3:00pm.. again nothing
Climbed into the ladder stand from 3:30 until dark.
Nothing but our barn cats wondering around and finally looking up and being amazed to see me up in a tree !!
Did hear a few shots this morning and two right before dark..

DECEMBER 8th
Windy this morning, branches, trees, etc all crashing down everywhere, sat at the blow-downs but only stayed a couple hours. I doubt any deer were up and moving this morning.
Returned in the afternoon and walked around and found another great spot to hide to get deer coming off the field .. stayed til dark hoping I could get one on the way to the field but no luck.. maybe tomorrow??

DECEMBER 9th
Today was a work day so I only had a couple hours to hunt, REALLY REALLY windy and raining , so I returned to the blow-downs for protection from the wind and rain, I sat for 2.5 hours and saw nothing... I am off tomorrow so I'll head to Clear Creek to fill my DMAP so I at least have my two deer for the years' venison supply..
DECEMBER 10th
This morning I went over to Clear Creek to fill my DMAP tag..
It was so noisy walking to my spot. I kept breaking thru the ice crust and thought I would scare every deer in the area away, but as luck would have it (and some pre-season scouting) I also could hear the deer coming a long ways off.
Four nice size does all walking along making their own racket..

I dropped the biggest one at 40 yards, they had NO IDEA I was even there...I once again filled my DMAP tag at 7:30, home by 9am and the deer to the butcher's by 10am... GREAT MORNING and an enjoyable season,, unfortunately it was another year with no sightings of a legal buck.. SO FAR... still have one evening hunt and two morning ones left...but with two mature does we have venison for the year again... and I am a happy camper !!
This afternoon I am going to sit at the place I found Tuesday afternoon and maybe intercept a buck on the way to the field, if nothing else maybe so photos ??
RIFLE SEASON SUMMARY

The main thing that comes to mind concerning this year was the number of hunters... far less than any year I can remember and most were gone by Tuesday (day#2) evening.. less folks in the woods will all most certainly cause less deer sightings.
My personal trips were about the normal since the AR/HR management plan started. I hunted everyday except the last two which were work days and I already had two deer harvests.
I hunted a total of 41 hours
90% of which was sitting and waiting.
I saw 16 different deer harvesting two of them. Only saw one spike buck this year... but can not complain, there is meat in the freezer and I enjoyed all the trips into the woods again this year.. the weather was not the greatest either this year .. first few days were rain and windy and the second week was COLD and very very windy , wind gusts up to 40 mph.

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