MY 2011 HUNTING JOURNAL


Hunting Season for 2011-2012 was a different type year for me. So the journal will also be different. Rather than a daily journal I’ll just write about the season as a whole.
Now that I am working at Brockway True Value Hardware I found I did not have near as many opportunities to hunt as I have for the past 25+ years. I was back to a 8 or 9 to 5 job with Sundays being one of the days I had off and no hunting there… so I was limited to an average of only 1 week day to hunt and a couple one hour hunts before dark or before work.

Archery season came first and I was very lazy and did not practice very much with the crossbow so I did not even hunt the first 3 weeks of the season. Most of the hunts after that were from the blind set up on the border of SGL #54. There was tons of apple on the neighboring apple trees and that is what the deer were focusing on. There was no corn planted in the near by fields, so that effected the travel routes. But the deer were moving past my blind almost every night on the way to the apple trees near by. It was a matter of hoping they would be close enough to the blind for a good shot. That did not happen. I did see deer almost every time I sat in the blind, so it was anything but boring.

October 20th started the 3 day senior citizen antlerless deer season. That first Thursday I had a rough day at work and when I got into the blind I was really tired and it was raining. Deer came by as they had been on the way to the apple trees but I just was to tired to shoot, field dress and drag.. so I passed… unfortunately they did not show up the next 2 days. So senior season came and went with no harvests.

I sat in the blind a couple more times before archery season was over, saw deer but none close enough for a shot.

Rifle season was exciting, this was the first year we could not shoot a doe during the first week of the season until Saturday. I spent the opening day in the hemlocks behind the house.. 7:20 am a buck walked by but I could not find and brow tines so I had to pass , 2F is a three points to one side area. At 8:05… 4 Four antlerless also walked by and I could not shoot. That was it for Monday. The gang around here had no harvests that first day, in fact there was none for the first week. Very disappointing. I spent some time in the ladder stand behind the house and the blind, saw quite a few deer but none were legal to shoot yet

The first Saturday I went to Clear Creek and figured I could hunt until 8am and still get to work for 9am. At 7:30 I saw a bunch of deer run into the “thick stuff”.... I could not make any of them out BUT did hear a grunt from a buck. There was lots of chasing and finally a couple walked into the open right in front of me. I put the crosshairs on the biggest female and pulled the trigger and down she went. I field dressed, tagged and let her lay until after work. I then took her straight to the butcher and got back 41 pounds of ground venison.

The second week I hunted around here and at clear creek but the deer seemed to have disappeared.. I did “jump” a few a couple times behind the house but could not get off a shot.

Next was the late muzzleloader and archery season after Christmas. I sat in the blind when I had a chance with the crossbow but saw nothing, finally on the 5th of January three came walking in close enough for a shot. I hit the female and watched her stumble and run off about 50 yards and fall. Off to the butcher and got 43 pounds of venison from her.

I also hunted one afternoon in the hemlocks for squirrel and shot one gray squirrel. It was delicious the following evening for my supper.

Hunting season was another successful one for me. Two deer and plenty of venison in the freezer for us to enjoy..