December 30, 2009
Hunting Report

After a couple of days of downright nasty weather, I finally was able to get back out today. The morning hunt was a challenge to say the least. The temperature was seven degrees, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to last long. Thanks to a lot of action in the woods though, the two hours I was out there went pretty quickly. As far as I could tell, only one of the 21 deer I saw was a buck, and a small one at that. I was sitting in my new Gorilla stand, and based upon how the deer reacted while around me, I did a pretty good job of tucking it into cover. Despite all of the activity, I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t see more bucks. That would certainly change during the afternoon hunt.

I went back out around 2:00 p.m., and by that time the temperature was hovering around freezing. It felt so warm after the last couple of days that I ended up shedding one of my coats. Deer activity didn’t get going until almost 4:00 p.m. when two doe walked by my location. That seemed to get the party started because things got pretty crazy from that point forward. The next two deer were yearling bucks that were missing opposite sides of their racks. I got a good laugh out of that one. Before I knew it, two more bucks were moving about 100 yards in front of me and I was starting to think I may see something good by the end of the night. If you like quantity over quality, you’ll be excited to know that I saw eight different bucks tonight. Unfortunately, they were all yearlings. At one point two of them actually locked up in a sparring match. The nicer of the two bucks was a busted up eight-point, and the other was another half-rack. That’s what you run into this time of year, a lot of busted points and missing sides.

I think I got all of the deer counted, and when the dust settled, my tally was eight bucks and 18 antlerless. That’s a lot of deer for sure, but not the deer I’m looking for unfortunately. I plan to get back out in the morning to sit in a stand I set right after returning from Illinois. I only sat in it one time so far, and I saw a couple of bucks. Maybe this time I’ll see the deer I’m after. It shouldn’t be quite as cold tomorrow morning, but is there really much difference between seven degrees or 20 degrees?

My camera caught this doe's frozen breath, proving just how cold it is.

Although I love hunting during the winter season, I have to admit it can be a bit frustrating when the weather doesn’t cooperate. My plans were to hunt this morning, set a stand, and then hunt in the evening. Unfortunately, Mother Nature’s plans were to blow in a nasty low pressure system complete with snow, below freezing temperatures, and stiff winds. Instead of being on stand at first light I found myself driving my wife to work and running errands.

I was able to set my new stand around midday. My wife and I made a trip to Cabela’s yesterday and I came home with a new Gorilla hang-on stand. I was dying to get it into the woods, so I hung it in a tree I have been eyeing for a couple of years now. I figured I could try out the stand, and also get a feel for the new location for future reference. The stand seems to be very well built, and I look forward to actually hunting from it a day or two this winter.

It looks like the weather will improve on Wednesday and Thursday, so hopefully I can get a few hours in then. I don’t mind the cold temperatures, but when you factor in a below-zero windchill, the best plan is to stay in the house.

December 26, 2009
Hunting Report

As you can see, my hunting journal entries are taking on a new appearance with the beginning of the late season. Gone are the details of the weather, my location, etc. Instead. I’ll save that information for my private journal, and simply share with you summaries of my hunts.

Opening day of the late season started off pretty wet. It rained the entire time, and it didn’t help matters that we were filming. Between trying to keep ourselves and the camera dry, it was hard to focus on hunting. We decided to call it a morning because we knew the weather was going to improve for the afternoon. We did see a young doe and a small doe group, but no antlers.

The afternoon hunt was much better weather-wise, but we were surprised at the lack of deer movement. In fact, it wasn’t until late in the hunt that we finally saw some activity. A four-point came in from in front of us and worked his way to our left. About the same time, a doe fawn walked right in front of our stand location, and eventually out of site. We could hear deer to our left, and finally a decent yearling buck emerged. He had four nice points on his right side, but just two points on his left. He wasn’t a shooter, but he has good potential. We estimated that he had a 15-inch spread, which is pretty good for a yearling.

That was the extent of the activity for the day. I was excited to get back out, and just being on stand was enjoyable. I think the evening hunt was impacted by flintlock hunters. There were more hunters out than I was anticipating, and it sounded like one group was doing a drive just off of our property line. I should have taken into account the fact that opening day was on a Saturday when I chose my stand location. Still a lot of hunting ahead of me before I close out the 2009 season.

Photo of the Christmas tree in front of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and thank you for reading Rub Lines. I hope you get all of the great hunting gear you asked Santa for this year! Please be safe.

No matter how bad the weather is, trail cameras tough it out and scout for you 24 / 7.

It looks like this blanket of snow is going to be with us for a while. Even though they’re calling for a bit of a warm-up over Christmas Eve and Christmas, it likely won’t be enough to melt the six to eight inches of snow on the ground in this area. When I was out checking my trail cameras the other day, the woods were as quiet and desolate as an abandoned building. You could see forever, and it didn’t seem like anything living remained. If it weren’t for the tracks in the snow, you might start to believe that all of the animals migrated south to warmer weather.

Christmas is the beginning of lean times for whitetails. Not only are most of the area crop fields harvested and void of leftover grain, very few acorns are left on the forest floor, and there simply isn’t any green vegetation available. I’ve already noticed the bucks in my trail camera photos have dropped some weight, and they’re starting to look more like they did back in July. A buck that might have weighed 220 pounds in mid November will likely weigh closer to 200 today, and will drop well under that mark by the time spring rolls around. Because of this, food is the number one motivating factor for bucks to be active during daylight hours.

Some people believe you have just as good of a chance to take a mature buck during the lean winter months as you do during the peak of the rut. In fact, one recent article I read suggested that it’s actually easier in the winter. While I won’t go as far as to say that, I will say that it’s not impossible. The game plan should be very simple this time of year. Locate the heaviest used trails between feeding and bedding areas, get your stand concealed as much as possible, dress for the weather, and pay strict attention to the wind. If you can wait it out while doing your best to control the above factors, it’s only a matter of time before a buck presents itself. Of all of these elements, the most important is wind direction. If the wind isn’t right for your set-up, hunt elsewhere or don’t hunt at all. This time of year more than any other, deer will retreat at the first hint of human odor. Go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to scent control, and you’ll have a much greater chance of pulling off a late season miracle.

The view from the front porch was stunning this morning.

We’re experiencing our first significant snowfall this winter in the northeast. I awoke to about three inches of powdery snow on the ground, and plenty of dusty flakes floating through the air. It couldn’t have hit at a more convenient time since it’s the weekend and my wife and I don’t have to go to work. In fact, we don’t have to go anywhere until later tomorrow. I plan to hook the plow up to my ATV later this morning, but I probably won’t plow the driveway until early tomorrow. By then most of the snow should be out of the area, and I won’t have to redo my work.

Another reason it’s a good weekend to be snowed in is we added a new puppy to our family yesterday. We adopted a blue heeler mix from the Indiana County Humane Society. Her name is Sooky. My wife has been wanting a smaller dog, and Sooky fit the bill. We think it’s important to adopt dogs from shelters, and this is our second adoption as we saved Arrow a couple of years ago. The dogs are getting along great, and believe it or not, Sooky hasn’t had a single accident in the house, and Angela already has her trained to sit. The cats aren’t thrilled at the moment, but they’ll get over it.

Sookie joined our family last night, and is settling in very well.

Like I do on most Saturday mornings when there are not deer hunting seasons in, I flip on the television and watch whatever hunting show I can find. Ideally I’ll find a whitetail hunting show, but as long as it’s interesting, I’ll watch about anything hunting related. Nowadays there are a ton of hunting shows to choose from, and even a couple of channels dedicated to hunting. This is a double-edged sword however. With all of the air time comes the problem of filling it with quality programming. This has led to people who produce hunting shows actually paying to have their shows aired, which is backwards really. What this has led to is several really poor shows making it to the tube, including many that show hunts that occur behind fences. Within five minutes of turning on the television this morning, I watched a “hunter” shooting a buck out of a constructed box blind overlooking a trough feeder where several deer were feeding. After the guy downs the buck, he mentions during the celebration scene that it was so much fun that maybe he’ll do it again tomorrow. Ugh!

I understand the market for high-fence hunts, but I don’t think there is a place for it on television. If I see that the show is filmed behind the fences, I’ll change the channel. Hell, I’d watch Lifetime before wasting my time on a high-fence hunting show. There seem to be very few fair-chase programs out there, and even fewer that are done in situations that the average hunter can relate to. By working with my friend Mike at Weekend Outdoor Warrior Productions, I know just how much work is put into producing a video in a tough fair-chase environment. Show producers are getting lazy, and if they don’t have the time and energy to produce a quality fair-chase video, I don’t have the time to watch.

I would like to see game camera companies focus some attention on battery life. I go through way too many batteries in a year, and my wife gives me the stink eye every time I buy them. She's right!

As I expected, a couple of my scouting cameras ate the remainder of their batteries during the cold spell. Luckily I was thinking ahead and had a fresh supply on hand. Although I hate (okay, strongly dislike) my Moultrie camera, I have to admit it’s amazing in terms of battery life. I put in a new set of batteries back in July, and it wasn’t until yesterday that I had to replace them. That’s pretty impressive. On the other hand, I’ve probably gone through twice as many batteries in my Cuddeback.

What I’ve learned is despite the number of cameras on the market now, I question if any of them has it “all.” I’m currently running six cameras, and each model has it’s positives and negatives. Believe it or not, I’m leaning toward my Wildgame Innovations IR-4 cameras as being the best. They were less than $100, but they take good photos, have a fast trigger speed, and reasonable battery life. The Cuddeback has the fastest trigger speed, but is lousy on batteries and isn’t the easiest to use. My Moultrie I4 has great battery life and functionality, but it takes lousy photos, has a very slow trigger speed, and is HUGE. The Scoutguard 550 seems like a great camera from what I read, but of course, the one I’m running seems to have a technical issue and I may need to send it back. That brings my to my dinosaur, an old Sportsman’s Guide model that I got back when digital cameras first came out. Although it has a really slow trigger speed, the photos are great, and it’s easy to use. I just put it over a scrape to compensate for the trigger speed, and all is good.

All of the cameras are in play now and I’ll be anxious to see what’s still walking around now that firearms season is over. I already saw a couple of good bucks, so I know there are some out there. I also saw a really nice half-rack that would have been a shooter. At this point it’s best to let him go

Before I launch into this topic I need to give a special shout out to my wife for being a wonderful cook. For lunch today I had leftover deer ch0ps with mashed sweet potatoes, which was leftovers from the other night. Tonight for dinner she prepared a marinated wild turkey breast, which was amazing, and she topped it off with a yogurt parfait made with wild blackberries that we picked on the property this summer. Both meals were largely derived from our property, which is pretty cool. If there’s a vegetarian that prepares wild game better than my wife, I’d be surprised!

It was odd waking up this morning with no possibility of going hunting since there are currently no seasons open in Pennsylvania. To be honest, I already miss the woods, especially considering how nice of a day it was today. To help pass the time, my friend Mike and I exchanged some trail camera photos and debated the age of the bucks we got photos of. I spent this evening wrapping Christmas gifts, and chatting with Mike, my brother, and my buddy Brian about a variety of things. I even talked for a while with Tyler from Riverview Outfitters where we hunted in Illinois. His sidekick Josh took down a giant buck with his shotgun a few days ago, and they were able to take a couple of does yesterday. I usually don’t spend this much time on the phone so I guess it was a side-effect of not being able to hunt.

I plan to take advantage of the down time by going over my equipment, reorganizing some things, and shooting as much as I can. I don’t shoot nearly as many arrows this late in the year as I would in the summer, so I focus on quality instead of quantity. I typically take out one arrow tipped with a broadhead and shoot from 40 yards. I’ll take a handful of shots from this distance, and then move to 25 yard and shoot one final arrow. It’s all about quality shots. If I miss the vitals even once, I start over until I get it right. I doubt that I would take a 40-yard shot in the woods, but I’m confident at that range. It’s my opinion that too many bad things can happen at that distance, and in fact, the furthest I’ve ever shot a deer was 30 yards. Still, I like to be confident from 40 yards so that anything less than that seems easy.

December 12, 2009

Location:  #2
Entry/Exit Times: 014:00 – 17:00
Weather: 36 degrees, overcast, wind SSE 0-5 m.p.h., barometer 30.41 falling

It was the last day of the Pennsylvania firearms season. Since it was obvious that there were very few people hunting in the area, I decided it would be okay to take the bow out without fear of pushing deer off of the property. After several days what can only be described as deplorable weather, this afternoon seemed like summer vacation. The temperature got up to 36 degrees, and with little wind it made for a perfect night.

It didn’t take long for the action to start. From shortly after 14:00 through 16:00, there was pretty consistent activity. By 16:00, I saw 10 antlerless deer, but no antlers. Finally, about 16:30, I saw a large bodied deer working his way into my area from the left. I could see pretty quickly that it was a good buck, and one that I’d probably shoot if he gave me the opportunity. He made his way toward me, and as he got closer, I studied his rack closely. He was a heavy eight-point. I wouldn’t call him a trophy because he had short tines, but he was plenty wide and heavy, and a shooter. I’m guessing the buck heard me thinking through this because as I was deciding I would take him, he did an about-face and walked in the other direction. I did call to him once, but frankly, I was just as happy to see him walk away because he’ll be a great buck next year.

At last light, I was playing cat and mouse with another buck, but I never got a good look at him. I have a feeling he was mature based upon the way he acted. I found myself getting frustrated because now there is no hunting until December 26. The bigger bucks are just starting to get on their feet again, and all I can do is sit a wait. To add insult to injury, I pulled my memory card from a camera I had near my stand only to find out that I never turned on the camera when I set it two weeks ago! I’ll be pulling the other cards tomorrow so I’m hoping I have a few good photos that will make me forget my misfortune tonight.

You know, I could have so easily shot that buck with a rifle, and I found myself thinking about all of the guys who have been hunting their butts off without possibly seeing a shootable buck. It’s amazing how you can feel better about watching a good buck walk away when you have the bow in your hand than if you would have shot it with a rifle.

Deer Observed:  2 bucks, 10 antlerless

I’ve been meaning to post the link to a recent story that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that I was quoted in just prior to the firearms season. On occasion, I’ll get a phone call from a reporter asking for quotes on various outdoor topics, and this time it was Outdoor Editor John Hayes who gave me the call. It’s not much this time, but I thought you might want to check it out.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09333/1016863-358.stm?cmpid=relatedarticle