Two For Tuesday: Tagged Out At Last

Two For Tuesday

   After my 6 year streak of killing a buck in archery came to an end this fall, I found myself in unfamiliar territory as the gun season approached. There are many things that I don't enjoy about gun season. First off I consider most of it to be luck. Second off.....there are too many people in the woods and I like my peace and solitude. Having said all that, I still had a buck tag in my pocket and I needed to try and fill it.

   During the first week of the season I found myself hunting a few familiar properties that I visited in archery and experienced similar results, with the exception of first day and 12 does at the farm back home. The first Saturday rolled in and I managed a morning hunt with a few doe sightings but the deer never presenting a quality shot. I went out Monday with my dad in Ohiopyle and we ended up seeing 1 buck chasing does but once again they eluded my ITCHY TRIGGER FINGER. It seemed as though my bad luck would continue for the rest of the season and my confidence was shot. It was so down that I called my buddy Mike up Monday night to see if a fishing trip was doable up in the State College area for Tuesday. Well the weather had different plans and 4-5 inches of fresh snow early Tuesday made our decision to stay home and hunt easier.

First Buck With A Rifle

   Mike and I decided to head over to the bird farm and sit till 9. Mike saw a lone doe in the morning that came into shooting range (of course) but he didn't have a doe tag so it walked. He played the roll of bird dog the rest of the morning, walking through many patches of woods to try and kick something out to me. Not only did we not see a deer, we didn't even see a track! By noon we were cold and sweaty from walking around and we decided to head back to the truck. I was going to head home and grab some lunch than head out to the park when "Ole McChesney" gave me a buzz and said they were doing some drives and to come over. For those that follow the blog, I bagged a good 10 PT with McChensey last year in one of his honey holes during early archery season.

   I didn't think twice and found some new life. Patrick Bagged a bruiser early in the morning and was now looking to get other people into deer. We walked a small section of woods with fresh tracks but no deer. We then decided to walk a patch of woods that we have done in the past, but this time with more people. I was on one side of the creek, two people in the field, Pat and his buddy walking toward us. I remember Patrick telling me to walk slow and meet them in the middle. I inched about 100 yards into the woods and noticed a big ole doe bedded down on the hillside next to me. I couldn't believe how big she looked so I moved a bit closer to get a better look at her head just to make sure it didn't have horns. Once I verified that the

Patrick's Beast Of A 10 PT

30.06 did the rest of the work and she never got out of bed. Two more does popped up and ran, one fell victim to Mr. McChesney's rifle and the other got away. I continued to walk until I saw Pat and his buddy. I than started looking for a place to cross the stream. Well it was flowing pretty good and I decided I didn't want to get wet. After pacing back and forth for 10 minutes or so, I decided I was going to walk back the way I came in. I hiked up to a small hill and looked 40 yards in front of me to see this 7 PT laying behind a log. 3 shots later and he was down for my first ever rifle buck kill! Two kills in 20 minutes! Needless to say I was extremely happy with both of them. I have spent more time in the woods this year than ever and persistence finally paid off. I started putting some of my hunting clothes away tonight and although I love to hunt whitetails I was pretty happy that the season came to an end. Winter Fly Tying will now be in full force and hopefully a few trips up to State College will be in the near future.
 

7 PT