THE BUCK OPENER WEEK IN REVIEW

   

Opening day of the buck season started off with a bang for us at 6:45 a.m. My son (usually semi-cool under pressure) missed a deer first thing monday part human error part shaken hunter syndrome. The morning became more eventful at 9:45 a.m when he downed his first doe of the season. The blurry video reflects the hunt ( I know it is blurry but if you concentrate enough you can actually see it all transpire) one down two more to go. At around 11:00 or 12:00 we moved to another tree stand on the property. We ate and soaked the rest of the day in when another doe walked out around 50 yards out with Hudson connecting again with 2 deer down it is a good day. When I got home I found out that my 2 nephew's shot 3 deer around the Milford, Pike county area. Travis shot a 8 pointer, 1/2 hour later Blake shot a doe, then Travis shot another doe, and a friend named Joe shot a 4 pointer to round out their day. The bigger buck listed above was a deer shot in New Britain Township on opening day,what a monster, and to top he is not even in first place at the big buck contest at Nanny's deli in Tylersport P.A. he is in third. Friday  was the next day my son and I got to hunt. With the day uneventful it makes the Sat. morning wake up a lot harder to bear. With the shower's completed and the dressing completed we felt better about waking up. With 15 minutes till opening day light we heard rustling but when daylight came nothing stood in front of us. Around 6:50 we saw a doe hit the field a good sign that deer are moving my friend Kevin saw a buck and 5 does and he shot one of the does around 7:00 a.m. With the first deer down and a lot of day left My son and I nestled in for a long day in the tree stand. Shooting in the morning was busy in Bucks county this morning with the most hunters in the woods this day deer moving should not be a issue be patient and you will see them. We did not see another deer until 8:50 in the morning. At 10:30 my son and I took a walk to break up the day getting back in the stand resulted in turkey sandwiches and drinks. With food in the stomach it's time to sleep. We sat for another 1.5 hours and I noticed a deer coming through the trees. Idid not sleep after lunch but my son was out like a light so I had to wake him up to "there is a deer and it is a buck". A short scramble for the gun and finding the deer in the scope he missed with the first shot confused on the situation the buck stood there so I gave him the 870 with iron sights 3 shots later the buck was his (he hit it 2 times). What a great conclusion to a great week

LAST WEEK N.Y. DEER HUNT

Team Hoffman scores in N.Y. at their friend Mikes property. Hopefully the P.A. opener monday will treat
everyone else with the same welcome. Congrats Blake on team Hoffmans first buck of 2010. 

TURKEY, GROUSE, and a RABBIT

We had another successful trip to Tioga County. The first picture is my brother in-law Vern and his turkey. The second my son and Uncle Steve with their grouse, and rabbit they connected on. The third is Steve's son with the grouse he was rewarded with. The fourth is the turkey my son got, and the fifth is my other son's squirrel with the turkey.(both of them)

The 1/2 week started with the disappointment that we could not hunt the best grouse patch east of the Mississippi but we were to overcome and make the trip successful. Thursday morning started out with the coffee flowin and the turkey's out in the field saying game on boys come and get it. My oldest son,youngest son, and I got our hunting stuff on and took to the woods. We tried to get around the turkey's but it was not successful and we just bumped them. The afternoon resulted in about 1 1/2 mile walk with 2 grouse and a rabbit bagged. The late day hunted resulted in me chasing turkey's all around but to no avail. The second morning resulted in my son not wanting to get up so I was off again tromping but again to no avail one turkey was missed by a different hunter but for me nothing in the bag yet. As I refueled myself with cake and coffee, Vern was successful on top by the corn field. He bagged a lonely hen. The rest of the day one grouse was bagged with a 3-4 mile walk. A lot of walking for three grouse spotted, and one in the bag. That afternoon the turkeys were located again but out of range for the boys. Day three started out busting turkeys out of the roost by accident. Oh-well thats the way it goes sometimes. We went to the house and drove up to the corn field to check it out before we turned in for FOOD. With food and coffee consumption down and a few games of rummikub in, it was time for the afternoon turkey hunt to end our hunting for the week. Steve showed us where they were the night before and with the way they were pushed in the morning we decided to sit a little farther down. At around 4:30 my son took a nice hen for his first turkey ever, it was a great time for hunting as usual, and thank God everyone came home safe from a hunting trip. Two weeks until opening day of buck season. Stay safe.

OCTOBER 25, 2010 THE SMALL ONE ROAMS NO MORE.

Here is a picture of the buck I shot Mon. morning I guess I am done passing on the smaller ones. I will be letting my sons shoot the monster buck if we see one in the rifle season. So far Kevin O is winning the Paoutdoorjournel big buck contest which is nothing new.  Congrats Kevin on your monster.

October 23, 2010 ONE OF THE BIG BOYS FALLS!

Hi Mike -
Here are a few pics of the deer I shot Saturday evening at about 6:20pm on 10/23/10 and the story that goes with it........having a hard time falling asleep tonight so thought I would send a few emails out. Let me know if any trouble with the pics on your end.

I got into the tree at about 5pm and had not even pulled the bow up when I saw a deer off to my left up the hill in the bushes feeding. After several minutes I got set up ok without being picked out by that doe. She walked off but I could hear deer running around over off the corner of the field in that semi-open area that is kind of "swampy" and caught a glimpse of a head / tail once or twice. Occasionally I could see some bushes being thrashed too so I figured there was maybe a buck or two around the area. I eventually had deer all over the place literally underneath me that night. Spike buck, two six pts (one of which might have been the one you shot?, a seven pt (tall, white rack, missing his left brow tine or would be a clean 8pt), the two button bucks (from the trio left from the group I shot the doe out of a few weeks ago), one hot doe they were all chasing around, and maybe one other non-hot doe with another little one around the corner of the fence from where I was sitting.

The big guy came from above me and the first time I saw him was when I turned around to my left to check where the other deer had walked from in front underneath me to the fence side and behind my tree (uphill side). He was only about 15 yds up from my tree and I could see him looking up which showed his rack off pretty well. I could see he was out beyond his ears and three pts on each side.....thought he might have been a 10pt at first but did not try to count pts after that.....was just trying not to fall out of the tree at that point. . He angled over to the fence line so I had to quickly get turned around on the stand and get drawn back as soon as he angle over to the fence line. From the time I first saw him to when I shot him it was probably not more than two minutes or so......happened really fast. With all the other deer around underneath me and the 7pt out in the field that I thought was picking me out in the stand I could not move to look around much. Its actually hard to see straight up behind you when in that stand due to the trees right behind the stand (will have to fix that for next year I guess?). Just as I let my arrow go he turned more towards the fence to nudge one of the other deer standing next to him and I hit him about 3/4 back angling into his middle. He jumped the fence right away and jogged out to the middle of the field where he slowly circled a few times and staggered like he was going to go down. He stood for a minute or so and then turned and trotted over to the bottom edge of the field and jumped the fence again (out of the field). I could see him stop about 20yds into the woods and then I lost track of him at that point trying to get my binoculars out of my pack. the 7pt and a doe in the field bugged out of the field at that point. One doe stayed in the field the whole time like nothing was going on. She was still there when I walked out. It was getting dark fast and since I did not think he was down at that point I did not follow up until morning. I waited till it was completely dark and then hopped the fence a little ways up the hill and crossed back over the field to the truck to avoid pressuring the lower woods area where the buck had jumped the fence leaving the field. In the morning my wife came with to help with the tracking. We found some blood drops from the outside of the fence where he jumped out to about half the way back to the creek and then it seemed to stop. We walked out to the back trail (the one we mowed) looking for blood and found none so I climbed through the thick stuff out to the edge of the creek to look in there. I found a pretty good deer trail along the creek. On the second look over the creek bank I found him right there in the water's edge. He ended up being in the water on the edge of the creek pretty much straight back from the corner of the field / fence line.

That's my story from Saturday night.

Regards - Kevin.

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OCTOBER 13, 2010 STILL THE SMALL ONE'S ROAM

Went to a new spot today and this smaller but plump buck visited me first thing. Muzzleloader starts Sat. maybe that will be the day. I will try tomorrow before work, I will keep you posted.

OCTOBER 11,2010 NOTHING YET

Bumped deer before I got into the woods not something you want to do. When dayligjht came no deer in sight but the one good thing that happened was a brand new buck rub in front of my stand. The beginning of the video is one buck rub and the last one is the new one that is only a couple of days old.

OCTOBER 9,2010 PA YOUTH HUNT.

Hudson connected on two ringnecks today on the youth pheasant hunt 2010. Last year he could not close the deal. It was a busy morning with pheasants flying all over the place. But it wasn't until every thing settled down (later in the morning) that he was able to be a successful hunter. Yesterday he could have shot a small deer but waited for the bigger one but it did not work out the way he hoped. We will keep you posted on further hunts.

OCTOBER 7, 2010 GONE TO THE FOXES.

Click on a video below to watch it:

	Video 16 Video Length 0:55 Click here to watch

Saw 2 bucks today one barely legal the other was bigger but it didn't have 3 to one side. I saw three red fox today. It might be time to start hunting them. It would make a nice pelt.

SEPTEMBER DOE SEASON KEVIN O SCORES FIRST.

On this video you will see 2 deer toward the middle of the screen between two of the branches. It was too dark to tape at this point but thats when they showed up. One buck 4-6 point range a big doe and a fawn showed up first thing in the morning. With a single fawn coming in about 30 min later. Kevin was hunting at the top of the screen toward the right and I was hunting the bottom of the field. We think they were rounding up cattle in the field first thing in the morning and I believe they chased a group high in the field and lower in the field Kevin shot his deer minutes after this video was shot. You can actually hear the guys yelling in the back ground thanks for the impromptu deer drive.

WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS.

Have you ever seen a EAGLE fly?

Although this wasn't taped in the rockies, hopefully you like the video anyway.

TROUT WARS 2010

There's a battle going on west of Tamaqua.

Bass on!

Click on a video below to watch it:

	Untitled Video Length 0:22 Click here to watch

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Going camping for a while. Hopefully we have some fishing reports from Locust Lake State Park.

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON STYLE!

	Click here to watch