Great thread, and I thank "battue" for pointing it out to me via a PM. Hope everyone had a great season.
I made the pilgrimage this year. While bittersweet, it was a very special hunt. We mainly headed down to help my sister clear up our mom's estate. Monday morning, I was in my late mom's tree stand, with her last hunting license in my pocket for good luck. I hunt with the last rifle my dad bought before he passed, stashed with family; a M700 Classic .280 Rem. Weather was absolutely miserable. Wind, rain, sleet, snow.....all day. Saw a huge buck that I couldn't shoot in the morning(skylined for starters, and on our neighbors land) he disappeared, and was never seen again. The smaller buck that was not far behind, bedded down in sight. Just before dark, he got up, crossed on to our place, and walked right by me at about 50 yards. When I dressed out the young 3x3(with nubs for brow tines), I was glad that I'm a "shoot till their down" kinda guy. Shot number one it turns out, was deflected by brush, and never touched him. Shot number two, taken at full tilt run, hit him in the middle(liver/rear lungs). He stopped with just his head/top half of the neck above the brush, so I put one more just below the base of the skull, and that was that. Pretty emotional laying hands on him, and decided the only photos were going to be memories.
Brought him back to AK as an extra bag, and so far, the backstrap and neck roasts have been awesome eating. Going to can some, and grind the rest.
The icing on the cake, was a phone call from my cousin(and best bud) today. He had triple bypass about a month ago. His Doc gave hime the OK to hunt, and he did. This evening, on the last day, he dropped a 3x4 buck!
An unmistakeable, and sad trend I'm seeing, is a very significant decrease in the number of people out deer hunting in PA. Before I left home for Basic Training, it was religion. School is still closed for opening day, but it's nothing like it used to be. Just not a lot of young folks out there. Before I turned the legal 12 years old, I used to follow my dad around with a BB gun, and couldn't wait to wear a hunting license and carry a real rifle/shotgun.
Again, I hope everyone had a great season, and have many more in the future!
Jeff
