deer season Planning - 11/21/21
some here know, and some don't. Oct 29th of this year my 17 month old daughter passed. She died in my arms while I was doing CPR. I let her down, when she needed her daddy the most. to be honest i'm struggling with it, to say the least. I will always blame myself.
I tell you that because it will give some context to the rest of this post, and hopefully help you guys and myself make better sense of it. I don't really ahve the drive to hunt this year, but I despise sitting in the house even worse so i've been forcing myself to do things. making over detailed plans has helped keep my mind busy outside of work.
Opening Day....yes I know both are capitalized, but this is PA and the deer opener is a State Holliday, or atleast should be. The plan is to set up on the edge of a freshly Combined cornfieldof about 300 acres in a pop up blind. i'll set the blind up very, very early opening day, i'm not too concerned about deer seeing it and getting sketchy because by the time they see it that well they should already be dead. I'll have good shooting of 500 yards to both right and left and about 200 to the front. I am choosing this spot because two of us killed bucks within minutes of each other on the second day of the season last year from this same field. and weather conditions will be very similar.
Day 2: I think the second day is going to find me deep into the woods on our lease, on a steep side hill logging road that is above another farm. noone ever goes this far into the land becaause, well it's steep and takes a while to get there. however there is a thick grove of hemlocks and big white pines, above a lowland oak flat. if the wind holds out this should be a good spot to sit. This plan can change depending on if my 6 year old wants to hunt the second day, she has dance rehearsal all day on the opener.
Day 3 I will have the entire lease to myself and will probably do some Still hunting. there is one particular 40 acre piece that takes me about 8 hours to still-hunt it. the projected wind looks great to o from top to bottom. I have killed quite a few dear in the past 6 or 7 years hunting this piece, most of them killed in their bed, by hunting the crosswind and catching them watching their down wind back trail, opposite from where I wlll be stalking them from. The worst part about this piece is the grade and sheer amount of deadfalls amassed in it. it is just much easier to quarter up a deer and haul out of there than it is trying to drag it to the truck. typically if it's cold a small fired of pine branches and dried down hardwoods is built, and time is taken getting the animal broke down and prepped for hauling. once in a while a tenderloin is seasoned with salt and pepper and broailed over the coals on a green hardwod skewer and enjoyed with some hot black coffee.
Day 4 may very likely find me checking out a new piece of land that we leased, aside from walking it and posting it I haven't spent much time but its a mixture of oak flats, plantation pines, shot hemlocks and ag field borders with a Pipeine right of way dissecting it.
Day 5-7 I may spend some time exploring the local State forest, there are a 100,000 plus acres of Game Lands and Forest close to me that ive always wanted to hang out in, much more than I do.
Day 8 will find me back at the lease, I'll have a spot to sit based on the weeks findings and will sit until about 9, then we start deer drives for the remainder of the day. After that I will head back to work until Wednesday and have the last friday and Saturday to hunt if need be.
Or I may just drive around all week asking myself why.
I tell you that because it will give some context to the rest of this post, and hopefully help you guys and myself make better sense of it. I don't really ahve the drive to hunt this year, but I despise sitting in the house even worse so i've been forcing myself to do things. making over detailed plans has helped keep my mind busy outside of work.
Opening Day....yes I know both are capitalized, but this is PA and the deer opener is a State Holliday, or atleast should be. The plan is to set up on the edge of a freshly Combined cornfieldof about 300 acres in a pop up blind. i'll set the blind up very, very early opening day, i'm not too concerned about deer seeing it and getting sketchy because by the time they see it that well they should already be dead. I'll have good shooting of 500 yards to both right and left and about 200 to the front. I am choosing this spot because two of us killed bucks within minutes of each other on the second day of the season last year from this same field. and weather conditions will be very similar.
Day 2: I think the second day is going to find me deep into the woods on our lease, on a steep side hill logging road that is above another farm. noone ever goes this far into the land becaause, well it's steep and takes a while to get there. however there is a thick grove of hemlocks and big white pines, above a lowland oak flat. if the wind holds out this should be a good spot to sit. This plan can change depending on if my 6 year old wants to hunt the second day, she has dance rehearsal all day on the opener.
Day 3 I will have the entire lease to myself and will probably do some Still hunting. there is one particular 40 acre piece that takes me about 8 hours to still-hunt it. the projected wind looks great to o from top to bottom. I have killed quite a few dear in the past 6 or 7 years hunting this piece, most of them killed in their bed, by hunting the crosswind and catching them watching their down wind back trail, opposite from where I wlll be stalking them from. The worst part about this piece is the grade and sheer amount of deadfalls amassed in it. it is just much easier to quarter up a deer and haul out of there than it is trying to drag it to the truck. typically if it's cold a small fired of pine branches and dried down hardwoods is built, and time is taken getting the animal broke down and prepped for hauling. once in a while a tenderloin is seasoned with salt and pepper and broailed over the coals on a green hardwod skewer and enjoyed with some hot black coffee.
Day 4 may very likely find me checking out a new piece of land that we leased, aside from walking it and posting it I haven't spent much time but its a mixture of oak flats, plantation pines, shot hemlocks and ag field borders with a Pipeine right of way dissecting it.
Day 5-7 I may spend some time exploring the local State forest, there are a 100,000 plus acres of Game Lands and Forest close to me that ive always wanted to hang out in, much more than I do.
Day 8 will find me back at the lease, I'll have a spot to sit based on the weeks findings and will sit until about 9, then we start deer drives for the remainder of the day. After that I will head back to work until Wednesday and have the last friday and Saturday to hunt if need be.
Or I may just drive around all week asking myself why.