I haven’t hunted much this fall due to coaching duties and putting board and batten on our house. I snuck out back with my bow about an hour before sunset in a windy 0 degrees on snowshoes. Actually found a track headed uphill onto the ridge behind our house so I took it. At sunset I hid inside a blowdown and put a drop of tonguing on a branch 20 feet in front of me. I no longer sat down when two does crossed about 30 yards away. The first deer I have seen this year. I was daydreaming and celebrating at least seeing a deer when I looked up and a huge buck was standing 30 feet away staring at me in that blowdown. I very slowly raised my longbow and just as I drew he took a jump and stopped. I released and hear my arrow hit a branch. Never touched him. He took a couple more jumps and simply walked away. What a great hunt. I will be there tomorrow but hide in a different blowdown. The fun starts. It is rifle season but the two feet of snow has gotten rid of the hunters. No one has hunted my land since the snows piled up so I have my ridge all to myself.

Sounds like you had a great hunt Lawdy. Look forward to hearing how your hunt tomorrow goes....please keep us posted!

Sounds like a great day!

That’s some great work getting a shot off while under surveillance....

Great hunt! Get after him and good luck!

I've blown it a bunch of times. Last week as I started my draw I had a buck take off.

Stix X'2...4finger

Hunhtem up.

Persistence eventually wins out....keep after ‘em

Go get em ! Good Luck!

Good hunt. A similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago. We can be thankful for a clean miss!

Snuck out this evening and hid in a thicket along the run. Nothing. Headed back to the house and his tracks and those of a doe went right through my snowshoe tracks 50 yards behind me and angled down towards my back field. With 2 feet of snow the does are really yarding up. I can shoot either buck or doe but would really like another crack at this guy. I have to play music this weekend and should be able to hunt more next week. The snowshoeing is good so I am going to take his track and try to run him all day and get a shot. We are getting more snow Sunday and Monday. The snow up on the high ground is 3 feet deep. If I can force him high, 3 feet of snow will tire him out quickly. We will see, he is old but so am I.

Stay at it !

If you got one every time you tried it wouldn't be nearly as fun or exciting. There'll be more opportunities, so good luck!

Hope he doesn’t tire you out first! LOL Good Luck

nice hunt,, never happened to me,,:)

Good luck lawdy. I knew a few old timers (obviously younger then) that used to love hunting in deep snow... The deeper the better they used to say. They were pretty sucessful tracking all day until the deer was too tired to escape. They were gun hunters though.

I would find his direction of travel, and with the wind in mind parallel it down wind very slowly. My guess is your only chance is to see him before he sees you, and stalking directly on his trail would be low percentage where I hunt.

I try to catch them when they J hook before bedding down. I move downwind and creep. I am pretty sure I know where he beds all day. We got another 10 inches today so I will try to sneak in tomorrow. I had to plow today and will definitely have to plow tomorrow morning. I will go out in the afternoon. I did manage to get out back before dark and hide in a thicket with snow cascading off the softwoods and snowing like crazy. Peaceful but absolutely nothing was moving. Me and my longbow were well camoflaged with snow. It is still rifle season but I prefer the silence of my longbow.

Snowed all last night and today. It is a heavy, wet, creaky snow that makes quiet snowshoeing impossible. I stepped off them and went into snow up to my crotch, so I sat until dark. Nothing moving. Cut only one old track all day.

Keep us posted sir and good luck! I'm really enjoying your hunt.

Sounds exciting!

Put on the snowshoes this afternoon and went looking up on the ridge behind our house. Jumped a young deer about 10 feet away that was bedded in deep snow and it almost ran me over. For some reason it jumped right by me, close enough to touch, and bounded down my snowshoe track. It was crusty and loud so I think the deer hung tight hoping I would walk by, and it panicked. I live on 60 acres and have never hunted it, preferring to hunt the big timberlands up here, but with no time, I have not been able to take any days off. This is a learning experience for me, my neighbors know my property better than I do. I don’t post but insist on no baiting. With the deep snow, we are without hunters up here as they turn to snowmobiling. You should see the parade of vehicles driving slowly past my property hoping a get a shot at that buck I missed. He was seen in my field and the road hunters are putting on the miles. I love roadhunters, keeps the woods to myself. That is why I have not seen another hunter in these woods for 10 years or so.

Sounds like you live in some great country sir! 60 acres to hunt in my part of PA is big timber! Hope you get a shot at that buck before a road hunter does!

Found a trail and a big bed up on the ridge he has been using. I also found a big antler that I am positive he dropped last winter. He was an eight pointer a year ago. I knew he was huge when I missed him. I have two more days then the season ends in our zone and I get a week in the zone below us. With over 2 feet of crusty snow I have to hide in thickets and blowdowns and hope to intercept him. Yesterday I had a big bobcat check me out and watched 2 partridges and a young coyote pass by about 30 feet away this afternoon.

Sounds like you're having fun and seeing critters Lawdy.....that's what it's all about! Good luck chasing that big buck.

Well, I didn’t get him. I still have 6 days on the zone across the road. I was scouting yesterday in a piece by a dam when I jumped a nice buck with a big doe. I checked out a run they used last year and they have a good trail started in the 2-3 feet of snow. I will haunt that this week. Today I have to play music at the County home this afternoon, so I will start tomorrow. That buck was a beauty as was the doe.

Good luck the rest of the way. I've enjoyed your hunt for that buck especially since I've never had the opportunity to hunt deer in that much snow in my part of PA. Keep us posted and have fun!

Played at the county nursing home for a couple of hours and headed home. There were several flocks of turkeys and several deer feeding in the cut-off corn fields of the county farm. That is in the zone that closed yesterday. They know the season is over. Ran into our fire dept of which I am a member waiting by the road for a tracked att to bring out a hunter who drove in an unplowed logging road and got buried. Four wheel drive is useless in the higher elevations where the snow is waist deep. Amazingly he made it 7 miles in. Now he has to hire a skidded to drag him out. Expensive trip.

Put on the snowshoes and went chasing a buck. The snow is deep and crusty. I jumped him twice and his belly was dragging in the snow. I pushed him for 6 hours and could hear him almost constantly the last hour ahead of me in brutally thick softwoods, but at 72, I ran out of gas. Came out of the woods over 2 miles from my pickup. He won. Of course it didn’t help that I was up at dawn checking my trap line and releasing a bobcat from a coyote set. Two days left and then I start running the beagle and stocking up on partridges.

Great stuff Lawdy...your perseverance is awesome. You certainly have my respect and I hope your hard work / hunting pays off for you in the next couple days!

Sounds like a great time! Jawge

I'd go shoot some grouse. Chasing deer in belly deep snow ain't good for either one of ya. Too close to Christmas to have a dang heart attack out in the boonies! (Not that there's ever a good time)

I went out early this morning and found a pretty good run about a mile in. Heading back out to hide in a brush blind I cobbled up. The snowshoeing is easy as the crust is pretty thick.

Be safe and happy hunting!

Nothing, but as it got dark I could look down from the mountain and see our village light up. I snowshoes out with a headlamp in the dark and saw where a big bobcat had walked in my snowshoe tracks, right up behind me, and checked me out. It was a big one judging from the track. One more day and it is partridge and hare time.

I very much enjoyed your hunting season lawdy. Thanks for taking us along. Good luck with the partridge & hare.

Thanks guys, still one day to go and I killed my biggest buck, 256 lbs, at 4:30, the last day of the season in 2003. Shot last years buck with one day to spare. I lose Sept, Oct, and half of Nov to coaching and work, so I am out there with the bang bang boys. It only takes one second to make it a great season. Still, it has been fun and I never saw another hunter in the woods. I haven’t met another hunter in at least 10 years, what with the big woods I hunt.

Snowshoed out to my truck this evening and a young button buck was standing in the logging road behind my truck. I got skunked by the big boy. At least I got to see a few deer and miss one in the short time I had to hunt. Tomorrow my beagle gets his wish and can stop whining constantly every time I put on the woolens. It’s bunny time.

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