NY Sportsmen

I have to admit it seemed odd not to be going out on watch this morning. From Sept.27th through the first week of December I had only missed one evening watch and then it was poring rain so hard that I doubted anything in its right mind would be wandering about. This kind of reminded me of the last day of regular gun season...with 50 to 60 mile an hour winds, temps in the teens and white out conditions of where seeing 5 foot was a effort.

I was thinking to myself...what idiot would be foolish enough to be out in that kind of weather? So there I was, sitting up next to a large oak tree that had a ladder stand up against it. I had tried to climb  up into the ladder stand, but with the wind gusts blowing and howling so much, caused the large oak tree to sway far enough that I feared it would snap like a twig.

Every so often the wind would die down just enough so that you could at least see a few feet. it was during one of these breaks that I looked up from my white cocoon (there was over three inches of snow on top of my hat and my whole camo outfit now was covered in white powdery substance that caused me to blend in with my surroundings) there stood a doe and two fawns within five foot of me. They just about ran me over had I not stood up and waved my arms. Walking back to the ranger, I could see where there had actually been nine deer that had walked by me and I never saw them.

So back to my overall take of this season. As usual, any day spent in the woods is a good day for me so I would have to rate it as a good season. I say good and not great in that we never did see any rutting activities. No usual scrap lines, no scrapes and no bucks chasing does across the fields. It seems to me that the rut is actually taking place later in the season than the usual second week of November.

No big bucks were spotted and I counted at least 11 different smaller bucks that I had let pass during the season. Most of these stayed in their little groups of two to five. I had over 14 deer at one time out in front of my tree stand during the latter part of the season...yet no big boys showed up and talking with other hunters in the area, they were seeing the same.

A week after the season ended, a large 8 and 10 point were spotted feeding in front of my stand. My guess is that these older bucks are now wearing the latest mossy oak pattern and blending in to their surroundings. I would assume that they stayed in the 80 acre area that we set aside in the middle of the property as a no hunting sanctuary, to give the deer a place to go without being pressured.

I am already planning on where the food plots will go this coming year and we are going to do some rabbit, squirrel and coyote hunting this winter to stay in practice. From out tribe to yours...we wish you all a happy new year and may all your dreams come true.