Pap's Web Site

This was the first year I didn't hunt regular deer season at the "Camp". Greg and I decided it was too much to put up with to stand in the woods for several days and see no deer again. We haven't seen deer during the regular season for several years. I went out for a combined archery trip and family visit in October but saw no deer then either.

So this year I went to Johnstown for October Senior/Junior season and hunted with Eric and the 2 boys, Stephen and Jared. Jared and I hunted the first day (Friday) alone, on Saturday Eric and Stephen came out and walked around small game hunting while Jared and I sat in the tree stands. We didn't get anything, Jared saw one but that time of the year there's too much vegetation to see very far. He spotted a doe late on Saturday but it quickly disappeared in the bushes.

I hunted locally around Annville for archery and saw lots of deer but couldn't get close enough to fill my tag. I'll try that again after Christmas for late archery/flintlock season.

I went back to Johnstown for the opening day of regular season. Eric's boys had 3 days off from school, the school wisely scheduled an "in service" work period for those days. We got to the woods early, it was still dark and it was raining. Jared and I sat in the stands again while Eric and Stephen walked. They saw some deer early but couldn't get a shot. Stephen missed a buck out on the gas pipeline up near the parking area. Johnny scored on a doe early Monday morning and left shortly after.

Tuesday was at least rain free but windy and colder. Stephen and Eric walked around again until Eric had to leave for a few hours to go to a meeting at work around 10 AM. Stephen came and sat with Jared on one side of the tree, I was on the other side. It got a little warmer when the sun came out. About 1:30 I spotted 2 deer walking towards me. I alerted the boys to their arrival. I had about 15 or 20 seconds to watch them as they turned and crossed in front of me. I saw they both had antlers, an 8 and a 6 point. I took the lead buck, the 8 point, he ran about 20 yards and piled up. The 6 point one ran away then came back to where the first one fell then ran around a bit before walking away. The boys couldn't line up a clear shot so we had to let it go. Eric called on the radio while I was tagging it. The boys remained up in the stand to keep watching for deer. You can see them over my shoulder.

I left the next morning while they went back out. They saw no more deer that day. They saw nothing until the afternoon of the last day, Saturday Dec 8th. In some of Eric's words and pictures:

"Pap:

We scored late on the last day! I have been running around with sports and have not been able to pull off the communication.

It was about 3:15 PM when the shots rang out. We had Stephen’s friend Elliott from football, swim team and scouts with us. Stephen invited him at the last minute because he has never even seen a deer in 4 years of hunting. He had a doe tag too...

I sent Stephen to Dave’s stand since nobody was manning that escape route. We put on a couple of pushes. The second push I took Elliot with me...

...We were done pushing for Jared and Stephen and back in the stand at about 2:30. Elliot saw some backs moving uphill on the other side of the pipeline. They crossed the pipeline into the shooting zone about where your gut pile was. Elliot shot twice. Nothing dropped! The deer were on the same path where Stephen made one hell of a long shot last year way up the hill.

Elliot had a 30-30 and was not going to try at that distance. I could not see either of the two deer. Jared had his scope on the hind quarter of the bigger one (wounded only slightly by Elliot we found out later). When it stepped out Jared sent one through his lungs at about 150 Yards! Stephen saw it drop after running downhill for 40 yards. Jared made a great shot with a rifle we were not sure of the zero.

The second deer was looking at the dead one when I tried to shoot it. Missed! It trotted toward Stephen. Crack! Jared said “well that’s the end of that deer. It had the misfortune of going within 200 yards of my brother" he told Elliott.

Stephen

We found out later that Stephen was struggling with the notion of shooting at deer that he had been watching all afternoon. They were down in the bowl outlined by the snow. He did not know the ballistics of his rifle over 300 yards so he just watched them for hours. He also said he did not want to go looking for a deer that he could not be sure about hitting and miss the possibility of shooting at something he knew he could hit. I am always proud of his thought processes while afield. Most PA hunters would have just thrown all their ammo down there... "

3 Hunters

Dragging out

Another great season! And that’s all I got to say about that! Except that Stephen’s radio went dead and we had no idea that he was seeing deer..."