Keystone State Thread

Including the vaginal discharge and itching?

 

OK all y'all hunters... I see a comment like that and I wonder. 15 years and 2 bucks. Might I ask how many days of the season your dad gets out? What kind of property does he hunt on (private, public, wooded, farmed, # acreage, etc)? Are we talking rifle 2 weeks only or is he hunting archery too?

I hunt both a farmy property in my town and a wooded property where the wife's grandma lives. The Oley Valley is a farming region nestled in the burbs outside of Reading. So this farm property is actually two separate ones from people in my church. About 100 open field acres on one side of a stream with its woody scrub and islands, and about 300 open field acres on the other side of the stream. Abutting downstream of the 2nd property is a large open powerline row that goes up a tiny wooded "mountain". And the grandma-in-law's property is 13 acres of fairly dense woods bordered on all sides by about 80 acres of other people's wooded lots in the midst of some farm lands up on the mountain south of the Allentown area.

I'm at 7 buck in 15 years (And not even sure the number of antlerless, let's say 15-20? One of those 7 counted buck was antlerless... having just freshly shed its antlers, still dripping blood from them). Unfortunately I have an additional few misses and non-critical hits for some unclaimed buck too (about 5?).

I hunt archery and rifle. I average probably 3-4 sessions (2-3hrs) on stand a week from archery season through rifle till I get as much meat as I want that year. When I'm lucky I'm done before rifle season, when I'm not at all lucky I'm out till end of January into 2nd archery season.

I'd say the biggest two contributors to actually getting buck every year is simply the amount of hours you get to put into it, and whether you have decent property to hunt on. In my viewpoint the most important of those two things is simply being lucky enough to hunt on really good property. As nice as these two properties I hunt on are, they're still not fully ideal to getting a buck every year. I have a brother-in-law who lives on his in-law's property that is literally a township sized chunk of farmland owned by multiple parties in the clan. Dude walks out his door nearly every rifle season (not always bothering with archery) and shoots a big buck and goes back to normal life.

So I'm in no way trying to brag. I'm simply trying to gather up some information for curiosity on what you guys think makes successful buck-per-year stats.

 

I've been grabbing the bottom of the handles at wawa and really everywhere else lately. You can see the wear on the top of the handles so I figure too many people are grabbing it.

 

I do that sometimes too, if the handle appears to be clean. Sometimes the bottoms of the handles get loaded up with gook and schmutz, which also terrifies me.

Great conversation for a Monday morning, right?

 

I honestly thinks he falls asleep in the stand. He only hunts one time a year from opening day for rifle for one week. So once a year.

Moshsannon state forest.

 

Most people who have early success are those guys who have time to get out in the woods before season and see where they're traveling through.

Or they belong to groups who do big drives.

 

So today could prove to be interesting. I have to take my wife to an ultrasound today to measure some level of something. If its not in spec, they will take her up to surgery and deliver my daughter this afternoon. She has a c-section scheduled for December 26, but it could be today! If everything is in spec, they said they will schedule more ultrasounds to keep up on everything and then bump her date from the 26th to the 19th. Nothing like added craziness to the holiday season!

 

Awesome !

 

"Selfie "

 

Nice !!
what, no fish left in Jersey ?

 

Going "for work" but I was able to find a first class flight and a nice hotel in San Juan so I'll just be there pretending to work.

 

Probably measuring the level of the fluid around the baby. Hey... sounds more convenient for holiday planning to just take that baby today!

 

Thats true, may as well get it over with. Rip the bandaid off so to speak lol. Should be interesting around the house - my son just turned 2 last month, we'll have a new born, 3 dogs, i will feel like the ring leader of a circus lol.

 

Truck is dropped off at Sloane Toyota Glennside.. fingers crossed

 

Well... I just got passed by a police chase just outside of spring city / royersford. Chasing a blue second gen access cab taco.

 

I've been hunting seriously for about 9 years. The first 2 i ended up with does. I had opportunities that I passed on, and later regretted. So i made a mental shift and started filling tags instead of trying to find a trophy. Then I was successful each year after that with a buck. Last year i shot a 15" 8 point in archery. In rifle i had to stand and watch a 140" (low estimate) buck of a lifetime at 100 yards because i didn't have a tag. Made a different mental switch. Does=meat in freezer, save the buck tag for a nice one. I wasn't successful until rifle this year, but passed 10 different buck up in archery.

My experience, there are two types of hunting near me. Agricultural and big woods. They are completely different animals. I can legitimately go and fill a tag almost whenever I want for doe. Buck, I have properties that I have spent years developing and stand a reasonable chance each night during rut. I also hunt in the Allegheny National Forest. It is truly a humbling experience. I've spent 4 days in a row and not seen a deer. When the food source depletes the whole herd moves. I've had them on camera for a month straight, and go and nothing. Around ag fields, it should be pretty easy to fill a tag if the property is decent, but nothing will ever replace time spent in the woods. Whether it is years of hunting an area, or going out in summer and scouting. With that being said rifle and archery are also completely different. The deer are almost tame in archery, they are certainly more forgiving for movement and such. Plus you can use calls, and scent. For me being successful is meeting your pre-season goal.

Final thought, after being successful for the last 6 or 7 years straight I have learned one more thing. Young bucks are a dime a dozen, but even scouting and hunting a mature buck is not easy. Hell it might even require a bit of luck, like i had this year. I knew he was in there, but someone pushed him out, and I was fortunate enough to be in a good spot.

See big woods reference above. If he is only hunting rifle, that isn't really that bad of a ratio. I get back 1.5 miles at minimum to get away from everyone else and hunt (mostly) non-pressured deer.

Make sure to post a pic of your alignment printout, there may be someone that is able to notice something with the numbers and help you out. I have no idea, never got an alignment pre-lift.