Well went out this late AM- got to my spot bout 1115 and was standing next to a neck shot -dropped in his tracks- 180 lb ( on a scale) 9 pt at 1145.
Looked like a 4 1/2, if I got the teeth right, with a 17 inch inside measure and real nice tines- definitely a shooter anywhere.
Decided to give the doe in heat 'can' call a try above the swamp- He came right in.
Third buck in 5 years with that call.
What a diff a day and using the call can make.

Congrats r3g3.
 

Congrats r3g3 we would love to see some pictures of the buck. I had great success playing the scent game this year, I might have to give deer calling another try in the future. It's amazing how your season can go from slow to great in an instant.

On a side note I shot a doe in Allegheny county opening day. I was hunting alone stalking and it was a far drag so I left her there and went back for the truck. Got back 45 minutes later and some guys stole my deer. Yes people really do steal deer these days Probly some washed up old guy who can't shoot straight anymore. Just a gut pile and drag marks to tell the tale. Can't leave ur deer unattended for a minute during rifle season. These people out here must be really hungry!

ChromeBandit412
Congrats r3g3 we would love to see some pictures of the buck. I had great success playing the scent game this year, I might have to give deer calling another try in the future. It's amazing how your season can go from slow to great in an instant.

On a side note I shot a doe in Allegheny county opening day. I was hunting alone stalking and it was a far drag so I left her there and went back for the truck. Got back 45 minutes later and some guys stole my deer. Yes people really do steal deer these days Probly some washed up old guy who can't shoot straight anymore. Just a gut pile and drag marks to tell the tale. Can't leave ur deer unattended for a minute during rifle season. These people out here must be really hungry!

There is the coyotes and then there is the scumyotes. If it was a long drag, just 45 minutes lapsed til you returned to find only a gut pile and drag marks, not likely an old guy! (lol)

Certainly not a adventure we like to read about but, a warning all should heed.

Sorry guys. I got one on the first day but I've been busy cutting since. I'm finally getting to the end so I have time to post a pic.

 
I was hunting the same area of 1B that I've been fortunate enough to have access to for the last 8 years. It's one of my favorite pieces of forest that I spend time in. It's swampy and thick which make access difficult, especially since there no atv's allowed. I think that's part of the reason for it's productivity, so it's worth it. 
I saw some shadows before it was light enough to shoot. I thought for sure it was just 1st day excitement making my eyes play tricks on me. They were completely silent and faster than seemed possible. At first light however, my father who was one stand over shot a coyote. I guess the shadows weren't tricks of the eye after all. 
I saw six doe in the morning, a non-legal buck right before lunch and two unidentified deer moving like ghosts through the brush at 1 pm.  At around two pm, a group of three deer busted over from the adjacent property, two doe and a scrub buck. When they slowed down a bit I saw the scrub was barely legal on one side. I like shooting nice bucks, but my dad always said you can't eat the horns, meat is meat. I was about to drop the hammer and the deer bolted. I knew I didn't spook him, so I looked back to where I first saw them appear and  saw this guy bounding toward me. It didn't look like he had any intention of stopping, but he wasn't at full pace and I'm good with moving targets so I fired. He didn't fall so I let another go. I saw the tree limb shred in the scope on that one. He slowed his pace and I assumed the first shot was good and he would soon fall. He stopped and looked back to see what all the booming was about and I could see he hadn't been hit...yet. Deciding to look for the danger was his last mistake. A standing shot in the clear was a hard one to miss. One double lung shot with the .06 and he fell where he stood. I had missed that first shot due to some brush that wasn't visible in my scope. I had grazed a twig and it moved the point of impact about 3 feet and I nicked the lower front leg. I tagged him right around 2:15 pm and after field dressing and a mile long drag through the muck I made it out of the woods just before dark. This buck makes 5 for 5 over the last half decade.
I'm trying a new approach to processing this year. I'm going native. I plan to use all I can from the carcass. I'm tanning the hide. I saved the sinew for bow backing and arrow making. I will be rendering the tallow for soap to use in tanning. I even plan to boil the bones and cartilage to make gelatin glue to fix the sinew to my bow. The clean bones will then be used for knife handles, other tools, and anything else I can come up with.  A lot of this extra effort came with my new interest in bow building. I have a few nice shooters I've made already, but this will be my first sinew backed bow. I've heard it makes quite a difference in performance and I look forward to the project. It turns out that tree I hit with my second shot was a hop horn beam or ironwood, an excellent bow wood. I decided to cut it the rest of the way down and bring that home too. It has a bit of a twist to it, but if it will let me straighten it, it should make a fine bow.
Good Luck to those still on the hunt.

Oh in case you can't tell from the pic he is a 6 pt. He is comparable to my others harvested at this property, except he forgot to grow any brow tines. He was the first deer taken here that was missing both. 
 

Congrats Dakota-wow, what a  list of neat hard stuff to do with the Deer.

congrats guys, still no deer or hunters around here...
 
very confused at what is going on...the weather is no very bad but yet the deer (from what guys are telling me) are bedded and do not want to get up and move around on their own ??????
 
I am told even the field are empty at dusk on the local posted ground around here ???
wish I did not have to work tomorrow, BUT on the bright side (for me) the weather does not look good, we are getting freezing rain right now...
 
I have to wait for Mon, Wed, Thurs... but i'll be out there on those days ... :)

1. Very few deer in most areas
2. Very good mast crop in most areas mean less deer movement.
3. Full moon means most movement at night or midday when most hunters out of the woods.
4. Early rifle seasons and combination deer season puts most surviving deer nocturnal.
5. Ladder stands and portable heaters
 
I have a cam out in a heavily hunted area with photos of 5 different doe a 4pt and a 18" 8pt in the last 2 days. All between 10pm and 2am. There have been 6 to 12 hunters in the area every day with one fawn taken.

No doubt more hunters in the woods means more deer movement even if they are stump sitters assuming there are enough deer to move. There are fewer hunters in my area since AR/HR in part due to being so close to the 3 point area and in part because of fewer deer to hunt. One group of about 16 left the area about the fourth year of HR after hammering the doe the first two years. The local kids used to run the woods and keep the deer going. Now most sit in their ladder stands. Side note===I bought a pair of camo gloves for archery today. They advertised them as mobile device compatible. Maybe most folks are too busy texting, etc, to see the deer even if they are standing in front of them. Go figure

Been hunting the PA. wilds since 1962 and I'm hearing the same now as I did than. Plenty of deer here, no deer there. Nocturnal today; feeding at noon tomorrow. Trophy bucks seen here; big buck killed (yeah, back then we 'killed' deer) over there. Butcher shops overwelmed; butcher shops not busy. No snow, weather warm, nobody moving to push the deer. Of course, in those days the internet didn't exist so our news traveled via gun shops, barber shops, family/friend get togeathers, etc. How news travels may have changed but, the news is still the same.

Admittedly I do not see the deer, at anytime of the year, that I saw three years ago. However, I have seen deer during my hunting season and I have passed on shots (mistake so far) but, the time I have spent in the woods vs the amount of deer seen = frustration.
I'm fortunate in that I have been out every day (including scouting on Sundays) since the first day of archery but, I have seen less then a dozen deer of which two were non-shooter (AR) buck. I know there is some deer where I'm hunting, I see the sign, I just haven't been able to figure where they will be so I can be there......... even after all these years.

Tomorrows weather should prove to be interesting; good luck to those who venture out.


Not to change the coversation but, I just finished watching "Lone Survivor". God Bless America and all who protect her.

Hunt Safely..............

Hunters have changed -- speculate why, but they have.

The hard core are still hard core, but many have switched to archery.

The serious hunters have become aberage hunters.

Average hunters have become casual hunters.

Casual hunters have quit.

I sat on a spot of very private land surrounded by other agricultural private land and listened to the number of shots on the two open to hunting mountains on either side. Monday there were 12 shots and Wednesday there were zero. Keep in mind that this in a CWD zone where everything except less than three to a side bucks were legal.

Rain was bad in 4-A on saturday. Counted 19 shots, which included a 4 shot and a 5 shot string....WF... should have been 1 more shot but thats just a story

S-10
The hardcore realize that between all the factors governing deer numbers in the fall, half or more of the legal bucks are gone before rifle season starts. 

 
You believe that half or more of all AR legal bucks are killed in archery season? Take our antlered archery harvest, double that, then double it again and you think that is all the bucks we have in Pennsylvania? I bet we kill less than 1/4 of our AR legal bucks in archery. On the 500 acres I hunt, only one was killed in archery this year. It was hunted by 6 archers. 

PS--On 500 acres, assuming it is not posted property, with todays DPSM you likely would only have 2 bucks 2yo or older living here.