Had the day off and made it out to the stand at 6:30 this morning to ride out the wind. Right around 7:30 I caught some movent coming from the north side of me quickly. Look, count 3 up on one side, and get ready for him to come in front of me. This guy was on a mission, nose to the ground. Thought he was going to head out about 30yds from me, but he turned and came in 15 yds out broadside. Let out a mouth grunt trying to get him to stop, and he paid no attention. Let out a second loud one ( might as well have yelled Hey Deer! ) and got him to stop. Let the bolt fly, and stuck him right behind the shoulder. As he walked away, my bolt was stuck in him with about 5" still sticking out, no pass thru. Watched him walk away 40 yds, then lost sight in a thicket of briars. Sat for the next hour in the stand worrying that maybe I hit him a little more high and forward than I thought, and hoping he went down. When I finally climbed down and checked the beginning of the blood trail I felt much better seeing the bubbles in the blood. Pulled out, called my father and my buddy josh, and waited. Picked up the trail when they got there, and didn't have to go far. Tracked it about 60 yds and found him piled up. Perfect double lung shot.

At 35 yrs old ( took a hiatus from hunting through my 20's ) this is the first buck I've ever shot. I'm unbelieveably excited and you couldn't slap the smile off my face, but I think my father was actually more pumped than I am. A great day hunting in nw pennsylvania. Good luck to all those still trying to fill a tag. Spent over 80 hrs in the stand this year, and 15 seconds changed everything.

I hit a giant yesterday. Looked all day today .. Shot was right above the front shoulder. Hit the back shoulder and arrow broke off 8" in. Blood everywhere for bout 50yards then trickle for another 50 then nothing. Backed out until the morning Rained over night and ended washing all remaining blood away and we never found the deer today. Can't believe it. Deer could barely walk

I'm unbelieveably excited and you couldn't slap the smile off my face ~ Crappie_Slayer
 
 
That is one great story Crappie_Slayer; just beautiful!  
 
Congratulations on a dandy buck and for the picture of the smile.

Nice buck, Slayer way to hang in there,never give up. All it takes is a second.  Beautiful text book shot. When you hit them right they don't go far. Congrats.

Shouldn't this thread be changed to "Hail Mary Results?" 
 
Good to see all the pics from the successful hunters.  
 
Last few weeks chasing deer have been a bust for my son and I.  Lost one of our prime spots this year that I've been hunting for 12 years so we've been learning some new places to hunt.  We were seeing quite a few deer in mid-late October in a couple different spots, but other than a few does and a couple young bucks out in fields well out of range, we haven't seen anything in our last 4 or 5 hunts in 2D.  Might get out for a last ditch effort this evening for an hour or two.  
 
We have a couple places in 2B to hunt that we haven't hit up yet this year, so we may venture to one of those areas over the next few weeks.  But now that he finally turned 12 last week, more than deer are finally on the menu for us.  Hopefully spend a little time chasing small game and waterfowl.  

Geez, anybody sitting in their stand when the "Gales of November" came rippin thru just before sunset yesterday?  Man that gust of wind made the tree I had my highchair tied to bend so far over, the bottom of the ladder rails weren't touching the ground!   That ain't all, when the tree straightened, I was sitting on the other side! 
 
Okay, so, it wasn't quite that bad cause I was only two feet off the ground but, it coulda been!  
 
Actually, right after the blizzard followed by the torrential downpour the sky cleared and the wind died down which brought about hope of bedded down deer jumping up and heading to the feeding grounds.  Which probably did occur but, not past me. Stupid deer.
 
Gonna finish off this last evening, once again perched in my high chair, reminiscing about the good old days when I would be doing something else besides, sitting in a highchair waiting on a stupid deer.
 
In closing out this years archery season may I say, it has been a pleasure making the acquaintance of so many good [Walcat not included] people who have, been more than kind in putting up with my stupid comments and antics.
 
Deer or no deer, this season shall go into my archives as being one of my most enjoyable as far as, 'chytz and giggles' are concerned.
 
Thank-you and good luck to those still seeking the, ever elusive and, smart PA. White-Tailed Deer.
 
So long for now.
 
 
I gotta git ready for two weeks of gun season, then two more weeks of archery, happy days are here again.......

Walcat my wife says she'll let me have one real bullet to hunt with if I do well practicing with my squirtgun.  
 
rsquared, I hear ya on the emergency exit plan.  Night before last, I moved my ground blind in preparation for gun season.  I wasn't 20 yds. from the blind when I heard the wind coming across the field, never even felt the slightest breeze and my blind took off and became a new beaver hut.  Buddy, I'm glad I wasn't in that thing the way it ripped into the air and flew across the ground into the water.   And yes Walcat I had the stakes in the ground, point first. 
 
Hope things went well for you today (maybe see some pictures), sounds like you might have your hands full.
 
 
It's times like these, that make me wonder if all the time, effort and, money are worth hunting, any longer, then something like this happens right in my back yard. https://youtu.be/OkIgWY5HH1U?t=1   Can't help but change my mind and say yes it is. Not all resident geese but, they'll lay over in the beaver pond for a while, many staying until freeze up.
 
 
Just finished putting some of my archery gear to rest, the blind still lays in a pile at the corner of my field, but I'm already looking forward to second season.  No deer (yet) and not real interested with bear as I haven't seen any new sign of my resident bruin.
 
Good news, The Boot Box is having a sale beginning Tuesday and their selling a ground blind for $40.00.  I gotta go see if the wife needs a new pair of slippers or something.
 
 

Well . . . 1 fat guy and 3 boys piled into a 2 man blind was pretty fun.  We were set up on a field edge and right around 5:00, we had a doe followed by a young 'un that closed the distance from 65 yards as she stepped out of the woods to 42 yards in the field.  Just about 10 yards too far for my son to shoot, but it's always fun to see him get a case of buck fever.  I was pretty impressed with my crew that they all got still and quiet enough for a couple of minutes for her to calm down and close that distance.  She and her skipper turned and headed away from us.  Not alarmed or running, but just a change in direction.  Right before shooting time was over, could hear a deer in the woods close to us coming along a scrape line which would have brought it right in front of us at 25 yards had it stepped out, but it never did and I could hear it change direction as it stayed in the woods, just out of sight.  
 
Although we can hunt a few properties in 2B, I'm ready for a bit of a break from deer hunting, and I think my son is too.  I know for sure the 5 year old is.  He did great on 3 hunts with us this year.  A year makes a big difference.  Bribing him with a stop at Subway for dinner works well.  
 
Monday is looking good to me for the big boy to skip at least a morning of school, and maybe a whole day.  Have lost all of my local duck hunting puddles the last few years, but now that the season is in for the south zone, we may head to a public area for his first crack at wingshooting.  He's done pretty well on clay pigeons with the new 20 gauge he got for his birthday.  Or we might head to Erie for some steelhead fishing. 
 
BTDT, thanks for the heads up on the Boot Box Blind sale.  I was just thinking as we were packing up that we should buy a cheap blind or two and brush 'em in good and leave 'em set up on the property we hunted this evening and use our current one as the traveling blind.  
 
Enjoyed reading all the stories and experiences here, as I do every year.  Know a few of yinz hunt 2B and will have a few more weeks to get it done with the bow.  Good luck.  
 
 

I spent about 10 hours in a tree yesterday to see a grand total of 3 deer.  2 does out feeding with out a care in the world and a spike who  also seemed more interested in sucking down acorns than finding love.  
 
This has been some of the slowest hunting that I've ever experienced in November.  I'm not sure what the reason is as things seemed to be breaking loose around Halloween and then everything just seemed to go dead a few days later.  
 
I've got a few more days to get it done with the bow in 2B with the extended season.  I've never spent much time in the woods during the post-rut, so we'll see what happens.  

Wags it sounds like your going from bad to worse,  say it ain't so!
 
Had a deer blast across the road in front of me on my way back from Pymatuning tonight.  Wasn't so close as to cause a "panic break" but sudden enough to cause me to pucker and impose a self inflicted wedgie. 

Good luck with the bear Wags and better luck with the deer in gun season.
 
I hear ya on the mountain climbing buddy(lol) it's pretty much flat out to my stands but I swear it's straight-up.........  both ways.
 
If ya wanna get even with that turkey, I got a 3" mortar saved from the fourth that ya could light* off under his roost.  I had several but, I needed to get even with some duck hunters hunting with a bazooka.  At least I think it was duck hunters, hell for all I know, it may have been Troy "chooting" alligators in the swamp.
 
*Disclaimer: Not responsible for any resulting wild fires.
 
Enjoyed your rants, keep us informed on hunting bear.  {I am not, touching that one}

To be honest with ya Ed, I don't remember seeing any geese at all.  I was between the Jamestown launch and the dam and any geese that I have seen in the past has been more up towards Snodgrass, usually sitting in the residential yards.
 
Have ya tried watching recently harvested corn fields around any type of water at all?  I've got flocks of geese coming into my beaver ponds just before dark and leaving before sun up.  I hear shooting from the fields and usually see the flocks circling over head as they get busted from one field and relocate to another.  The Amish usually nail them the first couple of days they arrive.  Doesn't take the geese long to learn when they can and can't fly in safely.  Haven't had my cameras on the water since deer season started so I can't say if any birds remain on the ponds between sun up and sun down.  I put this up a few days ago but, I don't know if they are still hanging around as I have not been home in the evening.  https://youtu.be/OkIgWY5HH1U?t=1   And I sure don't get up before they leave in the morning!
 

Walcat you ain't over by Mt Lebo again are you? Hear tell that's where ALL the deer are.

Part two is complete. The two repairman come and want to talk hunting more than do their job.2:30 pm they leave, I quickly gather my stuff and speed away. Park at 3:25 in my blind by 3:35 pm. I settled down and time ticks away,no deer why the morning was just crazy now nothing. I'm watching the sun sinking down and was spectacular. At 5.15 I catch movement to my left coming down wind, their he is Mr. Bigs from this morning,he stops broadside at 25 I'm on him and send a  Rage to the cage,crack! I hear ribs snapping,he does a 180 dashes 30 yards stops and just stands there. He toppled over in less 5 seconds. Dowm,finished,stone dead. I've never seen a mature deer die that quick. Well I'm done in two states but may gun hunt W.V.next week. Today is like a dream. he's a main frame. 10 with a sticker and a kicker,so he's a 12 pt with  a 19 inch spread. I got to post some pics.What a day
 
 

Congrats BT. Sounds like a great day