Well this was probably one of the worst opening big game seasons in a very long time. Thanks to Al Gore, lol.. gotta blame someone.. Deer hunting and tee shirts just don't work well in my environment.
We stuck to a plan of not trampling the woods and sitting to one stand per day until the bitter end. It's way to early to disturb the woods and give up our presence, even though they probably know better than I.

Anyway, the stands we sat were void of wildlife during the day but once darkness fell, they came alive.
On the second day a shooter walked past mid morning but we picked a different stand.
Deer hunting to me comes down to patience and preserverince. When the patience runs out later in the season, preservierance will take over .
I still got hrs and hrs ahead of time in the woods.

The hunting time clock 2022:
2 guys =16 hrs each in the woods

My son, grandson and myself logged in another 10hrs yesterday and back in before light this morning. We seen 5 different bucks. All between 1-3:30pm.
One was a definite shooter but to far out. I also let a decent 6pt pass.
They are out marking territory with scrapes and scent. It's starting to get real now as their getting ornery.
Seems the colder weather is finally going to start and possibly some snow by Wednesday. 👍.
The goal is to put one down this week with xbow before Saturday's big bang.

So a little catch up on my last weeks adventure.
Hunted all week with the xbow and the weather was perfect with about 4" fresh snow. The hunting was a challenge, as it should be.. We seen the deer we wanted to take. He was a beautiful 10 pt. I had him in my sights on 3 occasions but couldn't get the shot. My son seen him twice.
I passed on other quality deer that were easy shots. Finally on the last day of xbow I decided to take a doe for the purpose of securing meat for the freezer. At 6:30 am she walks right in at 30 yards and I let the arrow go. Great shot but I didn't see it go down so I like to wait about 45 minutes.
Right after I shot, multiple deer came right in. I had these 2 bucks sparing in front of my stand for about 45 minutes. Not having recovered the first deer, I wasn't shooting another.
They finally leave and i find the deer 15 yards from my shot. Double lung and it wasn't going anywhere. I am a firm believer in fixed blade broadheads

Opening rifle on Saturday we both see the 10 pt again but no shot. I passed on 2 young bucks . No deer taken with the gun that day.
Sunday was a complete blizzard with the lake effect. I hunkered down in a ground blind until noon when the snow stopped but the winds didn't.
I walked some logging roads and found a nice 8pt broadside 50 yards with no idea i was there . I kneeled down and fired my 30-06. In complete disbelief, the bullet lands 8 yards in the dirt in front of the deer. Humm.
I get home and take 2 shots at 75 yards. First shot was standing freehand, second was resting on the railing. There was nothing wrong with my scope, nor me. I don't get buck fever..
My conclusion was it was a bad load ( factory) on the bullet.
We head back to the woods Friday-Sunday.

So a lot of things have been happening in the past 2 weeks. Some fun, some not so much
The not so much:
My oil furnace finally quit right before I left for deer camp. It would be 2 weeks before a new installation. No big deal, we have alternative heat with a pellet stove.
Well on return for Thanksgiving, the pellet stove starts causing an issue and the furnace was a week out.
I get it to running and told the wife don't shut it off. It became 76 plus degrees on low in our house.
New furnace gets installed and someone was watching over us as the old furnace was burning a hole in the wall and didn't burn the house down.
Part 2..
This is the longest, most time I've put into the woods without getting a quarry I've been seeking. Multiple times we've had opportunities but something goes wrong.

Good news :
My friend bagged a nice doe to fill his needs.
I spent 10 hrs in the woods in perfect conditions yesterday and had ample opportunities to take quality doe.
I passed on 2 small bucks.
I'm once again heading back into the field for a final and first hunt this late in our season.
I'm quite sure more quality venison will be served for our family but I'm not so sure we will get the 2 deer we've been holding out for.
Obviously, I'm not taking a immature buck.

More later

When your day starts like this and ends like this after 36 days in the field of opportunity, you know it's going to get real.
It's not the 2 we've been stalking but one we've passed a few times. Given there is a very healthy population of upcoming and the 2 are safe from a hunter for another season today on the last day of my season i pulled the trigger with a nothing spoiled shot.
Only thing left to do is process him to add to our by our own hands food supply.

I wish Jack was around to start a ice dance.
Hopefully be on hardwater before 2023.

Well thank you Trevor.
It was a long season for us but very good fun times. Our crew of 5 dropped off to a core 3 plus my grandson. I knew there would be challenges having less of us afield but everything worked out. Again, we have a vast amount of woods and property with zero pressure from outsiders.
Typically a good season is 3 deer harvested, a great season is everyone gets to pull the trigger. Were not picky be are are choosy based on the surroundings.
I've had discussions about what to take and when but we are the only ones that know our property. There's a reason for how we harvest and it's not always going to be the biggest deer in the woods but I will say, aside from 2 doe and a crazy mature unicorn, we haven't taken anything less than an 8pt in 10 seasons. I say less, we've taken bigger.
Were not trophy hunters but we know about the trophy deer in those woods so you try and use patience , then comes judgment.
We really track our deer pretty well with cameras. Starting in May and ending in December, we're pretty in tune with the woods. The deer don't venture far from their preferred areas unless something makes them relocate.
As an example, we've been watching this 8pt since May, he is still there this morning.

On a side note:
I got this picture yesterday of a pike lake I fish as a first shakedown. Always action and fun to fish.
It's beginning to look like a lot like Christmas. My first planned hardwater adventure is December 26th.
Fun stuff..

Trevor, it's far different where we hunt.
The high mountain deer don't leave their areas very much, I'd say less than a half to quarter mile once they've established a home. The doe also as we can basically name them ( like spot on the SR in puckerbush creek, lol.
Just think about it, why would you leave when everything comes to your house.
If you take out the fun stuff they like, then they will leave. If they get wary, then they will smart up.
Alternative foods such as fields and corn are miles away and require lots of energy so they adapt to the high country and we're not hunting those types of valley deer.
It was a great season with lots of opportunities , we just choose them as the conditions apply.

Ps:
I just loaded up on ice gear and got a fantastic deal on a new pair of Simms waders at 50% off.

We built a shooting shack for my 10 year old grandson last spring. It's the only one on the property and it's heated.
The deer I took from one of my tree stands was one that's frequent around the shooting shack. The stand is about 200 yards away.
I passed on him a few times, hoping my grandson ( and my son) would get the quarry to share together.
There's other around as well but on the last day of our season, his time had come.

I'm still a hardcore brave the elements guy that will sit in a tree and freeze my azz off if I feel that's what is happening. We have 11 tree stands, 4 ground blinds and 1 shooting shack on the property of 784 acres with probably 4,000 plus surrounding acres that nobody hunts to apply pressure . We haven't heard a gunshot within ear all season, or any season for that matter.
There's no houses, no fields just the top of a mountain on a dead end 2 miles up from a highway in the valley.
It's beautiful hardwoods up there that is private property and used for logging purpose only at select times.

Hunting deer on natural movement without others in a vast expanse of property can be a lot tougher than one thinks.

Great job!

I ride around a few evenings a week year round near home and look at deer  in NO hunting areas-they act different in those places.
Today I watched a couple of dozen in a field where 2 mature bucks were fighting like crazy-one kept knocking the other to the ground and they  would face off and do it again over and over--great.

well guess I have to man up and admit my deer days are over--was very hard to accept
have taken a hundred or more and they became an obsession for decades
Will still fish but near bridges with dry feet
Turkey -yea- still a decent caller to a flat place I can get in and out of not far from the truck 
Might even try a bushytail or bunny again  -been years-had quit everything over deer

when I had my place in Pulaski/Richland I deer hunted my property-- as a non resident could only shoot a buck and never took a deer there, didnt hunt it much and was busy fishing most of the time--hunted Ct hard though,
One day at the Richland store bumped into a local fella who told me the area folks had decided I had been shooting ALL the big bucks as they seemed to have diminished greatly as soon as I moved in--sooo of course it must be the outa stater   lol
Could NOT convince the guy I had never filled a tag there,
It kinda riled me up a bit so next time up I brought 3 or 4 real nice 8 and 9 point wide Ct racks-Usually got a couple every year for decades--had the right places here all to myself and ct has a LOT of deer.
Nailed those racks to my shed overhang facing the road so anyone passing by could easily see them- laughed to myself every time I drove in and saw them--hope they got even more upset  at the outa stater  lol

Started gathering my gear for fishing the salmon river in 2 weeks. It took a little bit of searching for more than needed but ready none the less.

Shed a tear as I'm preparing my ice gear for storage.
Far to short of time and local ice this season. I know folks are still out but I was in my jon boat last Sunday.
Fun stuff into another adventure will begin.

I whipped up a dozen in little time.
Salmon river smolt.
Getting jazzed to flail some rope and swing synthetic.

Well over 30 years ago when first fishing Spring Steel I would come up to the river for a few days each early April..
Generally dedicated most of one day to the area between the needle and tail of the Town pool and generally had decent results.
When it was real good I stayed right there the whole trip--had yet to learn my now favored upper river spots.
It was refreshing to look at the River cam yesterday and see a nice fish caught and nicely played to hand just above the bridge.