My second Saturday of archery I had a the best but most disappointing hunt of my life, I saw 6 buck including a monster like I have never seen before, I tried to pull back but a full draw length he and the other buck spotted me and ran away at 25 yards! The first day of rifle I got a text message from a friend with the picture below asking me if it was him, one of the neighbors shot him and not only was he as nice as I remembered he had velvet antlers the first day of December! He also almost had a drop tine.

I like to keep a detailed excel spreadsheet of each hunt to keep track of how many deer I am seeing, how many hours I've hunted and how successful each hunt is. My final post I have all those stats summarized if you are a nerd like me. Unfortunately I had to work in the morning but got to go out in the afternoon. I saw a 4 point walking right to me on my way in he stopped about 10 yards from me and looked at me. If he would've been a year older I probably would've killed him. He eventually turned and ran away. I got in my stand and didn't see anything else. I was very disappointed with this season. I put a lot of time and effort into this year and didn't get a buck. Continue reading to see all my stats from the 2014 season.

So far this season I have hunted on highly managed state game lands 5 different times on different stands. The land is highly managed by the state such as they plant food plots, manage oak stands, clear cut areas and fence them in to allow regrowth. There is a ton of deer sign and we scouted it faithfully preseason and got a lot of great pictures of deer and buck before opening day. With that being said I have noticed a significantly better hunting experience hunting private land than I have public this season.

On my first day of vacation I wanted to head out to November to go after my black ghost. On my way into stand I saw three trees in close proximity all being rubbed. Also various scrapes on the logging road on the way in. As soon as I got in my stand I heard something coming and thought it was my buddy I was hunting with. I saw something brown moving through the woods and just before I whistled at him that I was hunting there I saw small antlers. It looked like a 4 or 5 point. It continued on and went by me.

I headed to our leased land first thing in the morning but found out one of our buddies had decided to go to the spot I wanted. So I went on top of an oak ridge in an area that usually is a better night stand than morning. I hunted to about 9:45AM then helped my Dad drag a doe out he had killed the night before. For my PM hunt I decided not to go to November and pursue my black ghost due to strong winds and decided to hunt Bravo for a good doe.

I'm feeling a little under the weather but wanted to get out in the AM because I have the day off and am ready to spill some blood. I'm ready to shoot the first mature doe I see. The weather was calling for wind guests at 20MPH but the wind was southeast which was perfect for the location I was heading. Even with perfect winds I still got winded at about 40 yards by two yearlings. The only explanation was thermals.

Went to an area I did some scouting before the season started below a clover food plot and an oak ridge. I followed a really heavy trail in and set up in a spot that had trails crossing each other. I found a massive rub on a tree that I couldn't fit my hand around. Other than that I didn't have any action.

I had to work in the morning today but got a text from my Dad around 9:00AM that he shot a buck. He was just getting ready to get down from his stand on top of an oak ridge bordering an old field area that is used for bedding. He spotted a buck coming it turned at about 40 yards and he shot it with his crossbow.

There was a major warm front carrying a lot of rain it started last night with high winds and lasted until about sunset today. I decided not to go hunting in the morning because of heavy rain and wind but headed out to November to hunt my ghost. I set up along an old logging road just up from where I had seen him 4 days ago.

It was a dark gloomy day all day and I was watching the trees blow in the wind from the comfort of my couch trying to talk myself into going out to hunt. After an hour or two of the sportsman's channel I motivated myself to go out. 

Every Columbus day for the past three years I have hunted a location I refer to as Delta Hotel, I killed my first buck with a bow two years ago so I decided to make this location an annual visit. It is a pinch point between bedding and a corn field that gets cut within the next week or two. On the way into my stand I walked through a large field and kick out 5 plus deer. It is frustration when that happens. I was in my stand by 6:00AM and hunkered down and waited.

I went out both in the morning and evening today, I walked over 3 miles in the morning round trip and didn't see a thing because of a south western wind. We generally have a prevailing eastward wind. But that same westward wind would give me a record breaking night for buck sightings on stand and give me an opportunity at the Black Ghost; the biggest buck I have ever seen in the woods, on a trail camera or on Facebook of bucks killed by friends.

Courtesy of Bigdeerblog.com

Today begins my 6 day vacation and I was grinning ear to ear walking out to my car from work. I hurried home got changed and hit the woods behind my house. I set about 30 yards below our Brassica food plot that has been getting hammered. I wasn't entirely happy with the tree I picked once I got up in it I had very few shooting lanes but it was too late to get down my climber and move. It wasn't more than 20 minutes and I heard something swishing through the leaves.

My Father-in-law killed a decent 8 point last night. As it came down to him it was making a scrape and rubbing his face on some branches above the scrape. He also saw two other scrapes on his way to the stand. All the bucks tines were broken off at the tips most likely from fighting. It is very early for this kind of rutting activity in PA but also very exciting.

After battling rain and wind in the morning I didn't feel like going out for nigh stand because of 10 to 15 MPH wind guests but the excitement of the first day provided just enough motivation to slip into my damp camo and wet boots (Yes I need to drop a little money for a good pair of waterproof boots.) to head out to my stand. I was very excited to try my new stand location just below an elevated clover pot surrounded by white oaks. Although I thought if I were a deer I would go right through there I was dealt a double skunking on the first day.

It's finally here! The first day of archery all of the preparation and waiting is over. After much thought I decided to set up an an old clear cut section that had a small opening in the middle and catch anything coming back to bed for the day. I scouted this location about a month ago and saw a lot of deer beds and heavy use on travel corridors.