November 2022.
November 1st I had to work the night shift on so didn’t get out hunting at all.
November 2nd I was tired still when I got home from work in the morning so I didn’t go out but stayed home and got some sleep. I went out about 1330. On my way in to where I planned on hunting for the afternoon/evening I jumped three does from their beds. I took that as a good sign. The afternoon went by rather quietly with nothing much moving around except for a couple of squirrels and chipmunks. At around 1700 up hill and to the North East of my Position I heard a deer blow a few times. The wind was coming from the East and I was sitting on a bench of a finger that runs northwest/southeast with the SE side being uphill. About 45 min. later I saw a lone doe making her way downhill behind me. So as soon as her head was behind a tree a stood up and turned around. Now there is too much growth in the way for me to take a clean shot. So I waited until her head was again behind a tree then slowly and carefully shifted so that when she cleared the thick stuff I would be able to shoot. Once that was completed she still had her head behind the tree and unable to see me, and with the East wind I wasn’t worried about her smelling me, I took a quick range of the tree just behind her. The rangefinder told me that she was about 30 yards away, the tree was 35. So as soon as she was clear and looking away I pulled the bow up and drew touching the string to the corner of my mouth, tip of my nose, and hat brim getting all contact points for my anchor position. Now she is moving and won’t stop. I make a quick “meh” sound to get her attention. She is slightly quartering away, she stops and looks and I hit the release. Now I don’t know if she saw the movement of my finger or jumped the string, or just didn’t like what she was seeing but she turned to run just as I released the arrow. That slight turn she made was just enough to save her life, I missed. Deflated I watched her trot up the hill to the South-Southeast stop look over her shoulder blow once flip her tail up and run off. All I could do was watch that White Flag bound through the forest until behind some brush. Then I went and looked for blood, I was certain that it was a clean miss but have to be sure. Not finding any I went back collected up all of my gear and started back to the truck to head home for the night since it was now after sunset but not yet the end of shooting light. I looked for and found my arrow on the way back and now I knew for 100% certain that it was a clean miss. Thank You God that I didn’t wound her with a non-fatal hit I would feel sick to my stomach if I had done that.
November 3rd I saw absolutely nothing.
November 4th T’was nothing seen. I did hear some deer moving around just before dark and more importantly could hear a Buck moving. I could hear his antlers hitting branches in the brush across the creek from where I was hunting.
November 5th I saw a Coyote about 1000-1030, he popped out of a small gully about 20 yards from me on the right. He saw me and his eyes got real big and he immediately turned to his right and ran off towards the North. I figured that I probably wouldn’t see anything in that area today so went home to grab a bite to eat and regroup. Went back out about 1230 on the opposite side of the creek from where I sat in the afternoon of the 4th. I didn’t see anything besides squirrels and deer mice. The winds were blowing about 15mph. No big deal, then I watched a big Cherry Tree fall over, at that time I said while I know I won’t get a deer if I don’t stay out here I am not going to sit in the woods with trees falling.
November 6th I took Guinness up on Laurel Mountain for a hike this morning. We went a total of 3.23 miles. We made a loop of The Loop Trail, Towhee Trail, Spruce Run Trail, and The Summit Trail. We did this in 01:07:34, averaging 00:20:55/mile, and 2.9 mph.
November 7th I didn’t see anything in the morning, part of the problem being that everywhere I planned on going had numerous vehicles with no one to be seen when I got there. In the afternoon I went over to Birdman Rd where I missed the Doe on the 2nd. I saw 3 doe cross the ridge above me too far away to get a shot. A young doe by herself bedded down about 50 yards from me about 1500. She laid there until about 1700-1715 when she got up and ran a few steps on high alert. She was looking to the North East, had a westerly wind and she was South of me, for a minute or two. She then blew a few times and ran off to the south in quite a hurry. I have no idea what it was that she saw but whatever it was she did not like it. There was a flock of turkey that wandered through sometime in the afternoon, they must not have seen me because they weren’t in any hurry and didn’t seem spooked at all.
November 8th I don’t know for a fact if it was because of the full moon and how bright it was but I didn’t see anything but a few squirrels moving around all day.
November 9th I overslept so didn’t get out until 1230. I did see the flock of turkey from the other day again. If they were in range I probably would have shot one of them. I also saw three deer. Two doe, a mother and daughter, and a young buck. He had antlers sticking up about ¾ of an inch. I’m thinking he may be this year’s fawn from that mother. I know that the mothers will chase their buck fawns off to avoid inbreeding, and I have seen three deer together in that same area multiple times this year.
November 10th I had to take my truck in to get some work done on it in the morning so only went out for a few hours in the afternoon. I had a Doe come walking up about 15 min after I had sat down, I really wasn’t expecting anything to walk up at that time. She was about 20-30 yards away from me and upwind. She looked over her shoulder so I knew there was a buck coming along too so I didn’t take a shot, just waited to see what was coming. Unfortunately, due to Pennsylvania’s asinine Antler Restrictions I wasn’t able to take a shot at him. He stopped with a perfect broadside to me but I wasn’t able to put a third point on either side the way he was standing. The horny bastard has no idea how lucky he was today, he had absolutely no idea that I was there.
November 11th When I got to where I was going to go hunting this morning it was raining, no big deal, then just as I was going to get out of the truck the sky opened up. So I decided to sit in the truck and wait it out. An hour later and the rain hadn’t let up at all, the remnants of hurricane Nicole were going through, so I decided to head home and wait the storm out there. Just after I got home the rain all but stopped. Sigh, just my luck. About 1230 I headed back out, it was still raining but not to terribly bad. I set my tarp up so that I could sit out of the rain and got comfy for the afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything today. All of the so called experts, most of whom are self-described, claim that when storm fronts are moving through it’s a great time to hunt. I have never and once again today seen a deer out and about during a rain storm.
November 18th I did not hunt anymore during the rest of Archery Season. Today I made the 5 and one half hour trip north to New York State for the Regular Firearms Season. Saturday the 19th is the Opening Day of the regular season. It was cold, blustery and snowy. Unfortunately, no accumulation though.
November 19th-23rd Saturday I woke up with a killer sinus headache so wasn’t out before daylight like I prefer. It was still cold and blustery but no snow. None of us at camp or the neighboring camps saw anything. Sunday it was again cold and blustery with no snow, I don’t mind the cold and blustery when we have snow to go along with it whether in hunting season or not. Again no one saw anything. That evening I went to my parents’ house to spend some time with the rest of the family. Monday morning, I got up and with the wind being so harsh the day and night before I decided to wait until daylight to head down to camp in case there were some trees down across the road that needed to be cut out of the way. When leaving the evening before Mariah and her boyfriend had to cut one out of the way about five minutes after Josh, Dad, and Myself had gone through. Fortunately, none had come down after they had left. The other camp that usually has guys there throughout the first week had all left already when I got there. I cleaned out the woodstove and got a fire going in the cabin for Guinness to stay warm and for It to be warm for me to change when I came back then I went out hunting for the rest of the day. With again nothing being seen except for Squirrels and Chipmunks. Josh took Tuesday and Wednesday off of work and was planning on being back out to camp that night so before I went back to my parents’ house I stoked the fire up good and full so there would at least be a good bed of coals for him when he got there. Tuesday morning when I got to camp at about 0530 Josh was still passed out on the couch with the fire just being a few coals. So I woke him up and got the fire gong again so Guinness would stay warm. Then headed out for a few hours. Squirrels and Chippies only again. After lunch I went to the old Railroad bed and set up my seat and sat there the rest of the day, with the same result as the morning. I stoked up the fire good before leaving camp for the night with the intention of going back down after dinner and spending some time with Nana. Got back to the cabin about 2030 with one of the farmers (I think) heading out way past dark, I am pretty sure for my own piece of mind I don’t want to know. Wednesday I got up before daybreak had breakfast and stoked up the fire then made the long walk to Bills stand in the farthest corner of the back field for a long day in the stand with absolutely nothing to show for it but a sore ass from sitting so much. Josh, Joe, Dad, Mariah, and Jacob came down to camp that night.
November 24th Thanksgiving Day, got up at around 330 made coffee got the fire going good again then had the discussion of where to have Joe sit for the morning. It was decided on where to put him and where Josh would be sitting. After they were just about to their stand I started heading down that way going to my seat on the old RR Bed. As such it was about 0715 before I got to my spot. After a few hours of sitting without seeing anything I texted the two of them to let them know I was going to be walking the thickets towards them. Josh had already gone in because he was cold but Joe was still in stand. After the slow walk that ended up being fruitless I got to Joes stand and could see him shivering in the tree. I told him to get down and we walked back to the cabin for Breakfast before heading back to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. Shortly after dinner we went back to camp.
November 25th My last day of hunting in NY for 2022. It started raining some time during the night, I got up at 0330 had some coffee and then headed out to my seat on the old RR Bed getting there about 0600. After being rained on for about three hours and not even seeing the squirrels and chipmunks I packed up my seat and headed back for coffee and breakfast. Shortly after lunch I went out for about an hour until the I started getting seasick from the wind moving the tree so much and called the season quits heading back to camp and taking my tree stand with me.
November 26th I drove home missing the opening day of Rifle Season in Pennsylvania.
November 27th It was raining when I got up, straight up pouring in fact. So I waited until after I went and got groceries before I headed out. I found a large rub from a buck on a decent size tree about 100 yards downhill from where I had been hunting on the 11th. I had heard something moving around in that direction on the 11th but was unable to see it due to the brush and undergrowth. Talk about a confidence booster though. I hunted until about 1530 when it started to thunder and the wind picked up. Without seeing any deer, I decided to call it quits for the day.
November 28th I had an appt. to get my truck fixed for an issue with the advancetrac system in the morning so waited until the afternoon to go hunting with seeing absolutely nothing yet again. With having to work the 29th,30th, and Dec 1st that concludes the month of November outdoor adventures.
Traildog Adventures 