One Doe Harvested but Not By Me

Well, the opening day of rifle season has come and gone. The results, 1 doe harvested by my sister this afternoon. She was able to harvest this doe after my dad and her husband put the squeeze on this deer to give her a chance to get a shot. My brother, his daughter, and I started out the morning hunting behind my property. The problem was, the rain was really coming down and the deer were not moving. I believe that many hunters did not go out on the 1st day due to the weather. It rained all day and yes, my family and I were out there but I don't think everyone was as dedicated. So, we did harvest 1 doe and some of my family will be out there tomorrow, trying our luck again.

The good thing is the weather forecast is calling for rain changing to snow so, I think this will help the deer get moving.

I will post the results, hopefully, it will be something about a buck.

Good luck on your next hunt,


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We're almost at opening rifle season in PA

This sounds crazy to me but we are almost at opening day for rifle season here in PA. I can't believe it is here already. It seems like just the other day I was talking about it last year and it is here again. Well, lets sum up the archery season. 2 bucks killed, one 7 point buck that we couldn't find, and one doe we couldn't find. I guess that's not bad for archery season. The drop tine buck was harvested so he's out for rifle season. I still believe there are some great looking bucks in the woods right behind my house that we may get a chance to see in rifle. Let's hope so.

I tried using the MAD Buck Growl call during archery and it didn't produce any results for me. I think that rut was late here in Pa and they weren't reacting to the call like they should have. I will continue to use it and test it as I do feel it is a good call. The primos doe in estrus can produced one doe that came running to me. It is a good call to have with you. My cousin also said he used it to get his 8 point buck this year. I do think it works.

I have been looking at a unique website lately that called http://www.bigbuckrattlingantlers.com They use a unique approach to rattling antlers as they talk about using 4 antlers instead of two. I have never really thought about this but it is true, there are 4 antlers involved in a fight and not two. I may just have to purchase one of those to see for myself how the antlers compare.

Best of luck on your next hunt,

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Another Deer Aged Using the Deer Aging Tool

I just wanted to let you guys know how my last weekend archery hunting went. I sat thursday night and saw a doe but it didn't get close enough to me. Friday I got up and went in the woods with my climber. It was about 7:00am and I decided to try a primos doe in heat call. I turned that can three times and then heard and saw a deer come running towards me. I had just got the can put back in my pocket and it came a running. I quickly grabbed my bow off the holder and tried to position myself for a shot. I had to do a mouth bleat call to get this doe to stop so I could get a shot. I called and it stopped but unfortunetly, my arrow hit just below the doe. I missed short. I quickly grabbed another and tried to get off another shot as the deer was moving but it wasn't to be.

So, I decide to move my climber over near a fresh scrape I noticed on the way in to my stand. As I was moving my climber I set my bow down so I could carry it over to another tree and as I was at the my climber, I looked up and saw a deer. Yes a deer was heading my direction. The only problem was that I didn't have my bow. This doe came within 10 yards of me and the climber I was standing behind. WHAT LUCK!! I set my bow down and couldn't get to it to shoot this doe and it comes this close to me. I guess it wasn't to be. I moved my climber and sat for another hour and half and saw a nice tall 6 point buck come through. He will be nice next year, a little older and bigger rack for sure.

One last thing... My cousin T.J. harvested this nice buck, it was an 8 point with a 18 inch spread. Really nice looking rack. He aged it using the deer aging tool and aged it at 2 1/2 years old. Here's a picture of it. Check it out.




Best of luck on your next hunt

Droptine Buck Was Harvested

Well...It pains me to have to tell you that the droptine but has been harvested. And yes...it wasn't by me. I was visiting a local store the other day after hearing that a droptine buck was taken by someone in that area and asked the ladies at the store about it. They proceeded to tell me about it and that their nephew was the one that harvested the buck. It was a 13 point droptine buck. I asked about it out of curiosity and the lady explained to me that the rack was in the barn. She asked if I would like to see it and of course, how could I turn that down, I said sure. She walked to the barn and brought out the rack, wow! it was different that's for sure. The rack was still in velvet. It never lost the velvet. From the video I took of it this summer, my first thought was that this was not the buck I saw in the video because I thought for sure it was out of velvet on the video and also, it had a double-droptine on the one side, this buck did not. The only thing was, everything else was the same with the rack. From the little knobs on the one side to the height, etc. I then talked to my dad and he told me that he thought the drop tine had broke off the one point that would have made it the double-droptine. I could tell that this was probably the case after he mentioned it. So yes, the droptine buck had been harvested. It was quite a unique rack - definitely a little odd but I still would have like to get that buck myself. I did find out later that the buck was taken in the same square that I was hunting, so close...

Now, I would like to talk alittle bit about my brother-in-laws 7 point buck. We used our deer aging tool to age this but and you can read more about it in the previous post but I wanted to post some pictures that I took while we were aging his deer. So, here they are...I hope you can see how easy it is to age your deer, just simply match the molds to the deers teeth to get the age.

So, here are the two photos that I took of us aging the deer.



Best of luck on your next hunt,

New Buck Photos

Hi Folks,

I know it has been a few weeks since my last post but I had some computer trouble and didn't have access to the internet so...now I am back. I wanted to give you just a quick update about the bucks here in Pa and then show you some of the pictures we have been getting from our cameras.

Well, my brother-in-law got a nice looking 7 point. He was chewing one of our products the gum-o-flage when he had this 7 point walk with 25 yards of him for a good shot. I will pass along those photos as well. We used the Deer Aging tool to age him and he was only 1 1/2 years old. He probably would have been nice in a couple of years. He had a nice tall rack for only 1 1/2. I took some pictures of use aging this deer, I will post them in a few days. If you want to learn more about aging deer and using a deer aging tool check it out at http://www.howtoagedeer.com

This brings up the next topic of aging deer on the hoof. How many of you know how to age a deer when you see it while you are hunting. There are some key characteristics of deer that you want to look for to tell the age of them while in the field. To learn more about aging deer on the hoof, head on over to this link and you can check out our Field Guide to Aging and Scoring Whitetail Deer booklet. It gives you pictures and descriptions of what you want to be looking for when trying to age deer in the woods. Here's the link, go there now at http://www.howtoagedeer.com/agingandscoringdeer_store.html for more details.

So, back to another story. My dad did manage to get a doe with his crossbow and...I shot at a doe bright and early one morning about 7:30am but we couldn't find it. You would have thought with all the blood on the arrow and it bleeding pretty good we would have found it but no luck. We searched for about 2 1/2 hours and later searched again for 2 hours. It was a warm day so we need to find her that day or everything would be spoiled. Anyways, I haven't seen a deer since which means the last 7 times I have been out hunting, I haven't seen a deer.

Well, rut is finally closer. It should be soon this week, next week in fact. I can't wait. We have been getting some great buck photos and I am excited.

One product I have been using is called 24Seven Early Buck scent. I have been sprinkling this product on all of the scrapes I have found near my hunting stands. This product last 3-5 days and keeps the area hot for deer activity. It seems like everytime I sprinkle this on a scrape, that night or only a day later, I have buck pictures. They are definetly curious as to what the smell it and I even sprinkle some on the lick branch above the scrape. The bucks will raise up to smell it as you will see in one of the photos.

Okay..the wait is over, I am going to post some of our buck photos. There are going to be a few since its been a while since my last post. Just take you time and check them out.



















Okay, this is all photos for now.

Next time I will talk about the Droptine buck.

Best of luck on your next hunt,


http://www.howtoagedeer.com
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