Arcade's 2020 Hunting Journal

[Arcade Hunter]

Opening week of regular season 2020

 

Arrived at Allegany and was not able to check into the cabin early as the rental office would not allow it, so I did some driving around the park looking at alternate areas to hunt.  Once 5 PM came about, everyone checking in was at the rental office and they called out cabin trails and numbers as they picked the keys randomly out of a bucket.  Kind of an odd way to do things I thought.  Got the key and opened the cabin and got set up.

 

Just about all the cabins were rented, most with hunters in them, some with vacationers and folks having Thanksgiving holiday.  The cabin was great.  The warmth was provided by a propane wall mounted direct vent furnace which heated the place just fine.  The cots were actually very comfortable to sleep on also.

 

On to the hunting.  It was a slow week for sure.  I only saw one deer in the woods, or I should say in the swamps and it was a tall spike buck, maybe 12 inch spikes.  He was way out in the water and I passed on him because he was in the water and I did not bring waders with me for that kind of recovery.  My one buddy saw five does by Wednesday evening and another hunter pushed three does to him Thanksgiving morning.  He was not able to take a shot at any of the deer he had seen.  My other buddy had one doe sneak up from behind him opening morning and was unable to get a shot off.  This buddy opted to hunt close to the cabin the entire week.  The other buddy and I did some deeper woods hunting.  I averaged maybe 4.5 miles per day, up and down the mountains looking for possible bedding areas.  It was useless hunting over food as the entire park is just loaded to the hilt with acorns.  You could literally hunt anywhere other than the swamps and step on acorns with each step.

 

A few of the other hunters camping on the same trail were successful but not at all like the success we have seen some 20 years ago at the same place.

There were two 8 pointers taken, two good size doe and one fawn.  That was it for the week as far as the deer hunting went.  I talked with some of the hunters while out in the field as we passed by and was quite pleased with the cordial interactions for the most part.  Everyone seemed perfectly happy sharing the acreage together and giving each other space.  

Except for one gentleman I encountered opening morning.

 

Opening morning, I decided to head out to a spot of interest that I located on ONX.  The place was a small area of a particular 2100 foot mountain top.  I wanted to hunt the leeward edge of the elevation line just below the top.  I went out there early in the dark and waited 40 minutes for shooting light.  At the 50 minute mark, I heard what sounded like an elephant trudging through the crisp leaves just behind me.  I am hunting on the ground in between two fallen trees where I was very well camouflaged.  I turned and gave the passing hunter ( the elephant) a wave to make sure he saw me and he gave a wave back, then I turned back to the direction I was hunting, facing the leeward side.  

Things got quiet within the next few moments until I hear the clanking sound of metal on tree trunk.  I turned to look from where the noise had come and to my surprise, the elephant is attaching a climber to the trunk of a snapped off tree, the trunk being snapped off about 10 feet above the ground.  This pitiful tree trunk was about 30 feet directly behind me.  As I stare him down, he proceeds to climb the stump at which point I stood up and confronted him for setting up so close to me.  He explained that this was his spot and he has ribbons all over the place.  I let out a ramble of ethics, state land ownership, right to be there then I started on the inbred hillbilly nature of his actions.  I got up and left now because the volume got loud up there on the mountain top; last words spoken by me were “F O ignorant bastard”

 

I left the park on Friday and headed out to the family cabin just outside of Cuba.  My son in law, his brother and I did just as poorly there as we did at the park earlier during the week.  We saw two does collectively.

This property is 250 yards wide by 40 acres with access only on the narrow section of the property.  We had done poorly there last year also.  The biggest problem with this property is getting to the back of it.  It is on a mountainside and it is all uphill, the steepest incline being the first leg of the climb up.  For that reason, they like to use machines to get up to the first landing.  I am firmly convinced that two  4 wheelers and a side by side push the deer right off the side of this mountain on the way in.  The second issue is the placement of an elevated blind.  Being that the property is narrow, it is not possible to get past this elevated blind if someone is already in it.  The blind is set up about half way into the property and I will not pass by it if someone is in there for fear of disturbing their hunt, as they can see you pass by from the blind.  No one has hunted the back side of this property this year.  Perhaps a conversation is in order.

 

[Lawdwaz]

You’ve certainly put some time in Chris.  A+ for effort in my book......

[Arcade Hunter]

21 hours ago, Lawdwaz said:

You’ve certainly put some time in Chris.  A+ for effort in my book......

Thanks  Larry.  I still have a few weeks of vacation time left.. I am going to use some near the end of regular season and try to use more in late muzzy.  I did get a lot of time in this year between bow and regular so far, unlike last year.  

[Arcade Hunter]

I reserved another cabin at Allegany for this weekend ( Ironically its the same cabin as opening week).  We have 3 doe tags to fill up there... Ill be happy to feed one to my muzzle loader!

[Arcade Hunter]

The Allegany weekend was a bust... hunted the Beehunter area hard to no avail.  No shots heard at all, and no deer seen.  They are hunkered down in there.

Spent a few vacation days hunting local public.  First one of the two days was slow stalking and scouting, nothing seen.  The second day,  I had one snort at me around 9:00 am.  About 30 minutes later I had a group of deer moving around my area... I was in some real thick stuff and was not able to see them.  Confirmed my suspicions as to where a good number of these things bed down on this property.... Found several beds (I stopped counting as there were a lot of them).  The area is thick.  Impossible to get in there without making noise but I found a few easier ways to get in this area.

Trying to get out of work early today  and see if I cant sneak in there.

[Arcade Hunter]

Haven't been keeping up on this journal very well but Ill try to summarize the season for me so far.  I started with 4 weeks of vacation to use and I have 2 left, one for christmas eve and one for new years eve.  All the rest of the days have been spent hunting.  Its been a tough year for sure.  I've seen three deer on public in total for regular season.  The last sighting was on the last day of regular and I took a shot at a doe and hit her but just nicked her... talk about a hard pill to swallow.  

I have two more days off scheduled, the last two of muzzle, so hopefully the weekend and the last two days will pay off.  This is the most hunting i have ever done in a season and honestly, I don't know what I am going to do when its over.

So, a few notable things that happened since i wrote anything in here.  Most notable is this:  Last Sunday morning, I went to my 8G public and was rather happy to see that there were barely any cars in the various parking areas.  I went to a spot semi surrounded  in bedding and get in there almost an hour before legal light.  Just as it gets legal, I hear someone hitting a tree with a stick a bunch of times , then one shot.  I'm thinking this is a drive.  A few minutes later, I see an orange soldier walk out of the bedding to my left the continue to walk away from me.  I watched him fire his shotgun into the ground, walk another ten feet, then shoot again, then he shoots again, at nothing .  

I'm not against drives at all but firing your gun out there at nothing seems reckless.  Anyway, I got up and left the area.  Maybe a coincidence, maybe not but about a week and a half earlier, there was a post on Hunting WNY facebook page  about organizing a drive for public in 8G and 9H, they would meet at a Mcdonalds and have breakfast  on the tailgates and plan it out.  I am thinking it was this group of folks that just shoot randomly and recklessly to get the deer moving... so, maybe the deer are all running now and the standers are going to be shooting at running deer.    ANyway, I was there yesterday morning , in before light.  No tracks anywhere around the area.  The only thing I saw were eight red bull cans hanging in the trees and a pair of white under wear proudly displayed in a bush, complete with a butt wipe mark on them....  I like early season much better, there's no jack asses out there.  On a positive note, I have run into several folks out there and every one of them acted  friendly really were enjoyable to talk to.

There are four days of hunting left for me, Sat, Sun Mon and Tues.  The 9H spot I like to go to is looking promising.  Last Sunday there, it sounded like the old days, shots fired and deer moving.  Now I am seeing on my drive out at the end of the day, The doe are herding up and they are bedding nearby most likely.  I must have seen 40 deer in two different herds, so Ill finish my season in that area.

[Arcade Hunter]

2022 Journal..  Early doe season

 

Plagued with back issues  so I couldnt attemp to go out until Thursday after work.

Thursday evening about 7 PM.. took a lob shot at a big 8G doe and needless to say, complete miss.  Kicked up a buck a little  later on.

Friday evening, hunted the same field, just a different side of it due to the wind.  I was tucked in behind thick brush to help conceal me.  About 7:15 or so a doe pops out of the hedgrow about 30 yards upwind of me.  I cocked the hammer on my CVA Wolf and didnt that deer hear the "click".  Now she's looking right at me and takes off.  I saw 2 big bucks at the opposite side of the field also.

Saturday morning I met my son in law there... he was already in place along a field edge deeper in property.  With the back issues I have been hunting very near the parking access due to it being very difficult for me to walk.  I got a text from SIL and he said he was pinned down by 2 doe that just stepped out into the field... too far for him to shoot at.  I told him to drop a pin and made the grueling walk back.  On the way in I caught sight of a bedded buck's antlers and saw a big doe grazing, well out of shot range.  I worked my way to a spot where I could see the 2 doe in the field but I was still too far for a shot so i kept creeping closer till i was close enough according to the pin he sent.....and they had slipped back into the woods by the time I got there.

Saturday evening I went to a closer to access parking spot, I had nothing in range but saw 4 deer before closing time, I believe they were all does.

Untill OCT 1st..........