Worst season ever

[sbuff]

As the title says what a year. I saw two doe all year long. Not one buck ,lots of night pics but not much day pics  even during the rut. My target buck was taken by the local gun club to boot. May give the southern zone a shot on the weekend on some state land . Good luck to all still chugging away 

Edited December 6, 2021 by sbuff

[luberhill]

Sounds like me , the nice 8 I’ve been getting in my camera was killed by the neighbor.

I saw one big doe, shot her.

Saw two others the other night 5 minutes before dark ,,, passed on the shot .

Id like one more and I’m done …

[phade]

Grind it out. Hunting is zero to hero in 10 seconds. 

[turkeyfeathers]

1 minute ago, phade said:

Grind it out. Hunting is zero to hero in 10 seconds. 

I keep telling myself that .....

[Moho81]

Agreed, this season has been bad compared to the last few. I don't hunt nearly as much as some of you but I had 14 hunts during the bow season with only one good day that I saw 11 Doe. I saw a total of 18 deer during the bow season not one of them a mature buck. So far for the gun season I am at 9 hunts and I've only seen 4 deer and they where all together so that means the other 8 times I have been out with a gun I haven't seen a thing. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

I had a great bow season, tons of opportunity. Gun season blows like it always does. Ill keep going and hope someone pushes something past me

[Arcade Hunter]

Ive been seeing quite a few deer all season so far.  Probably the best season hunting stateland so far... but.... Last two time out seen nothing.  Of the deer seen, none at all presented me with a shot except for does in Allegany St Park opening week.  Naturally, no doe tags for the park this year.  At least I am seeing deer unlike last year where I saw two does on the last day of regular season and I missed the shot

[Nomad]

You’ve all heard me cry the last two years ,ok . All bow 3 doe seen and a handful of young bucks, no scrapes , few rubs, not bumping any walking in and out ,when the last 31 years deer all,over bumping them most days , picking out when and where to drop one ,it was frankly easy hunting .

People said keep grinding , i said why ? There’s no deer around and it sucks sitting day after day and not seeing any when in past years it was 3-6 most sits .

Then 8 days into gun and not seeing ONE deer, this happened .

[Robhuntandfish]

32 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

I had a great bow season, tons of opportunity. Gun season blows like it always does. Ill keep going and hope someone pushes something past me

this above

Was just thinking a lot of regular members here havent tagged a buck this season. Hunted last two weekends both days havent seen a deer 

[The_Real_TCIII]

5 minutes ago, Nomad said:

You’ve all heard me cry the last two years ,ok . All bow 3 doe seen and a handful of young bucks, no scrapes , few rubs, not bumping any walking in and out ,when the last 31 years deer all,over bumping them most days , picking out when and where to drop one ,it was frankly easy hunting .

People said keep grinding , i said why ? There’s no deer around and it sucks sitting day after day and not seeing any when in past years it was 3-6 most sits .

Then 8 days into gun and not seeing ONE deer, this happened .

Thats nice for you but we cant all just shoot the first dink that comes along

[Bolt action]

I'm in the same boat. I don't have my notes with me, but I'm somewhere around 20 sits combined between bow and gun. I had one sit where I saw a few doe, but out of range with the bow. No deer seen during most of my gun sits. I did end up shooting a medium sized 8 pt, but he'd already been shot and it was more of a pity shot than anything else. So 2 sightings total in 20ish sits, with close to 100 hours in the woods. It's tough to keep grinding, but then you read about @Nomad's season. This is why we grind it out. 

[luberhill]

10 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Thats nice for you but we cant all just shoot the first dink that comes along

Lol , that thing still has milk on his lips

[Zag]

At our main hunting land it was a weird year and I partly drum it up to the zero acorns anywhere on our nearly 100 acres due to the moths.
I saw only about 4 bucks all season. The smallest was a 6pt, I didn’t see about any small bucks, usually its a polar opposite. 

To boot our back yard in primo area stunk. Lots of work to try and make it better.

[ApexerER]

I shouldn't complain about the season with the nice 9 i got with crossbow. But we haven't been seeing the deer we normally do. I am the only one to take a good buck off the lease this year. I would say it usually averages 4 nice bucks per year. We found 7 dead deer while doing drives yesterday. I really think EHD took out a lot of our herd. 

[WNYTRPR]

1 hour ago, turkeyfeathers said:

I keep telling myself that .....

Keep it up .One day you may be right ya know lol .Then you can say you told yourself so .

[WNYTRPR]

If it wasn’t for a rare lucky occurrence on Thanksgiving,I’d be in the same boat .Like what was said above ,it can change in seconds .

My biggest deer was shot that way .It was that last day or Archery ,9:30 am .I had to get going as my Wife had a doctor appointment.Just as I thought my archery buck streak was coming to an end ,I happened to look up a beauty was headed my way .The rest was history .Ironic enough ,This guy shows up on the last day of archery this year at 8:30 am ,same spot as the one I got the year prior .I wasn’t in the woods as I tagged out earlier .Moral of the story ,stick it out to the last day ,last minute .Ps-I’ll catch up with this guy next year lol

Edited December 6, 2021 by WNYTRPR

[Nomad]

1 hour ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Thats nice for you but we cant all just shoot the first dink that comes along

I love you man !

 

[Team Hoyt]

Agreed, I've only seen 2 does all rifle season. I'm blessed because I was able to tag both of them and got a dandy of a buck with the bow. But its definitely a weird year for deer sighting

[chrisw]

As far as seeing deer goes I had my best season ever, by far. I saw +/- 30 bucks, not too many BIG does at all but I've seen enough to fill some tags. Nov 1-4 were a bowhunters dream for me. I saw +/-18 bucks in those 4 days, had opportunities at a 3.5yr old + every single day in bow range. Where my season took an immediate turn for the worse on the 4th when I lost a really good buck. I've never drilled one directly in the shoulder blade before, but I have now. That buck was alive 4 days later, after that I have no idea. Gun season is usually really slow for us, the bucks are generally all gone off the lease by then. I've hunted roughly 6 times with gun and have seen deer every sit and only one sit where I couldn't have killed one (I saw 2 bucks at 590 yds). I've killed 3 does up to this point, which is enough meat for the wife and I. No more does for me, I'll kill a good buck if I happen to see one but I'm not planning on hunting a ton more. Time to start transitioning to steelhead and hopefully ice fishing. So, all in all, I had more opportunities at bucks than I ever have, and never punched that tag, to be expected every now and again when you target a specific age class. Antlers/big bucks are a bonus, the meat is what I want most at the end of the season and I have that.

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[left field]

2 hours ago, phade said:

Grind it out. Hunting is zero to hero in 10 seconds. 

I saw my first buck in two weeks. Unfortunately, he was 100 yards away and in some thick stuff and as I tried to creep in he felt something was off and walked deeper and I lost him.

That 10 minutes changed a bad two weeks.

I'll be back there tomorrow an hour earlier. 

[Daveboone]

Frustrating year. I had all NT ML week and last week off for hunting. Never saw a deer during ML, which is unusual but it was very warm with some heavy rain, and my week actually was interrupted to only having about half a week to hunt. NT I knew we had plenty of deer around, but they were not showing. My neighbor has great bedding areas, and he saw deer almost daily. I foolishly passed on several good does a week ago ( I dont like to shoot them out of a group) and had a clean miss on a very off balance shot. I really was just figuring out where and when they were about when I finished up.  If the long end of season ML hunt is permanent for ST in december, I will have to figure out somewhere south. I love hunting the late season.

[Poppy]

I only got out a few times during rifle season due to my back issues but it was terrible.  Prior to yesterday I have not seen a deer.  Yesterday I think I found the answer.  As I still hunted along the creek that runs through the land I hunt, I found seven deer, 5 bucks and 2 does dead either in the creek or very near it.  I think EHD has destroyed the hunting in this area.  Of the five bucks, one was a large 9 pointer and the rest were spikes or small 4 pointers.   I am going to focus on yotes the rest of the season.  Maybe I can give a fawn or two a chance to live next spring.  Congratulations to everyone who scored or gave it their best.  Happy holidays.

[Swamp_bucks]

Decent year for me. 2 bucks I've put eyes on 8 different bucks 6 being shooters and 2 came home with me. Don't usually gun hunt much so since the opener I've been out maybe twice.  Plenty of season left to fill 1 more tag for my dad and fil. Then off to PA to get that buck tagged filled this weekend. 

Keep grinding if you still have tags. This is the time of year if I have buck tags left I pick new pieces and hunt/scout for the upcoming year. 

[wolc123]

It has been about average, to slightly below, as far as deer sightings, for me this year.  No past years for comparison, but they were plentiful on the afternoons, during the early sz antlerless gun season, but completely lacking in the mornings.  I filled one of my 4 dmp’s then.  Kind of tough dealing with the carcasses in the warm weather, and only room for one in my deer fridge.

Sightings were down during early nz ML season, but I did manage to fill my antlerless tag up there, unlike last year when I saw more deer but couldn’t close a deal.  Didn’t see any on opening weekend of gun up there this year, while I blew a chance at a mega buck up there last opening day - thanks to this smart phone.

I lost most of the 2 week sz crossbow season thanks to our younger daughter’s high school field hockey playoff run, but I saw just one small buck, the 3 times I got out.  
 

I saw more deer than usual ,on opening day of sz gun, passing the same little buck I saw during crossbow twice, once in the morning and again in the afternoon.  I couldn’t get a clean shot at two antlerless deer that I saw twice in the morning.

I was being selective with my buck tag, mostly because I wanted to hit the nz after Thanksgiving, and you can only kill bucks up there during gun season.  
 

Our normal Thanksgiving trip, to my wife’s parents in the nz, got delayed a week this year, because it was our turn to host my extended family this year.  A stout 3.5 year buck, that showed up 5 minutes after sunset the day after Thanksgiving at my parents house, eliminated any more nz gun season deer hunting for me last weekend. 
 

I did see two antlerless deer while I was up there grouse and bear hunting last weekend, and tons of deer sign (absolutely zero grouse or bear sign).  
 

I probably have a years and a half’s worth of meat in the freezer now, with the three deer I killed so far, but I am going to keep at it.  I still have 3 dmp’s and my ML buck tag.  From now until Jan 1, I will give away most of the meat from any mature doe or buck I might kill, but will keep a button buck or doe fawn.

I am going to do my best to fill those last 4 tags.  Sightings have been enough to keep me in it.  I need to make up for missing most of crossbow season this year.  The DEC is also depending on us hunters to fill those tags, and there are plenty of hungry folks who could use the meat. 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by wolc123

[UWShunter]

Best season ever.
Killed so far only 2 does - archery she ran 10 yards & gun - dropped her.
Passed on a forkhorn.
Doesn’t sound like much to all you trophy studs - but it was the first kills on my OWN damn land & it felt real real good.

Best venison I will ever eat.


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