This is the pond near my treestand location for opening week.
My plan worked pretty well and I saw deer on almost all of my hunts. The problem was that they weren’t moving until dusk and shot opportunities were limited. One evening, I saw a good buck just before quitting time, but he was about 50 yards away and the fading light and a lot of brush kept me from seeing just how good he really was. Another night, I actually had a small 6-point bed down about 10 yards from my tree after he filled up on acorns. With the direction of the wind and the amount of sweat pouring off of me, I was surprised that he never caught my scent. I have to say I’m becoming more and more impressed with the performance of the new Medalist gear I’ve been testing this season.
Here’s a big track I found along the edge of the pond; A sunrise view from my treestand on opening morning
A few other items of interest from opening week included my friend, Jake, harvesting a 7-point at 7:10am on opening day. The buck was taken in Clarion County in management unit 2D. Jake made a fine shot and the deer only traveled 50 yards before expiring.
A couple of photos of Jake’s 7-point - one from the harvest site and another from his new, freshly seeded yard.
My hunting partner, AJ, and I also decided to put our trail cameras up on some travel routes a safe distance from where we planned to hunt during the first few weeks of the season. I don’t think the cameras scare deer, but the increased human activity around the cameras wasn’t something we wanted in our core hunting areas. After checking them last week, we were pleased to capture a couple of photos of critters other than deer. A red fox and black bear had both passed by the camera while walking on the same log.
A nice photo of a red fox captured by the trail camera; A black bear decided to walk along the same log that the fox had traveled a couple of weeks earlier.
The other reason for the ‘Meltdown’ title comes from my experience on the opening evening’s hunt with AJ while we attempted to capture footage from one of our video setups. If you read my “Views of Velvet and Antlers Abound” journal entry back in August, you might remember the set of double stands we hung over a well-used stream crossing. This is the spot we were hunting, and it provided some exciting and humorous action.
The pair of stands we set up for filming hunts; AJ predicts the direction the deer would travel.
To fully appreciate the events of this hunt, you have to understand that there aren’t many folks who practice shooting more than AJ. This includes year-round target sessions, winter indoor leagues, and lots of rounds on the summer 3D courses. As a result, he’s a very skilled archer and usually drills any shot out to about 40 yards. That’s why when his arrow fell short of a doe quartering away at 32 yards (we later ranged the distance), we were both a little shocked and couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
The doe stepping into AJ’s shooting lane just before his arrow sailed low under her belly; AJ just had to laugh after the botched shot.
AJ was a great sport about the ordeal and gave me permission to share the hunt with the PSP readers. In the end, we concluded that the misplaced shot was a result of AJ using his 20 yard sight pin and also a few nervous jitters while being filmed for the first time on an archery hunt. We recovered his arrow and, fortunately, the shot was a clean miss and the deer was unscathed. I think the take home message of this experience is that no matter how much time you spend practicing or visualizing hunting scenarios in your head, maintaining your focus at the moment of truth can be very challenging. There are a lot of little things that need to go right in order to harvest a whitetail, and any small mistake can foil a hunt. The best you can do is eliminate as many potential sources of error as possible and hope for the best. Good luck archers, and may all of your shots find their target!
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