Northeast Pennsylvania Deer Forecast: Week of November 6
The struggle continues and the Bobby Knight pep talk last week certainly didn’t work.
Friday night I set out to hunt a new stand location with of all things a crossbow. Last week, during a sit as I lowered my compound bow to the ground, it somehow worked its way out of the knot in my string and crashed 10 feet to the ground. My site was definitely damaged and instead of taking the time during the rut to site it back in, I decided to take the crossbow for the remainder of the season.
The location I picked, had a lot of signs of deer activity and it was more open than what I normally like to hunt. It also was a prime spot for longer shots, much longer than the 30 yards I am comfortable with my compound bow.
I got in the stand by 3:45 and I was stunned at 4:35 when I saw a good buck sneak behind my climbing tree stand. The buck was headed away from me and I threw the old hail mary at him with a series of grunt calls. He stopped in his tracks but he wasn’t planning on coming towards me.
I then gave him a doe bleat from the primos can and he immediately started my way. I got ready and when he stepped to 35 yards, I let one rip. The arrow hit the buck and knocked him off his feet. I immediately said shoot, must be the spine; he rolled over three times and then regained his feet. He took off in the same direction he came and crashed a number of times.
I climbed down from my climber and found a bunch of white hair and amazingly no blood. This is not unusual for me, since I am red-green color blind but I found it to be rather disturbing. I called in some reinforcements and we only found about six drops of blood. We decided to call off our recovery and wait for the morning. Unfortunately, in the morning, we didn’t find any additional blood and didn’t find the deer.
I am so confused by this series of events. What kind of shot knocks a deer completely off his feet? Front shoulder? Well, the arrow passed through, so I doubt it. White hair? Sounds low right, well how does a low shot take a deer off his feet? Would love to hear your opinions in the comment section.
Pretty disgusted, but this is deer hunting. If it was easy then how fun would it be? Bottom line, it’s in the past and the only thing I can do now is move on and get back out there.
On to the forecast. The early part of this week brings us warmer temperatures than you would like to see. Tuesday looks unseasonably warm, but temperatures should be ideal for this upcoming weekend. Barometer readings will be at a decent level this week and spike toward the weekend and the solunar forecast is high for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I see a pocket of good conditions on Wednesday and then our highest readings of the year will occur on Sunday.
The rut seems to be on in full force. As we move deeper into the rut, I think it’s important to keep a couple of things in mind. As I look back over my data from the last five years, I see many hunts that were outstanding with big buck seen and high deer numbers. I also see a number of hunts where it seems like there wasn’t a deer in the county.
During this time period, I hear a lot of hunters start saying the buck are locked down on a doe and that will obviously occur but it is usually only for 24-48 hours. If your sit today isn’t good, try again tomorrow. He may just leave that doe and continue searching for the next victim.
From camera information and hunter information, it seems like our best movement periods are in the morning and around lunchtime. You may want to sit a little longer in the mornings. Here is your forecast for the week. Hope your luck is better than mine right now.
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