Pennsylvania Game News - December 2013 - 48

send a deer your way. My husband and
I did this the ﬁrst year I hunted, during
midweek the second week of the then
bucks-only season. Neither of us got a
buck, but does kept crossing the logging
road as we walked in.
If you see cars parked together, be
sure that you're not "horning" in on a
drive that is taking place there. If you
run into standers or meet the drivers
on your walk in, getting out of there
is common courtesy. However, once
the drive has gone through and those
hunters have left, going into the woods
they just vacated and taking a
Deer don't climb trees or go into stand or sneak hunting could
be productive. Deer they stirred
den holes, so whenever you're
up could still be moving or may
hunting for them, even if it's a
have ducked into cover and
Tuesday or Thursday, they're out want to go back to from where
they came or somewhere else.
on the landscape, too.
You just might get a shot.
Most likely if you're hunting
If I don't get a buck or ﬁll my ant- midweek, you will be the only car in the
lerless deer license on the weekend lot, or there'll just be another lonesome
or the high-hunting-pressure opening soul or two who parked at that access.
day, I'm hunting midweek, with fewer Then you'll be hunting natural deer
hunters out there. I don't intend to put movement, such as feeding or rutting
off hunting until the next Saturday. I activity. In that case, morning and
wouldn't miss those days in between, if evening hours are, as usual, the highest
I can get out into the woods, for any- percentage to see game, whether you're
thing. But hunting Monday through on stand or still-hunting.
Several years ago, our hunting group
Friday is a whole new game. It's not an
split into several smaller groups in the
easy one, but with some planning and
a few additional hunting strategies, the middle of the ﬁrst week of the ﬁrearms
chances of getting a deer on a weekday deer season, as we found ourselves with
a mixture of who had which WMU
can be improved.
One strategy is to try to replicate or DMAP tag left at that point. One
Saturday's hunting pressure, or at least friend and I went to a DMAP area
something a bit like it, by ﬁnding park- about a half-hour away. We were the
ing areas that have other hunters' vehi- only ones of our gang who hadn't shot
cles in them. Game lands, state forests a doe there yet. That we'd be lucky
and state parks, as well as other public enough to get a buck that morning
properties, are most likely to attract hadn't occurred to us.
I started my standard drive, a slow
midweek hunters whose activity could
when game is more intent on watching
its backtrack and getting away from
the hunter who spooked it, than looking out for me. I've had many shots
and quite a few successes that way,
especially during the regular ﬁrearms
and muzzleloader deer seasons and
notably my ﬁrst deer and last year's
hunting-career 100th deer. Certainly,
I will never know when deer that
were headed my way were bumped
by a hunter who chased them away
from me, but I suspect that's happened
plenty of times, too.

48

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Pennsylvania Game News - December 2013

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