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Last Bow Hunt for 2017

Thunderflight

Dignitary Member
17,770
167
Shermans Dale, PA
Yesterday was the last organized hunt at Letterkenny Army Depot. Typically if you want to get a good area you need to camp out in your truck at the gate which is what three friends and I did. During the night the temps got down to the low teens and the weather rolled in coating the ground with about an inch or two of snow. I slept like crap, not because of the cold (actually I was quite comfortable), but because of the anticipation for the next days hunt. At 330 am the gates where opened and all of us where amazed when we saw only 10 cars in line..... (typically there are around 100 so we are either stupid or just really dedicated LOL)....

We are the first three hunters in line and at 5 am (yes we stood outside for 1.5 hours) they started checking us in and by 530 my buddy Dave and I were being dropped off at our spot. Jerry and Pete were being dropped off about a mile down the road. The snow is really starting to come down now and the temps are in the mid to upper teens. After a short hike I climbed up into my tree stand (I left it from the previous hunt), finished bundling up and got ready for the long wait until legal shooting hours (1.5 hours to go).

It is cold, the kind of cold that makes your bones ache, skin burn, and breath freeze to your beard and mustache (if you have one). To top it off the snow is coming down hard and sticking to everything. However, for this trip I prepared for the elements with about 10 of those stick on body warmers, 10 large hand warmers, and a couple small hand warmers. I had 8 of the body warmers on my torso and shoulders, two on my my ankles, small hand warmers in my boots, and a bunch of the large warmers in my pockets. Overall I was pretty comfortable and never got to the point that the cold was going to push me off the stand.

Deer movement was almost non existent. All total I saw eight, but normally I'd see 20 plus. The deer I did see where on the move in the the middle of the open fields and where probably pushed from their warm sheltered bedding areas by mobile hunters. Not one deer came through the funnel I was hunting.

At midday, Dave and Pete called it quits and headed in. At the check station they said no need deer had been killed which is way off from historical counts. Check out time is at 4 pm so at 330 I packed up my stuff and headed to the closest paved road to get a ride out. As I was loading my gear up I happened to glance over and saw a small buck run across the road and into the area I had been hunting (he was too small anyway... ). At the end of the day only two doe had been killed. Jerry and two other friends arrived a few minutes later and reported the same low deer sightings, but did see one Letterkenny Giant running across the field as they were leaving.

Next year can't come soon enough. My new stand site is should be a hot one during next years rut. We can still hunt the off base part of the base until January 13th. Flintlock season is in and I'll most likely get one or two more hunts in before I left. Zone 2 (the off base area) has a lot of deer, but not near as many giant bucks as Zone 1 (the ammo area).

I'm also headed to Ohio on the 4th for the late season muzzle loader. I hope the weather is nicer LOL.....

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