Can't sleep.....
Whitetail Deer
Today is the opening day of the New York State archery season. I have been working on foodplots this year, as well as running about a dozen trail cameras. My wife, Nancy, has taken several deer with her bow (as well as some other species), but she has never taken an antlered buck.
We have an excellent apple crop this year, and our #1 hunting spot has been getting hammered by two 8 points and a 9 point....as well as several smaller bucks. It is 2:30 AM and I can't sleep. The great part is that I am taking my bow with me, but I don't even plan on nocking an arrow.
I have placed a 21' ladder stand near some productive apple trees, and if all goes as planned, Nancy should have between a 9 yard and 15 yard shot at some antlers over the weekend....and I don't care if it is a spike or the nine point. I have a second stand located 9' above hers (in the same tree), where I will be perched as the videographer.
I turn 60 this month....and I am pleased that even after all of my hunting exploits over the years, I can still get pretty jazzed even when my primary weapon for the morning is a video camera. I am a lucky guy.....
Good luck. PA Opens today and in my area 5B, Black Bear is in season the entire archery season, and there have been sighting and I have some trail camera pics of a Bruin. Also got the biggest buck I have ever had pics of running around this year.....I understand the sleeplessness. Good luck to you and your wife.
I'm just eatin my cheerios and drinking my coffee before I head out. Had a bad sleeping night here too. Best of luck from PA!
Good luck, heading out for opening morning as well.
Good luck . Great to hear you still get excited for opening day. I always wondered if guys that are able to hunt many places across NA, if they ever get bored of just whitetail hunting . But I am learnt they don't.
Pretty nice morning here in the finger lakes, hope it is going well for you guys
You are blessed. Enjoy it all!
We've had a 6 pt and the 9 pt come into 19-24 yards....but not into the openings where Nancy could get a shot. We'll hunt until about 10-10:30. We'll come back out around 3:30pm.
Same here Jake. I had my alarm set for 5:30 but I beat that by an hour. Tossed and turned, and finally got up. I had a two year old six point in front of me for ten minutes and a doe and fawn just went through too fast to shoot. Wish she would have stopped. I need meat ! Good luck !
Hope your bride puts the "dumper thumper" on a nice buck. Good luck Nancy.
Had a little spike come in fairly early. Thought it was a doe and was all wound up by the time he got within 20 and I could see his little pencils. Drew on him 3 times just for fun. He would have been totally screwed. It's just great to be out again. I had a good Sept chasing early season geese but theres just nothing like seeing that first glimpse of a deer headed your way at less than 50 yards.
Good luck Guys! Hope she gets the shot she is looking for tonight! Hunt
Good luck this afternoon.
Had a busy morning here in pa as well. 9 bucks. Needless to say I'm not moving for the afternoon.
Hope your weather is better than here!
You are a blessed man. Enjoy what God has given you and, will give you in the future. I got a feeling it is going to be a buck for Nancy this evening!!!!!!!
God Bless
What an awesome feeling!
Back in 76 I experience the same thing in upstate with my first deer season.
Best of luck on the hunt.
Good for you Jake! Fall in upstate NY is so pretty! Have fun! C
Hope you guys are dragging him out as I type this.
I couldn't hunt tonight but my 15 year old little sister opened things up nicely. This is her second deer with the bow. She made a great shot and the doe went down in sight. I'm ridiculously proud. I set up her bow and taught her shooting and practiced shot placement with her and its just great to see her pull it together in the heat of things and do everything right. I've got a 10 month old baby girl and I can't wait till she can be my sidekick but until then I guess I'll keep practicing on other kids lol.
My final talley for yesterday was one six point ( two year old ), one doe with fawn, one three or four point following her, and one doe out in the woods away from the trail I was hunting. Wind switched on me about 10:00 so I got out and went to work on my final food plot for this place. A good morning hunt !
My view for the morning.........
LOL- I could not sleep last night, either. But it wasn't from excitement. I drank too much tea, yesterday and had to get up and pee every 90-minutes. You prolly have that to look forward to. I could have freshened a lot of scrapes.
