My First 2013 Hunt on PA State Game Land

Last night, while I tossed and turned in bed, my mind drifted to the ever-growing list of miscellaneous things that I intend to do. Among that list was writing this very blog post. I couldn’t wait to tell you about my awesome hunt. If I didn’t wind up with a deer, I was sure I’d have a story about a deer or two under my tree stand.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as well as I had imagined. As it turns out, the weather was too nice and it created a couple of problems. The first of which was that my hunting partner and I were not the only ones on the State Game Lands today.

Pleasant weather paired with pheasant season brought out a crowd. Several of those pheasant hunters brought along dogs and were working their way through the fields all around us. Shotgun blasts were not at all uncommon. I think that the roving hunters may have pushed the deer out of the area, which isn’t a big deal. Pubic land is public, after all, and it is part of the territory.

In fact, every hunter that I made eye contact with was pleasant. We exchanged a nod or wave and acknowledged each other (in my case it was an unspoken ‘Hey there buddy, now that you see me up in this tree please don’t blast me with birdshot if your dog flushes out a pheasant’).

While todays hunting session didn’t turn out at all like I had hoped, I enjoyed myself nonetheless. I think we are going to be looking at another area on Friday if I can get over to the county courthouse and pick up a 5C Doe Tag.

Going forward I’m going to need to get my hands on some budget friendly insulated camo. My Walmart Special getup didn’t provide much warmth when the sun went down. When the weather actually gets ‘cold’, I’m going to be in trouble.