Guys, if you remember I was looking for a bear last season, I'm still looking for him. But I'm going to hunt up there today, think I'll hunt it just about the same as last year, but I'll have my dog with me this time.

I'm not sure exactly how many days I've hunted on that property this season, I'd 7 or 8 days? A couple times just for 3 or 4 hours or so. There are not many deer up there, and honestly not much bear sign.

The ridge that I'm going to start on, we call Riley Ridge. It's a big, rough and rocky ridge. We had off and on rain showers yesterday, the leaves should be good for walking. I've got overcast skies now and 40* at daylight. It'll be a beautiful day to be out.

Can't really make a prediction, but I'll see a couple deer, and very possible that I'll (or the dog) kick out a bear.

But I'll get off work in about an hour, and we'll see what happens. One thing for sure, the dog and I will sleep good tonight.

Bear season stays in until December 31st.

Hope you get a crack at one.

How is the new dog working out?

Well, it's a long time between now and last light on December 31. I'll tell you we don't have the number of bear we had in this area, 2 or 3 or 4 years ago.

The West Virginia DNR shortened the 2022 bear firearms season by 3 weeks, compared to the 2021 season. (Now that is for this part of the state.) The DNR got rid of the week long, "early September" season. And they also took away the 2 weeks of rifle bear season, during our combined buck and doe season.

I think I posted a link in the other thread? WV's statewide bear harvest in 2021, was down about 20%, compared to the 2020 season.

Honestly, folks are not seeing many bear.

But I'll give everyone a run down on yesterday.

I didn't get out of town till a little bit late, but that's ok. I work a pile of hours, and I just enjoy my time off. I pulled off to the side of the road, just north of Riley Ridge. Sitting there in the truck eating an apple, sizing things up, thinking to myself: That'd be a good spot to jump a bear off to the right. Hmmm, that'd be a good spot to find one off to the left too. Good behind me too.

So, the dog and I made a little halfmoon circle below the road, spent an hour or so and back to the truck. Didn't see anything. I moved on out to the hollow south of Riley Ridge, parked there and hunted out to the road to the other side of the ridge.

Just walking the road, I noticed 6 or 8 piles of turkey crap. It was fresh, glossy and all. The road is rocky out around the ridge, it's hard to track in most places. Came into a little patch of red clay in one tire track, the turkey's had big feet, I'm sure they were all gobblers. Couldn't really get a head count, but there were more than just 3 or 4 birds. The tracks were made since the rain, so they weren't more than 4 or 5 hours old. Never did see them, and that's probably a good thing.

I took off up the hollow on the south side of Riley Ridge, went up almost to the upper ledge, turned off to the north keeping my nose in the wind. We had a steady and soft breeze out of the north-west, mostly.

I was up near the backbone of the ridge, got a glimpse of a deer out front, couldn't tell what it was? On out another 2 or 300 yards, I jumped a deer, I think it was the same one? The deer was between me and the dog both times.

So, while I was up that high, figured I'd just keep on going north. Pretty much walked the property line, on that corner of the place.

I did find a couple of deer beds, and 3 piles of old bear crap. Back off to the road, just a little bit north of the Lured Rock camera. I made it back off to the road with an hour or so of daylight to spare. Didn't amount to squat, but it was a good day!

Talking about this new dog, I'll tell you, she has really improved, but I'm not impressed. I haven't had her a year yet, but she's doing better.

One thing that I figured out a long time ago, there are one of 2 things that have happened in this dog's life. One, the man that gave me the dog used her as a pack hound. Or two, she'd never been hunted at all. I really think that's the deal.

So, basically, I ended up with a 14 month old puppy. I guess she'd be almost 2 years old now? I wish I'd have had her when she was 6 or 8 weeks old, by now we'd have something. I've invested too much time in her to give up now.

The dog is a Walker, big tall long legged dog. She stands up on her toes, she's built to run, in it for the long haul. Good around kids, easy to catch and listens pretty good. But another thing that I found out a long time ago, she's gun shy. I can't explain that at all. It's not because of anything that's happened since I've had the dog.

I've never shot close enough to her to ring her ears or anything. I guess that's just something that she'll need to get out of her system, cause it's not likely that I'm gonna stop shooting. When I do shoot, you can just tell that she doesn't like it, and I always love up on her, then she's fine. I don't know?

Associate the shot with a good thing. Food is usually a winner.

But it's really hard to completely eliminate a crease once its made in a piece of paper.

I am a firm believer in the 6 week/49 day theory. But it is difficult, and I believe now even illegal here, to get a dog prior to 8 weeks.

You mentioned the 48/49 day rule in one of your videos, I think? I'd never heard of it before, but I do believe that pups or pretty much anything start to learn from their first experience.

Years ago I read an article in a magazine or something, as well as I remember they were talking about bird dogs, being gun shy. Anyway, they made some kind of cassette tape or record, that you were to put in the dog's kennel or box. Not sure, but I think it just had natural sounds, what you'd hear in the woods and leaves, and every so often a loud boom. Supposedly to get your pup used to hearing a shot and all.

My dog has improved, but back around the 4th of July, she stayed in her box! Folks around here started blasting off fireworks a couple of days early and just kept on. I was glad when they finally ran out too! Setting that crap off at midnight and after, when most of us had to go to work the next day.

After the first of the year, and after the big game seasons end, I'll take the dog out on a leash, with my 22 and fire a shot now and then. I have a leash that I can snap to my belt buckle, I'll put the dog behind me and blast a rock, then love up on her for a minute and go another 100 yards and repeat. But she is coming around.

Wanted to tell you that Big Donnie killed a doe the other day. I didn't get home from hunting till an hour after dark or a little better. D's wife sent me a message and told me. Donnie had the deer laying in the bed of his truck, some guy was to go and help clean it up. The man didn't show.

It was 50*F, and it still had the hide on it. I talked to D. and told him to ride in and we'd get it cleaned up and put the meat in the walk-in cooler. Before Donnie got here, Moe invited us up to use his skinning shed.

Moe has a good setup, electric winch, running water and all. So, we took the deer up to Moe's, got it cleaned up, washed off and in boxes within an hour or so? The deer still had body heat, warm to the touch. We put it in the cooler, and it was good to go. It's all been taken care of now. But you know, if you're going to kill an animal, it'd be a shame to see it go to waste. I really think that Donnie's dad, had pretty much taken care of the cleaning and processing his game in the past. It's no big deal cleaning up a deer, and I was glad to help.

I was up on the mountain Sunday, it was raining off and on, foggy. The fog finally raised a little before dark, I watched from Thunder Rock till dark, didn't see a thing.

Another thing that I'll mention, tomorrow will make 4 weeks since I dropped off 2 deer carcasses out near my 2nd camera. You've got the heads, hides, legs and scraps, as of 2 days ago, nothing has messed with them. I think maybe the birds have pecked at them a little bit? Otherwise they are untouched. I don't understand.

Guys, I had to work yesterday morning, here at the store folks can tag in their big game critters and all. Anyway, a young man stopped by to tag in a deer. The boy is the same age as my daughter, we know each other.

Our black powder deer season is in now, today is the last day.

It was a doe, and he said that he'd shot it at 239 yards. I asked him again about the range. 239 yards. We talked about it, he said that his buddy had a program on his phone that would tell him where to dial in the scope. He said that he thought that his buddy dialed the scope up, 3.5 MOA.

That is a very long shot. That's way beyond my range for black powder.

But I don't think the boy was telling me a lie. You take some of these custom barrels, saboted bullets, a good scope and trigger. Sandbagged and all.

He said his buddy killed one a little bit over 200 yards, I really don't think it was just a fluke.

But I'd like to see his rifle.

For my inline black powder gun, 75 yards is about my maximum range. And 50 yards is even better!

We had an ice storm here Thursday, it brought down a lot of timber and brush. Up high the ground is still white, the timber is still covered with ice. I spent last evening cutting the junk out of the road, finally made it out to my 2nd camera.

I checked the deer carcasses that I took up, about 4 weeks ago, they are still there. I did see a hawk fly off. Otherwise, untouched.

I'm off work today, as soon as things get squared up here in town, think I'll go for a walk.

Well, not much new to report. The dog and I went out yesterday, I don't want to brag or anything, but we didn't amount to squat again. I'll tell you, and anyone that's ever used a GPS tracking unit will agree, you'll find yourself sitting in the truck, watching where the dog is going. Instead of actually having a live round in the chamber and seriously hunting.

It was blowing snow, windy, and I just thought to myself: Give me 1/2 inch of snow and we'll shake things up. But it just didn't happen. I ended up watching the hollow north of Riley ridge till dark. Didn't see a thing.

I'm starting to get some feedback from the other guys that deer hunted the same mountain, nobody has seen a bear. Or the guys that I've talked to so far. I can't explain that deal.

The ice is still hanging in the timber, today is Monday, it's been there since last Thursday. You don't want to go anywhere with out a saw!

Not positive, but I think we're to get snow within the next couple of days. Hope we do.

Above we were talking about black powder guns and all, my buddy Moe hunted all 4 days of season. He didn't even get to see a deer, honestly, it's been over 2 weeks since he's seen a deer. He's got permission to hunt over 200 acres, just below his house, and there's not many deer on the place.

Moe has a .54 caliber flintlock, beautiful gun, and that's what he was dragging around. I've never shot that gun, maybe he'll let me unload it for him? Then I'll let him clean it up!

West Virginia's firearm bear season ended December 31, 2020. I'll tell you now that I couldn't find one.

During the last few weeks, I've talked to more than a dozen guys that deer hunted on the same mountain, where I was looking for a bear. None of them have seen a bear, since about the first week of November. I mean these guys are not all on the same property where I hunted, but north and south, we're dealing with a 20 mile long stretch. That's really unusual! The bear are just not there.

I've had a lot of reports and looked at a bunch of pictures of bear that had mange. Some of them, were really sickly looking critters!

But since bear season ended Saturday, I've talked to 4 different guys that do seriously have some good bear hounds. I had 3 of them in the parking lot, Saturday evening, at the same time. All of them had a really bad season. It just seemed like they couldn't find a track. That's bad, these guys have spent a pile of money, feeding and tending their dogs, and then just can't find a track.

We had some bad weather mid season, and then it got cold for a while. My mailman Phillip lives just across the valley from where I hunted several days, he had minus 15*F that one day.

Big Donnie hunted with me a couple of days, I'll add more about that when I get a chance. We never fired a shot, but we had a good time!

Yep.

I'll tell you, it's sad, but some folks can't have a good day in the woods unless they kill something. I know folks like that. I don't hunt with them. That is just so much not me!

Same with trapping, fishing or hunting, it's one thing to go out and really hammer down trapping. But if you want to really enjoy it, you need to slow down. My opinion.

It's been a few years ago, I was out with one of my best friends, we were on the way home. I said: You know what? You'd have a helluva lot more fun and enjoyment, if you'd just relax.

For me, there isn't a single thing that's more relaxing than walking through the woods with my rifle. Swimming would be a close second. Either way, I'm under no pressure to prove anything. Just to let a feller's mind unwind and forget about everything.

And then at the end of the day, you realize, it's time to get back into the real world. That always sucks! But, I enjoy my free time.

Here in a bit, I'm going up to check the bait, I'd like to catch a fisher this season.

I hear what you are saying but I go in the bush any day I want. And I go a lot- year round. There are very few bad days unless the flies are really bad.

I prefer to not have empty traps or not have an opportunity to have a shot. I work hard to prevent that from occurring.

I do have fun regardless unless things mess up. A good example is snow laden trees blocking roads.

I understand exactly what you mean. Above where I said that we'd never fired a shot, Donnie and I both harvested deer this past season. Deer are one thing, but when you bump it up to a bear, your odds of seeing one or killing one, that percentage of success goes way down!

I live in Hardy Co., WV, here it's illegal to bait deer or bear. In some counties you can bait, in other counties you can't. Our game laws are complicated and honestly, very hard to keep track of what's legal and what's not!

I know what you mean about trees and rocks blocking the roads. I burnt a tank of gas in my saw that one day. I think it was December 15th, we had a really good (bad) ice storm, that brought down a lot of timber. Twigs the thickness of a pencil were iced up and the size of a broom handle. That ice hung in the timber for over a week, I think it was the 22nd when the next snow/ice/sleet/freezing rain storm hit. That's about the time that we had our coldest days of this winter.

Looking at the ice in the timber from here at the house, better than 2 miles away, when the sun would hit it, it looked like the top of the mountain was glass.

Big Donnie and I hunted December 21st. D. called me that morning and I told him to bundle up. We'd talked about it before, but I kind of had a plan. I dropped him off in the deep hollow south of Riley Ridge, it's steep, rocky and about halfway mean. Before he started up the hollow I made sure he had his gloves and all, told him to take his time. If a feller gets hot and sticky climbing up in there, you're not going to last long. This time of year, on the shortest day of the year, you'll never see sunshine. And those rocks will hold the cold.

The dog and I went on out the road, parked there at the wide spot, and hunted up to the spring. The 2 little puddles at the spring were iced over. I changed the SD card in that camera, I hadn't checked it for over a month, and started on around to where D. was watching.

There was just one big ridge between D. and I, really it's a double ridge. The way I like to hunt it, if you pretty much split the difference from the spring to the upper ledge, and head north. You'll come onto a nice bench, that's where the ridge forks. Just stay level on the mountain and you'll roll right around and come out about 100 yards above where Big D. was watching.

It was icy that day, and it really slowed me down. Some places, the timber came down like a row of dominos. It's a mess!

But I was almost out to the last point when Donnie called, and said he was coming down and heading out to the truck. He got cold up in that cove.

I gave D. about an hour to walk back to the truck, and warm up. Called him back and asked him to come pick me up, it was right at sunset when I got back to the road. The dog had ice on her whiskers and I did too.

Like I said above, we didn't amount squat, never fired a shot, but we had a good hunt.

I'll tell you, we had a so-so mast crop this past fall, and we had some cold weather in early November. I drained the water lines and winterized the old hunting camp, early. Not sure? But it's very possible that some of our bear holed-up before season?

Above I mentioned checking the trail cam at the spring on the 21st. That camera only had 6 or 8 deer pictures, 4 or 5 pics of me and the dog, and that's it. No bear at all, and it'd been a month since I last checked it. The last bear picture that I've had on that camera was dated either November 4th or the 7th. I forget.

It was a sow and 2 cubs. I would have loved to have kicked them out, and just see what this new dog would have done.

Talking about our trapping baits, I do finally have something working the one bait. I'm not impressed with the action, think I'll give them another week, and see what happens.

Before season ends, I'll tell you about another hunt and make m prediction.

I guess about everyone from the mid-west, up the east coast and on north had some dealings with the storm that passed here on December 22, 2022.

Here at the house, we had about an inch of light dry snow, before daylight. Then it kind of slacked off, guess we were between "bands" of the storm. At 8am we had little ice balls, and coming down hard. It was a wet, heavy slush, and there for a while it was piling up pretty good.

The DOH had pre-treated our main roads, with salt brine. But the ice/snow/sleet/freezing rain was piling up. The DOH trucks were up and down most of the day, chains on, and scraping the stuff off of the roads. Late that evening, we had some really hard, rain/sleet. Slush was flowing down the roads.

Anyway, I was here at work, called everyone and told them to stay home. I'm not going to ask anyone to come in if the roads are bad, take a chance of getting hurt or crash their car and all. Nothing goes on here that's that important!

So, on the 23rd, our main roads were decent. Nothing to brag about, but decent. And that's when it started to get cold and windy!

Wasn't sure if I could get up on the mountain or not? But you know, my truck was just breaking through the crust, maybe an 1/8th of an inch, just enough to have good traction. I never spun a wheel. I paid $750 for the Posi-track rearend in that little truck, it makes a big difference.

Anyway, I parked above the gate, got the dog wired up, fooled around getting my rain gear on, that's a pain with your boots on! Hunted out around those first 2 or 3 points, up high on the mountain, that north-west wind was nippy.

Hunted across the ridge above my "lured rock camera" crossed the hollow, up to the backbone of Riley Ridge and back off to the road. I didn't track squat. And really, that late in the season, most of our bear are just not moving.

I really don't know, we shall see later. But as a rule here in Hardy County, we'll harvest over 100 bear per season. I think it'll be down some this past year.

I checked the camera watching Wardney's salt lick yesterday, not a single deer, no deer for the last 6 or 8 weeks.

But tomorrow is the last day of the Mountain Heritage, deer, bear and turkey seasons. A four day season of hunting with black powder guns and old time bows. We shall see.

Posi-track are really good.

Breeding season has started here. I have fox hitting the carcasses I put out to help them through the winter.

Did you get true posi-traction or "limited slip"? I was under the impression that they didn't make true posi-traction rearends any longer. All I'm able to order is limited slip.

"Limited slip differential" is todays correct term for posi traction. It actuates instantly between the two drive wheels so they are both driving together.

Frank.

Well, I'm no mechanic, but I'll tell you what I've been told. I think that there are more than one way to lock the back axles of your vehicle together.

I'll start from the start. The day I picked out this little truck, and took it for a test drive and all. I bought it used and I've known the man that owns the shop for years. He handed me the keys and I told him where I was going to take it, even asked him if he'd like to ride along. He said: No, you take it anyplace you want to go.

So, I took off, even took my rifle with me. I took it up the mountain, ran it through every gear that it's got. Keeping an eye on the gauges and all. Halfway up the mountain, I put it down in low-four, in 1st or 2nd gear, revved it up to 3,000 RPM's and just held it there to the end of the road. Dirt road, only a mile or so? I took it up a side road, steep as hell, forward and reverse.

Everything looked good, coming off I stopped and checked the oil and all, everything checked out. So I took it back to the shop, told him that I'd take it and paid him $1,000 down payment. It's a Chevy S-10, and had running boards on it. Why, I don't know. I told him to take that junk off, you can have them, sell them for $50 or whatever, I didn't want them.

I asked him that day, how much it would cost for the positrack rearend, I think the first price was $550, but ended up paying $750. That's been 6 years ago, I think that's right.

But the way it's set up now, you don't notice the rearend out on the main road, just driving and you won't notice it on a dirt road. Just say you come to an intersection here in town, on a paved and dry road, and make a 90* turn from a dead stop, you'll feel that inside back tire scuffing around. That inside tire is trying to rotate as much as the outside back tire. They are locked together, full time.

My little truck was due for it's annual state inspection, the first of the year. I had that done last Monday, while it was in the shop, I had the oil changed, tune-up and had Gary put on four new tires too. Gary does a good job and treats me right, $620 total. The tires were $140 each. So, she's good to go for another year!

Here's a link that shows one way to lock the back axles together.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/131-0901-welding-spider-gears-locking-differential-4wd/

I'll tell you the one mechanic that works at the shop where I bought the truck, he's the owners son, but he's really into race cars. Muscle cars and all. So he's up-to-date on all of that stuff.

Above we were talking about hunting and such, I want to tell you this. The first day of buck season, I bumped into 2 deer. One was a big bodied, dark looking deer, I scoped it over, up on 9X, I couldn't see horns. The other deer was about 75 yards in front of the dark looking deer, it was a 3-point, it came up the ridge within 50 yards of me, I was taking pictures of him. Nice looking young buck.

I did get some nice pics, I posted one on my Facebook thing.

I have relatives that live about 100 miles west of here, our families stay in touch, just to say hi and check on everyone. My cousin Evelyn (her granddad was my uncle) and I were chatting one evening. She asked me how deer hunting was going, I told her that I wasn't seeing many deer. Evelyn said that she counted about 60 deer on the way home, in about 3 miles of road. Also told me that the deer had almost destroyed her garden last summer. She had crop damage permits for her garden, they killed 8 deer, and she said that didn't seem to slow them down much.

During the Mountain Heritage hunt, just 2 weeks ago or so? Moe, Jim and a few other guys loaded up, took off at 5am and hunted in an area somewhat near to where Evelyn lives. I told Moe and Jim to try to keep track of howmany deer they each got to see. Jim counted 30 deer, and Moe counted 10 or 12.

All together there are 14 guys in the picture, with 6 deer. Four doe and 2 fawns. They were driving deer, all hunting with their black powder cap&ball guns or flintlocks, open sights.

On my best day this past season, I did jump 5 deer in a bunch. All doe and or fawns? Lots of days I didn't see a single deer.

I'll add more later.

If you remember some of my trail cam pictures from 6 or 8 years ago, I had pictures of 8 or 10 or 12 deer in one pic. I've noticed the head count is steady going down.

I may have mentioned this above, but on the camera watching Wardney's salt lick, I haven't had a single deer on camera for 6 weeks or better.

A while back I posted a link to "when do whitetail fawns breed". As well as I remember, the break point was 80# for a female fawn, and 90# for a male fawn. Very few of our fawns hit that mark.

December 31, 2022, a friend of mine shot a deer, it was just one deer alone, right at dark. He thought it was an adult doe, at the shot. He sent me a picture, I told him to put it on the scales. It was a female fawn and weighed 49 pounds, field dressed. So she wasn't even close to the breeding weight.

A few years ago I commented about 10 fawns running together, I just found out what's going on with that deal. Or had it confirmed anyway.

I'll explain that later, I'm out of time.

Why are the deer so small?

My best guess. The doe that had that fawn, was killed on a crop damage permit. Back in the summer, maybe while the fawn was still nursing? Without it's milk, that would be enough to stunt it's growth.

I'm sure that our soil and growing season has an impact too.

I'll tell you about the 10 fawns running together, a few years ago. I bumped into them 3 or 4 or 5 times that season? All fawns, and not an adult deer in sight.

The property where I was hunting is all woodland, 2 properties down, it's crop land. Corn fields. That property changed hands a few years ago, the man that farms it now, from what I've been told has been killing a bunch of deer on damage permits.

I know the man that farms it, don't really know him that well, we'd recognize each other. But I talked to one of his best friends the other day, and asked if they'd killed any nice bucks this season. He said: No, but we killed a bunch of doe back in the summer.

The man that farmed that same property years ago, he didn't put as much pressure on the deer. Once the corn was harvested, all of those deer would head for the woods.

The DNR still hasn't posted the annual bear kill. Or I can't find it anyway. Talking to a friend the other day, he said they must be ashamed of the numbers. Usually, the harvest is posted within 2 or 3 days of the end of season. May need to call and ask?

Here is a link to West Virginia's 2022 Bear harvest.

https://wvdnr.gov/wvdnr-releases-2022-black-bear-harvest-numbers/

Hopefully this link works.

Here is a link to WV's 2021 bear kill. This link and the one above are both statewide numbers.

https://wvdnr.gov/west-virginia-hunters-harvest-2756-black-bears-in-2021/

I'll give you a rundown on the numbers. WV's 2021 bear harvest was down 22% from the previous year. WV's 2022 bear harvest was down 37% from the previous year.

I knew out local bear kill would be down, talking to different friends, checking cameras and all, we just don't have the bear numbers like we did just a few years ago.

In my comments above, I've mentioned about everything that the DNR, mentioned in their reports.

I live in Hardy County, WV. Grant County is to the west, Pendleton County is south. I hunted in different areas, over near the East Virginia state line a few days, but I stayed in Hardy County. Our licenses are good statewide, but I just stayed here at local.

One final number that I'll run past you. During the 2019 bear season, there were 108 bear killed in Hardy County, WV. During the 2022 bear season, there were 16 bear killed in Hardy County! Sixteen!

So if you look at that #, since 2019, our local bear harvest is down more than 80%.

Also, the DNR reduced our bear season by 25 days. To shorten the season by 25 days from one year to the next is a very abrupt change!

Our bear population will rebound, and I really think we have more bear than the harvest shows. We had some cold weather in early November, and I'd guess that a lot of them did hole up.

We'll find out this coming season.

We haven't talked about big game for a while, I'll share my thoughts and findings.

The other week I was up on the mountain, where I have 3 trail cameras. I've been up there several times, quite a few times really, but I just didn't take the time to check the cameras. For one reason, that's where I was going to hunt, and that's where I wanted to hunt. I've got access to so much property, and there's only one of me.

Anyway, insead of changing SD cards and batteries, I brought 2 of them home. Figured I'd give them a cleaning and take them back up soon. I wanted to check the autumn olives that I've sprayed and take the dog for a run.

I checked the SD card from the "lured rock" camera first. The camera hadn't been checked since back in December, 2022. I had a grand total of one deer picture. It never was a very good spot to get deer pictures, but that's bad. Zero bear. Did have a picture of a bobcat, couple coyote pics and coons. That's about it.

The batteries on that camera died in April, 2023.

On my #2 camera, Thunder Rock, the camera was last checked in early November, 2022. I did have pictures of 3 buck deer, back during buck deer season. I did see one of them in person. During that entire time, I did finally get a bear picture. I've got 3 pictures of the bear, dated June, 6, 2023. And it's got a spot of mange on it's left back leg.

If you remember my trail cam pics from, 3 or 4 or 5 years ago, I was getting bear pictures almost every day. The bear are not here, not like they were.

Surprized me that the batteries were still going, but I do have a recent picture of 2 buck deer. The biggest one, it's antlers are about a foot wide. Big bodied deer, maybe I'll get to see him in person, in November. And I did get a picture of a doe with 2 fawns.

And a nice bobcat.

The cameras are ready to put back in place. The first dry spell that we get, I'll take them up, I need to finish spraying rose bushes. And give everyone a report on the autumn olives. It's been almost 3 months now.

Above I mentioned cleaning my trail cameras. I just wipe the "woods gunk" off, and use a wet Q-tip to clean the lens. Only takes a minute but it does make a difference in the quality of the pictures.

I put the 2 cameras back in place the other week. I changed trees at my "lured Rock" location, it's a bigger tree, the trail cam isn't quite as high above the ground. Wind from the north-west really hits that point. I was getting so many "empty" pictures. Hopefully this will help a little bit. Re-lured my rocks.

I may have said this before?, a while back I bought myself another maddock/grubbin hoe. I bought it used for like $10. I'm going to take it up the spring, and wire it off to a tree limb.

I've got some used snares laying around, thinking if it's just hanging in the air, should help keep the squirrels from chewing on the handle. The hoe has one of those yellow plastic/fiberglass handles. If I'd spend 10 minutes cleaning out the spring, everytime I go up, we'll have a nice water hole.

We've had rain but we are really really dry. That spring is the only water hole on that property.

I'm sure the batteries are dead on the spring camera. I spent so much time using a chainsaw, clearing the road the other day, I didn't have time to hike to the spring.

Between the ice storms last winter, the wind storms since, you'd think that mountain would be pretty much cleared. I'll tell you that it's a messed up tangle of timber and brush.

I'll try to get back up there in a week or 2, get the spring cleaned out and the camera back in order.

Friend of mine sent me a picture of a sow and 3 cubs the other day, his camera is only 1/2 mile from my lured rock cam. I'll have them on my camera before long, maybe I do already?

We had a bad ice storm here 20 years ago. It was another ten years until you could walk through the woods again.

It's a mess, that's one reason that I haven't climbed up to the spring. I know that it's going to be a chore.

Once I get to the spring, it'll be easier to pick a line coming back off.

Better take a saw and cut your way to and fro.

I've been thinking. I really don't want to carry a saw up to the spring, but I might.

Talked to one of my best friends last evening, Steve, and I asked if he'd help me clear the road. Honestly, I asked him 6 or 8 months ago, he's always busy or I don't have time.

Steve is a good worker and he's good with a saw too.

There is no road up to the spring, there is an old skidder path that goes part of the way. It's too steep, back when the path was open, you couldn't get a 4WD 4-wheeler up that thing. I even tried it once, with all 4 wheels locked together. The leaves settle in the first switchback, and that's as far as it'd go.

I was on the mountain after the second ice storm, ice was still in the timber and the downed timber and brush too. I was going north on the side of the mountain, and I did find myself boxed in, on 3 sides. I had to pull back, 50 or 75 yards and circle down around the mess. After I dropped down that far, I could see the road.

That's one thing about that mountain, when you gain altitude, it's not good to lose it. You're going to work for it again!

My daughter and I are off work today, the river is too low to use our kayaks. We haven't had a drop of rain in the last 9 days!

So, we're going to the mountain, one of the neighbors gave me permission to cross his property. I'll take Kim up and show her around, she's never been to the top.

According to my facebook friends, the rattlesnakes are moving pretty good now. Never know, we'll keep an eye out for those things too.

Well, last Sunday my daughter and I went to the mountain. First time that I've ever drove a vehicle up there, first time that Kim had ever been on that part of the mountain. There are a few things up there, that she'd heard about and I just wanted her to see them in person.

We went for a little walk, did find a pile of bear crap and jumped a deer, otherwise that was it.

I'll tell you with the leaves on the timber, I know it was hard for her to get her bearings. She asked me where she killed her first deer (several years ago), it was just across the ridge in front of us.

She needs better boots, the ones she has now are more like street shoes. I told her 2 or 3 months ago, if she's gonna hang out with me, she needs better tread.

Anyway, we came back off, went around and checked the first 2 cameras. I put the cameras back up on Auguest 8th. We had a bear on Auguest 9th, at the "lured rock" camera. Also had a small 8-point buck on the camera, several coon pictures.

Tell you what I lured the rocks with this last time, it was pork drippings. Can't say that it was lard, but almost, it was getting pretty strong.

The bear was over 200 pounds, but it has mange. It had a couple bald spots on it's face, one ear looked bald. I had 3 pictures of it, just looking across the side of the animal, you could see it's hide from front to back. It's hair is really thin.

The batteries in the 2nd camera were dead, didn't get a single picture there. I guess it's like a flashlight with dead batteries, flip it on and have a decent beam for a second and then out. Got that fixed, should have pictures there on the next check.

A local man has been giving me the apples he rakes up in his yard. He lives here in town, and just doesn't want the bees and hornets buzzing around the house. Not sure? But we've been doing this for 5 years or so? I'll take them. Little tiny apples, the size of a marble, some of them. Other than running them through a cider mill, they're worthless.

I need to get up there one day and trim his trees. They have a good flavor.

Anyway, it was getting hot and the dog had already drank most of the water in our ice chest. So, Kim and I did a little target shooting. My .22 revolver, my trap gun. I had a cardboard box in the truck and made her a targer. She didn't have a very good rest, but considering that she hadn't shot the gun for years and years, she did fair.

I took a box of ratshot. I had the target out 20 couple feet. I'll tell you after the 3'rd round of rat-shot, Kim had the box peppered. But we need more practice.

Above I was telling you about my new dog being gun shy. Kim said the dog looked terrified, that's one thing that I can't figure out. It's not because of anything that I've done. I don't know?

I went up on the mountain the other day and finally checked the Spring camera, I hadn't been up there since December.

The deer and bear have had about 10 months to pick out the best route. There is a faint trail, from the road up, that's the way I went.

Above I mentioned my "new" grubbin hoe, I took it to the spring. I took 3 turns scratching out the water holes. One puddle is about the size of a washtub, the other one is about 8 feet x 2 feet, maybe 6 inched deep?

I checked the camera's SD card once I got home. I was getting 3 or 4 deer on the camera, about every other day, no bucks or bear. I think I got the first bear picture about the first of April. It's a nice bear, well over 200 pounds, it's chunky and looks to be mange free. I've got a dozen or so pictures of it, on different days. Not long after, it knocked my camera out of kilter, and had it pointed up in the tree tops.

I put the camera back in place, I've got the grubbin hoe wired to the north side of an elm tree, just past the spring. The hoe has one of those yellow plastic/fiberglass handles, figured that it won't catch as much sun. It's just hanging there free and clear of the tree, maybe that will help keep squirrels from eating the handle.

But I'll go back up in 2 or 3 weeks to check the camera, and take another turn on the hoe.

I checked the Thunder Rock camera, I have what I'd guess is the same bear. Also have pictures of a sow bear and 3 small cubs. One decent buck, and a spike. Very few deer pics total.

I did have one picture of a turkey, and it seems like we've got a pretty good crop of dogwood berries and gum berries both. I haven't found any grapes yet.

I have a bear at one of my deer feeders.It's eating several pounds of corn a night. I also have raccoons. I am anxious for this crazy warm weather to stop. We had 28 C. yesterday ...

I agree, wild animals can be "trained". Free food is there for the taking, most likely the bear will stay in the area until it's killed or it's time to hole up.

Our archery deer and bear season is in now. It's been warm here too and very dry.

Headline in the other week's local newspaper: Student Harvests 403 pound bear. I think the little girl is 13 years old, took her bear during the "Youth Hunt". So that's nice to see. And it'll probably take her a while to best 400 pounds again.

I hate to say this, but we've had a fatal hunting accident here in West Virginia this season. I think the boy was 10 years old, out hunting with his granddad. I don't know the details, but the young man is dead.

So, very sad! For anyone that loves to hunt, that hurts! Hunting is a very safe sport, but when you chamber a live round, you can't be too careful. That goes for me, you and everyone else.

Bear and moose season starts tomorrow. I didn't buy a license for either. If the bear is still around by the 18th, I'll trap it when the trapping season opens.

In my area, this is the time of the year when the woods are as full as they get. Every lake, every fork in the road has a moose hunting group.

The moose population is W-A-Y down. I haven't seen a track on my woodlots in months. People blame ticks.

It is Thanksgiving this weekend. All my kids and grandkids are filling the house. There will be 10 adults and 10 grandkids, aged from a couple of months to 12 years, plus 4 dogs to keep me busy. Moose aren't on the menu. But I do expect to squeeze in some duck/goose hunting. A grouse hunt could occur also if it doesn't rain too much. They announce 100ml. over the 3 day weekend.

Seven of the grandkids are less than 5 years old.

Geez!! I'd for sure turn off my hearing aids! Kids that age don't know the difference between their outside voice and their inside voice! But hey, have a ball. They grow fast. My youngest grandcub just started college.

Thinking about the kids and all. Here at work yesterday, a friend stopped by with his granddaughter, he watches her a couple days per week. They've been working with her and finally got her potty trained, she's 3 almost 4 years old.

The little girl is still sucking on her binky, that'll be the next thing to go. But she waved and said: Bye bye when they walked out.

Talking about the temperature, I had 47* at daylight. That's huntable. Thinking about having a moose down, when it's hot, that would put you in a bind. That would be a lot of meat to handle and a short time to get it done.

Just curious, are most of moose hunters local residents? Or do you see a lot of US license plates?

I've never checked the rules and price for a moose tag in Canada, I'm sure it'd be big money. Some places, you've got to have a guide and all, I'm not sure how that works?

I know a few people that have been out hunting, I've talked to several of my buds, we pretty much all agree, it's just been too hot.

Squirrel season is in now, planning on taking my buddy Bill out one day this week. We talked about it yesterday. As warm as it's been here, if you'd shoot a squirrel and wait 5 minutes before you'd go pick it up, it'd be covered with ants and flies. I don't like that at all.

All the hunters are local. I haven't seen an out of province plate on a hunters truck in years. I do see some during fishing season. I think it is because the success rate moose hunting is in the 20-30% range. Two or three tags required per moose.

Except for the 2 newborns, the rest of the kids are potty trained. A couple still wear diapers at night (2 year old girl and 3 year old boy).

It's still raining but we just came in from a campfire and playing in the yard for an hour or so. Naps and video games are the thing right now.

Every meal is a full dish washer and the washer/dryer are getting a lot of use. 18 people in a house will do that.

The turkey supper is tonight and I'm really looking forward to it.

The temp. feels like it's cooling off. I certainly hope so.

37 (F) degrees here this a.m.

I think I had 44 or 45* yesterday morning. I've got 39* now, that's my lowest that I've had since Spring.

It sounds like Musher and his family had a nice Thanksgiving. It seems like anymore it's hard to get everyone under the same roof, not because of the size of the house, but other commitments.

My opinion, folks don't get together like we did 5 or 10 years ago.

Family reunions are about the same, they just keep getting smaller and smaller.

Above we were talking about non-resident moose hunting, in Canada. Search: Moose hunting Quebec.

I didn't read the fine print and all of the rules and all. But I would guess that a moose hunt in Canada, would cost at least $5,000. And that's the low end of the price range. Not including transportation.

It sounds like it'd be fun as all get out. But if you'd look at the high end of the prices, you could get up to $15,000 or so?

I figure that's why you don't see many U.S. license plates.

But it looks like you'd need to be a quest of a licensed outfitter. That one site that I was reading, they charged $125 per night, per person, for a cottage. I'm sure the cottage is nice, but that's expensive lodging.

If you look at it like this, any outfitter that's been in business for years and years, they are going to do their best to make sure you have fun. Same for fishing or hunting or dog sledding or just to visit and vacation. They want you to visit again, and to reccomend them to your friends.

I believe the best bet for a good Canadian guided moose hunt is located in Newfoundland.

A Quebec resident that participates in a self guided moose hunt in a Quebec park or reserve spends about $1500 to do so. They must also be in groups of four. So about $6000 for 5 days, four of which you can hunt. This will give you a cabin and exclusive hunting rights of 25-30 sq. km. About 4 groupos will hunt the same area every year. You must participate in a lottery to obtain the chance to purchase such a hunt.

Even if you are in a ZEC (controlled hunting area), the cost to hunt is an easy 3-400. Plus you have to find an unoccupied area. This is very tough to do. There is lots of conflict. A moose lives in a large area and the moose shot one day could have been 10 miles away the day before.

There is also crown land. It's known as the "free hole" or "free all." All you need is your license and to find a spot. The week end opener it is tough to find a spot unless you fly in. But the second week it is easier.

I'm surprized that it would be that much for a resident. And for a group of 4 residents. And only 4 days to hunt!

That sounds like that would be fun to fly back in the boonies, and hunt from a wall tent or cabin. I figure there are outfitters that offer that service.

One thing that I'm thinking about, if a person would plan a hunt, who knows what the weather would be ? Could get fogged in, caught in a 3 day rain and sleet storm or anything.

I'm not planning a hunt like that anytime soon, but it's fun to think about.

We had our first frost yesterday and we've got one again today. I've got 32* now.

For out weekend outing, I took my daughter to one of the local hunt clubs. It's 20 miles up the road to the turnoff. Kim has been on the property before, but it's been a while.

We didn't see much game, and not much sign. We did see 3 squirrels and that was it. Did find 2 saplings that deer had horned, no turkey scratching, and it's so very dry up there too.

Several years ago we cleared off a small patch of timber and started a little field, maybe 3 or 4 acres? There are 2 good deer trails coming into the field. The grass looks good. I think the club will allot so much money per year for fertilizer and all.

I'm short on time.

Talking about our hunt club above, it's over 1,000 acres, not positive but I think it's 12 or 1,300 acres? I'll check.

I'll tell you a little about how that deal went down. A local timber man, found out the place was up for sale. He was looking at the timber and the price for the whole works was over his head. Money wise.

So, he put out the word, trying to round up enough folks that would help buy the place, timber and all. That's how the club was formed.

We had our first meeting in a garage, probably 50 or 75 folks at that meeting? That was back in the 80's. Long time ago! Those of us that were interested, we all put up like $100 each, to get the ball rolling. We advertised in the local papers a time or 2, with word of mouth and all. It took us a month or so, but we had enough money for a down payment. The club was formed, we elected officers, borrowed the rest of the money to buy the property.

Once the club bought the property, we sold the timber. I forget, the timber was worth 50,000 or so? That payed for a good chunck of our debt. We've sold timber since then too. As far as money in the bank, we're in good shape.

If I'm not mistaken, the original cost of a share of stock, was $3,500 per share. Today, the club will buy back a share of stock for $15,000. And there is a waiting list.

It's a small club, but that's a pretty good return. We own the property, it's in the club bylaws that one person can NOT own more than 3 shares (I think). The property will never be split up and sold off in lots or developed.

It took us a while to get it going, but it was well worth the effort. We all put our butt out on a limb, for a little bit. Within months, our $3,500 club shares were trading at $5,000 and up.

Anyway, coming home the other evening Kim and I stopped and checked the trail cam at Wardney's saltlick. It had been 5 or 6 weeks since the last check. We had one bear picture, 100 pounds or so?, from a month ago. Seemed like the same 4 or 5 deer, pretty much day after day. Only 1 spike buck, I'll bet there are 100 pictures of him. Didn't have any pics of small game, no fox or coyote pics.

I also have pics of a tiny fawn, that is still suckling on it's doe. Here we are almost November, and it's still suckling!

West Virginia's firearm deer season starts tomorrow, 11/20/23. Here in Hardy County, it's open for buck and doe. (if you have the right tags).

Honestly, I'm looking forward to it, this is the start of my vacation. It's been a year since I've had 2 days in a row off of work.

We are very dry here, and need rain or snow one. I've got 32* and it's dead calm now. Tomorrow will be a nice day.

Checked the trail cam at Wardney's salt lick the other day. I've got 3 bucks, 2 spikes and a 5-point. Looks like 3 doe without fawns, and one doe with 2 tiny fawns. I've got 20 or so pictures of all of them. Pretty much day after day. Deed honest those 2 little fawns are still suckling, my last picture of them was October 30th. They are small!

I have one pretty neat picture of the 2 spike bucks. One has horns about 3 inches long, the other one with horns about 6 inches long. Anyway, they've got their heads down, ears folded back, and I'd say that their noses are about an inch apart. That's a night time picture, but you can tell they're just about ready to mix things up!

I took my rifle to the range the other day, seems like we're good to go. While we're talking about it, I made myself 3 new sandbags the other week.

They are nothing fancy, and very cheap. I had the sand, and wrapped it up in a plastic ice bags. 2 plastic ice bags, so the sand is inside 4 layers of plastic, and then wrapped them in an old bath towel. The old towel was about shot anyway. I rolled them up and used a zip-tie on both ends.

I guess the biggest bag is maybe 6 or 8 pounds? And the smallest is maybe 4 pounds? I used a dish towel for the small one, but wrapped up like that, they will last a long time.

It's bedtime and I like to stay on schedule, I'll be back on the mountain in the morning.

You guys be careful out there and good luck.

Hope you have a great, restful, holiday.

I also hope you get a shot at one.

I haven't fired a shot yet. I did see a small spike, I think Wednesday. And a 6 point standing beside the road the other morning.

Not seeing many deer. Here debating where I should go. On a Sunday, I should have pretty much everything to myself.

I'll tell you about Thanksgiving Day, later. As far as being restful and all. But we did have a very nice meal.

If there isn't anyone else on the mountain, I might just walk the road, the tire tracks are packed down and quiet now. Beautiful day, I had 21* at daylight, calm with high thin clouds.

Moe and I were out yesterday, I made a little hunt up through the thick stuff to him and he killed a spike. He even let me help drag it out and skin the thing! Field dressed it was 94 pounds.

It's 10 O'clock, the deer should be rested up by now. I've got a full pack of Fig Newtons in the truck. The secret wepon.

I was out yesterday, things were about like I figured. I was on a dead-end road on private land, behind a locked gate. I had the place to myself.

I just walked the road, stop every little bit and watch for a while. A little before dark I found a good spot and figured I'd just watch the road. Never know when you'll see a coyote or bobcat.

A little after sundown a small buck walked up into the road, I could see his horns with my naked eye. It was out about 40 yards, I watched him work a scrape. It didn't paw the ground, but it rubbed it's face on a twig, for just 5 seconds maybe? Walked around in the road for a little bit and then on up the mountain he went. I thought maybe there would be another buck, 15 or 20 minutes behind. I watched till my blaze orange turned gray, still light enough to see to walk, and that was it.

I did see 2 squirrels. And just the one deer. I did see a red headed woodpecker and a screach owl in the headlights.

I'll tell you about Thursday and Brandon's buck, as soon as I get a chance.

Last Wednesday my sister Barb told me that we were having Thanksgiving supper at 5pm. I told her that it didn't get dark till 4:30 or so. Barb held her open hand in front of my face and said: FIVE.

Thursday morning there were 3 trucks parked at the gate. The one truck had a buggy trailer hooked up behind. I recognized the trucks. The buggy was parked where I park when I go up to the spring.

I found a spot to park, I was still in the truck when Tim R. came by with his grandson. The little boy is 6 or 8 years old, he killed a doe. He was dragging the doe behind his Jeep, I helped him load it on, behind the spare tire. It had one of those tire mounts on the back end.

A little bit later Charlie and Chris came out in the buggy. Talked to them for a little bit. Chris has 2 cameras at the spring and a treestand. I figured that's where they were hunting. I told them that Brandon was coming out across the top. Chris got excited and asked me how he was coming out across the top. I said On foot. There's no road or 4-wheeler trail up there.

I gave them a 15 minute headstart, figured I'd better ease my way out too. I just parked in the road, got out of the truck just to size up things. I'd been standing there for less than a minute, and I heard a rifle shot. I was just about straigt up the ridge and not far off. Brandon fired a second shot and I could see him, he still had his rifle shouldered.

Looking at Brandon, he was shooting at 90* to me. I watched out that way, didn't see anything. I lost sight of Brandon in the brush, until he dropped out in the road.

I'll tell you the rest of it in a minute. Gotta work today again.

I apologize for the delay.

When Brandon slid off of the high road bank, he was up there pacing the road. Back and forth, and he was walking fast. Way to fast to look for blood and sign.

I held my arms out, like: What's going on? He did the same thing to me. I was walking toward him, we were about 75 yards apart, he turned around and gave me a "Thumbs Up".

I walked up there and we could see the deer's white belly, way down the ridge. Brandon said he thought that it was an 8 or 10 point. He missed him the first shot, looked like he got both lungs with the second shot.

From what I could tell from the sign, it looked like when the deer jumped off the high side of the road, when he landed in the tire track, that's when it's legs went out. The rest of it was just gravity.

I'll guess the deer was on it's feet for less than 15 seconds, that's a clean kill.

I'll tell you this, Brandon didn't have his knife or a dragging rope.

I keep a 100 foot piece of 3/8's rope in the truck. Anyway, we went down to his deer, I told him then that it was a beautiful buck. It's an 11 point, just a smidgen over 20 inches wide. Good mass too.

I'll tell you it was a chore getting that thing back up to the road. Brandon called his dad, he came back up and helped for the last 100 feet or so? I know it winded me. But it is a very nice buck.

There is no way that we'll ever know for sure, but I'll give you my theory. That ridge forks, just above the road. There is a little cove. I'd guess that buck watched 3 vehicles go out the road, and all 3 of us come back past it again.

Laying in those tree tops, down timber and brush, it was content to sit tight. Brandon said he could see my truck before he saw the deer. With me parked below, Brandon above, the deer got nervous, stood up and took 2 or 3 steps. And Brandon put one on him.

I haven't mentioned this before, but we had an "early firearm, antlerless deer season", about a month ago. It was a 4 day season, starting on Thursday.

Long story short, I was about like most folks, it'd been a while since I'd had fresh deer loin.

One of my farms is just outside of town, I can leave here now and be there in 10 minutes. I pulled in and my landowner Doc was there, we talked, he was working his cows. I was just going to watch the fields till dark. Doc pulled out and then his son Adam pulled in, we talked for a bit.

Adam said they'd been seeing a nice buck from time to time. Longer story short, I found a nice buck that evening. Buck season was closed, I had a good look at him and watched it trot off.

I had a couple hours Friday morning (the next day) before work, figured I'd make a little circle and see if I could find a doe.

I started in on the east side of the property, crossed 2 or 3 hollows and was out of time, had to get back to work. But coming around, I found plastic grocery bag, with a peanut can of rusty nails. Then I noticed, it's like someone had started to build a little fort. No big deal, figured it was a couple kids, and could see that he/she/them had cut that one tree with a hatchet.

I talked to Doc, a day or so later? He didn't know anything about it, so I told him I'd go out and check it out again. There is a tar-paper shack up in that one hollow, it only has 3 walls now, but a metal roof, I didn't walk up to it.

One day last week Doc stopped by and said that his grandson hunted out there one day, and said there was human crap all over the side of the one ridge. I told him that I'd check out the fort thing, and the old shanty.

Friday this past week, I checked out the shanty, it was all clear. I was deer hunting. Walked up past the fort thing, the bag was gone but there were 2- 2x4's laying there, otherwise it was unchanged.

I hunted on around, found a deer bedded below me, it was a buck, nothing big. I moved in on it 25 yards or so, and sat there and watched it for half hour or so? I didn't have the best shot in the world, but I think if I wanted him, he was mine. It was starting to rain, the woods were very quiet. So I started to move in just a little bit more, and there were 2 deer running off. They were down there 150 yards or so, just getting a glimplse of them now and then.

Figured I'd hunt on around, maybe get in front of them, or at least catch up. I think it was the next point over, I found a dome tent. Thinking to myself, this ain't good. I've known Doc all of my life, he doesn't want someone living in a tent on his farm.

I took pictures of the tent, walked up to it, 30 feet away, and said: Hey. . . Hey. No movement. Kinda sized up the place, walked up to it and said Hey again and kicked the corner of the thing. No movement. It's a small tent, like a 3 man job, where you've gotta be on all 4 to crawl in or out.

I will say that they/he/she/them had a nice fire pit, you could cook on that thing. There was a shovel, hoe, and hatchet beside the one tree. If there was someone at home, I had every intention of telling them to vacate. Oh, and there was also a wheelchair, folded up above the tent. I guess that's what they used to pack in stuff? While I was there, figured I'd take the hatchet and I did.

About 2 points past the tent, I walked around a cedar tree and there was a buck, he was walking. I think he took 2 steps before I was on him. It happened fast. Turns out he was a 9-point, just a bit over 18" wide.

My daughter Kim printed the pictures of the fort, tent, and their trash, Doc has called the police. Hopefully they will find out who made the mess.

Kim gave Doc the hatchet, he said it's mine now. So, Ozark Trail hatchet, pretty much free. I had a good time and shot a nice buck too.

I'll tell you this, those were the only 2 deer that I did see Friday.

YOu spin a good yarn.

Thanks. It's all true. And I left a good bit out.

I talked to Doc today, he called the Sheiff's office, I guess Saturday? I thanked him for the hatchet. He asked me for directions, to the trash pile, tent and all. You can't drive there in a vehicle, no 4-wheeler or anything. Doc has a 4-wheel drive farm tractor, you'd need to cut a couple trees before you could get up in there.

His farm is about 100 acres, give or take. Just checked on Google Earth, from the tar paper shanty to the road, it's over 1,200 yards, straight shot. So, figure I walked that 2 times, plus, before work Friday. And dragging a deer for maybe 400 yards or so? Maybe 500?

One thing that I don't understand, he/she/them dragged a plastic trash barrel up, where you can't get to it. It is or was full of trash, till it fell over. Plastic bags, water, drink bottles, plastic bags, etc. That trash is scattered down through the pasture for 15 feet or better.

I didn't dig through the trash, but I found a Walmart reciept, laying on the ground. The one I picked up, the ink side was pretty much washed out. I'll bet there are 50 more in that trash.

Put the DNR on them. Littering, Trespassing, who knows what they'll find ?

There is a little bit more to the story. One thing I said to Doc today, he needs to check his barns. See if anyone is living inside. He has 2 barns, there isn't anyway to lock them. One has running water.

But I've been putting out the word. Some folks make you wonder.

I'll give you an update on the "Squatter" situation.

Wednesday of this week an officer from the Sheriff's office called me, asking for directions. Kind of hard to give someone directions, to something as small as a dome tent or a pile of trash, or fort, on a property that he's probably never set foot on.

Anyway, I must have done ok, he never called back.

Thursday, I talked to Doc, he hadn't heard anything.

Yesterday, Doc's son Adam, left a message for me. Someone from the Sheriff's office was out there that morning. The DNR was out there when he left the farm, I think putting up a camera, or more than one?

He said that things had been moved around, but think he/she/them are only there every other day, maybe every 3 days?

But if I see stuff like that, I can't just ignore it. I would have been content to have just hunted around those points and came home. But, when you find stuff that's not supposed to be, the landowner needs to know. Biggest thing that worries me, that same person could have set up camp in one of the barns.

I'll bet it'd be 10 or 15 degrees warmer in the barn than it would be in a cheap tent.

I put my new hatchet on the grinder the other evening, it's better than it was, but it's not the best grade of steel. I'll never use it anyway.

We had a cold rain here Tuesday night, (I had 0.16 inches) looking at it falling it was white but melted on contact. Wednesday morning, we had about 3 inches of snow on the top of the mountains, but the ground was warm. Melting from the ground up.

Before dark that day, it had melted off of the south sides and about all of it below 2,500 feet. I was up where I could see 30 miles, it was pretty looking across the mountains. We got up into the 50's today, it's pretty much all gone now.

From what I've been hearing, bear are hard to find.

Well, I talked to my landowner, Doc the other day. He said no charges have been filed, but they have a suspect.

Doc said, you didn't tell me that they were growing marijuana up there. Long story, but when I was dragging my deer off, I found a 2 places where someone had dug 2 holes in the field. Both holes were, not sure, but about the size of a dish pan, and filled with potting soil. That black dirt with little white specks.

You see, before I had even gutted the deer, I called work and asked Brenda if she could hang tight for another half hour or so. I told her what was going on, and didn't think that I could get the buck out of there and back home before 2 pm. I was scheduled to be here at 2. She said that's fine.

I glanced at the 2 holes, while I was dragging and kept on going. There was also a pile of flower pots, maybe a dozen or so?

There is a greenhouse, on that corner of town, the only one we have local.

My best guess, the person that set up camp on Doc's farm, was stealing hanging flower baskets, and using the dirt for their weeds. It wouldn't even be a mile away. Stop after dark, put 2 or 3 baskets in a trash bag and walk on home.

I bought one of their hanging baskets, it's been 2 years ago, and that thing cost me $20. It's still alive and still an ugly plant!

Wanted to tell you, we had another cold rain last Sunday night, the temperature stayed right at 36*. It was white falling, but melted on contact. I had 0.80 inches of cold rain. Up in the mountain east of town, we got from 1 to 3 inches of snow.

It snowed Sunday night, I went up Wednesday. The game had 2 nights to make tracks. I tracked out about 5 miles, and didn't find much. One coyote, 3 deer in one spot, 3 or 4 deer in another spot. Over on the east top I tracked 3 turkeys, plus one grouse out on the south end. No bear.

While I was up there, bumped into my buddy Jim, he was there with his guys. Five of them riding 3 buggies with 8 or 10 dogs?

Jim told me where they'd been, looking for a track and I told him where I'd been. All together, we'd tracked out over 20 miles of road. Not a single bear track. All of the property that we tracked is private land behind locked gates, so you're looking at over 8,000 acres total.

It's easy to miss a track, and maybe we did?

About all of our snow is gone now, a little bit on the north sides yet. I've gotta work tomorrow, but plan on being out Sunday.

Forgot to mention, I made it back to work before 2:30 pm. Came home, put my rifle away, washed my face and hands and worked till 9. And then had a deer to skin.

Waiting for the Sunday update!

Well, the dog and I went out yesterday, we didn't get out of town till late morning. Pretty day early, in the 30's and overcast. I took her to the mountain where I have my cameras. I stopped near my "lured rock" camera, first.

This new dog hunts better now than she had been, she's improved from that point of view. I'm still not impressed. She was out of my sight, but I was checking her on the GPS tracker from time to time. She was out 300 yards, then 500 yards for a while, and checked back in. We were in a good spot.

I went on out to my 2nd camera and parked, then it started raining, then the fog moved in. The fog was pretty thick there for a while, could see maybe 75 yards. It looked like the rain had settled in, I had 40* F. The days are so short now, I really didn't have time to do much, so I came on home. I had 0.74 inches of rain here at the house.

We just had a snow squall an hour ago, the porch and vehicles are white, the ground is warm, it'll be gone in the morning. Here in town anyway.

With Christmas and New Year, this and next week's schedules are a mess. Our bear season runs until December 31st.

While I was on the mountain yesterday, I checked 2 of the cameras. Out at the 2nd camera I only had 35 pictures, about half of them were people/vehicles/squirrels. That was a 4-week check, only had 3 deer pics, 2 coyote pics and one picture of 3 coons. There are still a few sweet gum berries laying around.

I guess batteries are dead in my lured rock camera, the SD card was blank. I forget how old that camera is, but it's the one that a bear bit a hole in the front years ago. I'll check it out the next time up.

I did see 2 deer yesterday, I don't think that they were together, one ran off to my right and the other went to my left. Pretty sure the one was a fawn, I think the other one was a big deer.

Our blackpowder deer season ended yesterday.

I've got 33* here at the house now, that little dab of snow might not melt off tonight? I'd love to see the snow settle in and give me a good tracking snow. Just looked at my porch, I've already got a set of housecat tracks, the game is moving.

We had a pouring rain all day yesterday. We head maybe 4 inches of snow left. Now we have 3 inches of ice. I haven't hooked up a sled yet. I have had dogs, hooked, running in front of the ATV.

I'm sure that your dogs were glad to go for a run. I can imagine, it would be just about impossible to keep a sled dog in decent shape during the off season.

No matter what kind/breed of dogs that a feller would have, "safe zones" are getting harder and harder to find. I mean where a guy can just take them out and cut them in the wind.

Talked to a buddy of mine that lives up near the top of the mountain east of town, he said he had 1/2 inch, unless it had blown away. DOH guy told me the same thing. It's been very windy here today. Flurries most of the morning and windy. Still a little dab on the north sides, otherwise it's gone.

Wardney stopped by yesterday and told me that there wasn't any bear crop damage on Robbie's farms. Robbie had standing field corn until just the other day. As far as I know all of the corn has been shelled, from above town, up at least 20 miles. The corn fields around here are very small, compared to fields in the mid-west and parts of Canada.

It seems that bear are very hard to find this season, we don't have as many as we did a few years. I know about all of the guys in this area, that do have some seriously good bear hounds, and they just can't find a track. Or very few tracks.

Friend of mine invited me to hunt with him and his guys, he's a young man, 40 or so? He just ordered a 5-month old pup from Oregon, and had her shipped here. I didn't ask. Forget the breed of dog, but he was bragging that she already has scars. She must be one mean little devil. He hunts over in the next county west. Like I said he's young, and will take off and go hunting at like 3am. Figure, he's hunting an hours drive from here, that's pretty early.

We're supposed to get down into the teen's tonight, below freezing now. Starting to feel like bear hunting season.

Wanted to tell you this too. The buck I killed the other week, called a guy today and he's going to do a skull mount for me. ($100 down the drain), but Moe highly recommends the young man, by the way, Moe and this man are 2nd or 3rd cousins. I know that he'll do a good job, and said he'd have it finished in 2 or 3 weeks.

While I have a chance I'll give you an update on Friday's hunt. I've made it a point this season to stay off of that one big ridge on the mountain. Really, it's the best ridge.

Anyway, Big Donnie wants to hunt with me one day. I called Big D., he's got a headcold or something, didn't feel like hunting. Talked to Moe, he was planning on going, messaged me back and said he'd freeze riding his buggy up there.

Moe is like a lot of folks, they are learning that a buggy with only a windsheild, isn't much good in cold weather!

Invited my buddy Chad, he said he'd go shooting with me, not really interested in hunting. Chad is into long range target shooting. 1,000 yard stuff.

So, the dog and I went out yesterday. We started in on the north end of the property, angled up, pretty much on the property line. The wind was perfect, coming out of the south-west, worked our way up to the top of the mountain. Dropped off on the east side (more or less to take pictures) circled around and came down the backbone of the first big ridge.

Little bit of old deer sign, not much. Coming down the ridge, me or the dog jumped a deer, it was a doe. It jumped, ran 30 yards or so and stopped. It didn't know where I was, I guess it didn't know where the dog was either? I was above and downwind, it just walked off.

I stopped on the next to the last ledge, watching ridge-to-ridge, for maybe 20 minutes. I didn't know where the dog was located, when she checked back in, we eased off and came on home.

Pretty good hike yesterday. I did check the "lured rock" camera, I've got a one horned spike buck, a coyote, mangy red fox. And I have one picture of 2 bobcats, and I'm pretty sure a pic of a bigger bobcat. No bear pics.

Talked to one of the neighbors, he has cameras up there too, he hasn't had a bear pic since before Thanksgiving.

After the 1st, if everything works, I'll do a little trapping out around the lured rocks. But, while bear season is in, I will bear hunt. Gotta work tomorrow, but I'll be off Christmas day. I'll be on the mountain.

Good luck!

It was foggy on the mountain Christmas day and calling for 100% chance of rain, I didn't go hunting.

The fog finally lifted about 2 hours before dark. So far I'm had almost 1/2" of rain.

Above I told you about the man that ordered a pup from Oregon and all. He sent me 3 videos the other day, he and his guys killed a nice bear, Saturday, I think? He hunts over on the Allegheny Mountains, 30 air miles west of here. The other day they were calling for up to a foot of new snow.

The man's name is Ashby, he and I were chatting today, I asked if it was snowing out there today. He said: It's foggy and just dang rain", he didn't hunt today. I know about where he was hunting, it's public land, but he tracked 4 different bear that day.

That's big rough country where Ashby was hunting, and he told me that he was back in the boonies. Also said that he'd lost a dog the other day, never know if it's GPS collar died or what happened to it?

He's planning on going back in there in the morning, hopefully he'll find another track. I'm invited, but guess I'll take my big dog up on the local mountain again. 30 air miles translates to about 60 miles on the odometer.

Well, it was foggy on the mountain yesterday, calling for a 100% chance of rain again. I didn't go hunting. I've had a total of 8/10's of an inch of rain, over 2 days.

It's still foggy now, but is to clear out later today. Going to take the dog out in just a little bit. I'm running out of time this season, but that's part of hunting.

I'll give you an update on my recent hunt. Thursday, I took the big dog into one of the best spots that I can think of to find a bear. The fog didn't burn off until about 10:30. Long story short, we didn't find one.

I checked 2 of the mountain cameras, no bear, no bobcat or coyote pictures. I did have a picture of 2 bucks that still have their antlers, I think the one is a 6-point, pretty sure the other little buck is one that I scoped over, I think the week of Thanksgiving? It's like a spike with a couple extra little points, small deer.

Today is the last day of bear season, on a Sunday morning, with not much bear sign, I'm not going to hit it very hard. With these short days, seems like it doesn't get good daylight, until shortly before dark.

Above I mentione my buddy Ashby, we were talking about finding bear tracks. I'm going to copy/paste his message: "Found a old one today I covered a lot of ground today I started walking before daylight and didn’t stop till around 1:30 walking steady"

The young man is better than 6 feet tall, I figure he'd have a pretty good stride.

Just bought my 2024 West Virginia hunting/trapping/fishing license yesterday, I'm good to go for another year. Seems like the dog is about ready to go, I'll take her out one more time this season. It's not likely that we'll amount to much, but there's only one way to find out.

Above I mentioned that I was going to have a guy do a skull mount on the deer I killed this season. He dropped it off one day last week, he did a fine job. Not sure, he only had it 10 days or so? It's skull isn't as white as paper, but almost. All of the skulls that I've boiled off and cleaned turned more of a bone color. Fox, bobcat, bear and all.

Anyway, I took the big dog out on the 31st, yesterday. I wanted to check my cameras, didn't have any bear pics, so I didn't hunt. Kind of short on time, honestly, I've pushed my daughter to the max, as far as working for me. She'll be ok.

It was snowing in the mountains when I came home, the top was white this morning, and it's snowing now.

Our bear kill season ended yesterday, but on private land we can still play with them.

If I get a break later today, I'm going to expand my trapline. Kind of hard to hunt and trap both, without being tied down.

But it's been a good season, only fired one shot with my big gun. Did find some good otter sign the other week, and I've heard rumors of a fisher on one of my farms.

The West Virginia DNR has not reported the bear harvest for our past season yet. All of our big game seasons are closed now. The harvest numbers should be out, maybe this week?

Since our big game seasons have closed, I've talked to a lot of hunters. There were bear killed in this county, but everyone agrees, there weren't many killed. Of the bear I know about, all but one were taken early in season.

Friend of mine, Joey killed a nice one in a cornfield north of town, it weighed 340 pounds. That's the biggest one that I know of.

As far as our deer harvest, statewide, we were down 7%. Talking to a man, he summed it about as well as anyone. "We didn't find many deer, and very few bucks, but the ones that we did find were better than average."

We've had snow on the mountains and the ridges since about the end of December. Within the last 2 weeks, we've had 3 different snows and a cold rain. Here at the house, I had 7 inches of wet snow, then it rained, then I've had 3 inches of snow, the last one was 6 inches deep.

The South Fork had more water in it last week than it's had for over 2 years. I had 6*F here the other morning, that really dried it up.

The last 2 snows that we've had were a cold and dry snow.

I was out today, I had 13* at daylight this morning, didn't get out of the 20's, with full sunshine. The snow has settled a good bit. I made a little circle,the snow was about 8 inches deep where I was, honestly didn't track much. Almost too deep for small critters to move around much. Probably something running my tire tracks now.

But, I'm down to 12* now, and they're calling for it to get to 40 tomorrow. I think rain Wednesday, then we are going to get muddy!

I did see 4 deer today, as well as I could tell, looked like a doe and 2 fawns and another adult deer. Just by the way they ran off, very spooky, and that was ridge to ridge.

Down to 11* degrees now, they should be moving.

Here is a link to the West Virginia bear harvest numbers for the 2023 season.

https://wvmetronews.com/2024/01/31/black-bear-harvest-jumps-64-percent-in-2023/

I live in Hardy County, WV. During the 2022 season there were 16 bear harvested. During the 2023 season there were 41 bear tagged. That's archery and gun combined.

The DNR shortened our firearm bear season, I forget, but they took away the 2 weeks of bear/deer combined season. It was a big change from one season to the next.

You can spin numbers around and make things look how you want them to look. Really, if you're going to be consistent, you need to compare numbers, back 5 or 10 years.

Just a few years ago, here in Hardy Co., our bear kill was up over 100 per season. Looking at that, we're down more than 50%.

Looking at the counties, with the highest bear kill, the big number counties have shifted to the southern part of the state. For the most part.

I'll guess the ice storms that we had in this part of the state, late December, 2022. Probably caused a lot of our bear to either hole up, or just not move.

I checked one of my trail cams the other day, I have at least 2 buck deer that have antlers. One is a spike, the other is a 4 point or small 6. It was snowing hard in the pictures, but they were on the move.

Sow bears produce cubs every 2 years.

Given that you aren't in wilderness and that roads provide access to pretty much everywhere, I'd guess that bears are pretty nervous during hunting season.

The weather might not be the reason for the lowering numbers ..... it isn't that hard to over harvest them. I've done so myself. But, since I am in bush, others fill the spot.

Here where I live, everything is private land, There are very few places where you can get an honest air mile from a road or trail. We can go to the National Forest land, and then you can get out in the boonies.

We have a local hunt club that is over 13,000 acres. I think it's one of the biggest in the state, but there are roads. I'm a member, when I go there, I go with a full tank of gas.

I won't say that our deer and bear get nervous, but they do get spooky. Seems like as a rule, about the 2nd week of buck season (early December) deer and bear are in the thickest and meanest places you can find. Once it gets that time of year, just about all of my trail camera pictures are nighttime.

You see, for years and years, West Virginia only had a bear season in 10 of our 55 counties. What the state refers to as the "Mountain Counties". Today, juat about all 55 counties have a bear season.

The way it worked in this area, in my early years of hunting. Buck season started the week of Thanksgiving, for 2 weeks. The limit was one buck. We couldn't hunt on Sunday, until recently. Then bear season started Monday, after deer season, until December 31. January 1st, all big game seasons were closed, until fall.

I remember when the DNR started our doe season, long time ago.

Our bear population spiked. The DNR added both weeks of buck season, then they added an early September bear season, then they added "youth seasons" and a few years ago started the Mountain Heritage Hunt.

One of the reasons for the original December bear season, The DNR was trying to protect the bred female bear. The DNR's plan worked, we had a pile of bear. Too many bear.

I've mentioned it above or in another thread? From one season to the next, the DNR took away 2 weeks of bear & deer season combined. There are more hunters in the mountains of WV during the first week of buck season, than any other time of the year.

The week of Thanksgiving, kids and family are home, it's been like that for years. And the game is on the run.

Well, I checked 2 of the mountain cameras last week. I cut the road open and checked them about 6 weeks before. I think I mentioned it in one of the other threads, I did have a sow bear and one cub, on the #2 camera. It was this year's cub.

Long story short, I went to a friend's kind of: Yard sale/moving sale a while back. The girl had been selling stuff online for 2 months. I took the car over to pay for and get my stuff, while I was there I ended up buying an oak roll-top desk. It's not really, really old, but it's nice. Very pretty piece of furniture and I've never had a desk.

So, I asked one of my guys if he'd ride along with me in the truck, to help load the thing. For a small desk, that thing is heavy, even without the drawers! We got it loaded, with the help of another guy too.

While we were there, snooping around, still shopping. I wasn't privy to the entire conversation, I just heard my buddy say: I'll buy it for that. Steve bought an upright freezer, and it was crammed full.

Being the good friend that I am to both of them, I offered to haul off the contents.

It took me over an hour to cut off the plastic, wrappers and foil off of that stuff. I dumped it behind my "Lured rock" camera.

That's another story, but there was everything from small game, pork and beef, icecream, and I'll bet there was 10 pounds of country scrapple that I tossed over the bank.

I didn't check the camera that day, because of all of the gunk on my hands. The next time that I did check it, I had a nice bear, I guessed it at 175. It's over 150 but don't think he'll go 200. A nice bobcat, a fox pup, 2 or 3 times. Also have a picture of a momma coon and 6 or 8 little ones. That's a night time picture, but there are eyes scattered across the road.

Last Wendsday, I went up to check the cams, there is a big dead elm tree across the road about 200 yards before the 2n'd camera. The elm took down a maple tree, it's a mess. I walked up and checked the camera, then backed out around the side of for another 200 yards to find a spot where I could turn.

I do have 3 buck deer, one maybe 15 inches wide? Also have a picture of a hen turkey, with 6 or 7 chicks. They are small, body size, I'd guess about the size of an adult quail. They really blend in with the sand and rocks on the mountain.

Think I'll take one of my guys along the next trip to help cut that elm tree. North side of the ridge and it's steep. Not sure?, but it's close to 30 inches on the high side of the road. Might take a snatch-block or 2? The little truck weighs about 4,000 pounds, I'll have it on a down hill haul.

Firewood?

That is good camera action.

Nobody cuts firewood on that property, it'll lay there and rot. Keep in mind, the "road" is nothing but a skidder path. It hasn't been worked for years, it's pretty rough. It's not just that one tree across the road, it's the brush on the road bank and the rocks in the road.

I'll tell you my plan. I've talked to 2 of my guys, they are both pretty good with a saw. The one man is young and strong as a bull. We'll try to pick a morning when it's not so hot, and cut that trash out of the road. Roll the rocks over the bank, and start cutting the autumn olives and spray the stumps.

Last week we had 2 mornings with the temps in the 50's. I'd rather not be up there running a saw when it's 80 plus degrees.

I've been hearing rumors of some nice bucks, here and there. Bear are moving pretty good now too. We don't have as many bear as we did a few years ago, but the couple that I've got on camera so far look good and mange free.

Well, I checked the Lured Rock camera the other day, it had been 6 weeks.

I talked to the 2 guys I had planned on asking to ride along. Both of them had other cash paying jobs lined up, so, figured I'd just cut the tree outta the road myself. Had to cut two trees out of the road before I could get to the tree that I intended out of the road.

Long story short, the road is still blocked. I burnt a tank of gas in my saw, it was getting hot and I had to get to work. I think another hour or so, the road will be ok.

On the #1 camera, I had pictures of 4 different bear. Looks like 2 adult bear in the same picture. That was late June, both of them look nice, glossy and all. I have a smaller bear, maybe a cub from the spring of 2023 ?

And I have one tall and long bear, looks like it has mange on it's face, shoulder and flank. I only had one picture of each bear, just passing through I guess.

Several pictures of coons, pretty nice bobcat, red fox pup and a coyote. And a possum picture. Very few deer pictures, no bucks or fawns.

Lot's of "empty" pictures, we've had some very windy days. Pictures of brush setting of the camera, flapping in the wind.

Wanted to tell you, friend of mine sent me a picture the other week. I had to ask what all he had, I could see the coons. Turns out it was a bear and 8 little coons, all in one picture. Kind of surprised me.

We did finally get a good rain, yesterday and last night. I had 1.90 inches, and the river is still clear as a bell. We need a bunch more.

I'll update the rainfall totals. I had 1.90", Moe had 2.3", five miles east of town: 4.00, 35 miles south (upstream) had 5.50 inches.

As of last evening, the South Fork was up and muddy. It's already crested and dropping. Unless we get more rain, the Fork will be pretty much clear again, in 3 days or so.

I went to the farm yesterday. My brother has one of those high-tunnel/greenhouse things, he's more or less turned over the operation to one of his neighbors. Was told the other day that he's having a heck of a time, growing anything. Coons in the corn, deer in everything.

So I took him a cage trap. Twin fawns were under the apple trees and ran down over the hill. Made a pass through the greenhouse and stole a little bag of goodies. I went on up the road, and there was an adult doe and 4 tiny fawns. I took pictures of them. Not sure if all 4 were the doe's fawns? It happens but that is rare!

Forgot, walking through the greenhouse, I jumped a baby rabbit. So I guess he having problems growing stuff.

Bear got into the honeybee hives on the King property the other day. I didn't see the damage in person, but they did send me a video. It looked like someone was playing a game of 52-Card Pickup, using a deck of bee hives.


Hive boxes, frames and supers were scattered.

The bee man had 24 hives, inside his electric fence. The bear knocked over 20 of 24.

He's had his bees on the property for about 5 years? That's the first time he's had a problem. The bee man took it in stride, he's replaced the hives, back up to 24 active hives again.

I know that he's dealt with this problem before, but that's the first time on our property.

He also has 24 hives on the farm. Last time I talked to him, he's farming over 500 hives. Plus he works 40 hours a week for a man, that has over 1,000 honeybee hives. He's a pro.

My plan worked, pretty much.

Above I mentioned the trees across the mountain road.

I was talking to a friend the other day, he told me the west side gate was open. I told him that I'd left the gate open, trees across the road, let someone else take a turn using a saw.

I burnt one tank of gas, messing with it. Not positive who finished cutting the tree? But I thank them for what they did. There's nothing back that road that anyone can steal or damage. We probably should just leave the gate open after season. But then you'd take the chance of someone getting hurt, or trash it up.

Anyway, I had bear on both cameras, a tall skinny bobcat and a few coon pictures. Don't think we have any grapes, seems like it's been a bad year for raspberries too. I'll tell you there's not much in the woods for the game to eat. We've been so very dry. In some spots looks like we will have a good acorn crop.

I was out the other week, showing a man the property lines of a little piece of land. He was thinking about leasing, to hunt. The ground is so open, the weeds and grasses are not there. But, I was told the man leased the property later that day.

Well, I got word from one of the landowners, on the mountain where I have 3 cameras. Someone stole Brandon's SD card from one of his cameras, left the door open. Told them that I'd check my cameras and let them know what I had.

I checked my first camera yesterday, the only picture that I had out of place was Brandon on his bicycle. They said he wrecked once, didn't get hurt. There are a couple/few humps on that road, I don't think a feller could pedal a bike up. Stop and push it up.

My neighbor gave me 4 buckets of small apples, I dumped them in about 4 different spots. I do have a picture of a nice bear, well over 200 pounds, tall skinny bobcat again. Two buck deer, one is better than decent. Couple coon pictures, and a pic of 2 turkey gobblers.

Talked to my Coke-Cola man today, Ricky said he has a picture of a sow bear, with 5 cubs. Said they were the size of a basketball. He also had a sow with 3 cubs, he guessed they'd go around 40 pounds.

Ricky lives in Maryland, either Garret or Allegheny county? As the crow files, that's only 30 miles from here.

I'll be off work in the morning, might take the dog for a run, check the second camera, hopefully have a picture of someone that might have taken the boy's SD card. If I would have a picture and the person could be identified, DNR will be called. Figure trespassing, theft, plus court costs and all. I'd guess they'd be looking and up close to $1,000. Plus points on their hunting license.

Our hunting license is based on a point system, after so many violations, your license if revoked. Could be for 3 years or could be a lifetime.

Anyway, our woods are dry, we need rain.

Last Friday I took the dog out for a run, I wanted to check my #2 mountain camera. I didn't have any pictures to help figure out who took Brandon's SD card.

I didn't have much time, but figured while I was out there, I'd walk up and check the "Spring camera", and scratch it out a little bit. First I'd been up since back in December. I knew the batteries would be dead, a bear smacked it around, had it looking up in the tree tops. Batteries died in August, honestly, we had more snow on the mountain back in Feburary and March than I remember.

Some of those snows, 6 or 8 inches, it was here today and pretty much gone in a day or 2.

I got to the spring before the dog, the water was muddy and the only thing that I could track were deer. I took a turn on the grubbin hoe, but really it's held up pretty good since the last time I dug it out. Kind of surprised me.

I took a picture of the grubbin hoe, hanging it it's spot, sent that to 2 of the landowners and invited them all to have at it. I forget, only paid $10 or 12 bucks for the thing, not much worry about someone stealing the thing.

Above I told you about the ice storms we've had, there was one spot where I found myself "kinda boxed in", had to go down on all 4 for maybe 15 feet or so? I'm not going to carry a saw up there.

I did find a nice pile of bear crap in the trail, it was fairly fresh, gum berries.

You know the little apples that I dumped the other day, only 2 days before, I couldn't see where they've been touched.

We had a "youth bear" season this past weekend, I know of 2 that were killed. The one was harvested by a little girl, I think she's 9 years old. It was 183 pounds, field dressed and they said it was skinny, no fat at all. Acorns are falling, but most of the ones I've looked at are really small, the size of a sweet pea.

Wednesday of this week I stopped and picked up Moe at his house, he wanted to check his trail cam. Moe is on light duty, he just had surgery, they removed a tumor from his brain. He's not allowed to drive or use stairs, for now. He seems to be doing good.

Moe took his camera down, instead of just changing SD cards. This morning we're going to put his camera back up.

He had pictures of 4 different bucks, one scrub, 2 decent bucks fighting and one buck that I guessed at 20 inches wide. It doesn't have long points, but it's a big bodied deer.

We eased up the mountain road, checked my lured rock camera. I had 2 different bear, a bobcat, coyote, a fox pup, coons and a decent buck. That was on a 3 or 4 week check?

I posted a picture of the smallest bear on my facebook thing. I'd guess that bear around 150 pounds or so? The other bear is around 250#. But I'll check them again, in another 2 weeks or so?

Well, my buddy Moe is street-legal again. He can't ride his buggy, can't do stairs and it'll be a while before he can shoot a rifle. He seems to be doing ok. And he's got 6 weeks of radiation treatments starting soon. Bad thing about that deal, it's over an hour drive to the hospital. Five days per week.

Turkey season was in last week, one morning Moe and I went for a drive. Didn't see or hear anything. Coming home, we checked the trail cam at Wardney's salt lick. I had a small bear, 4 bucks, looked like 2 spikes a 3-point, and one 8-point, I'd guess about 16 inches wide. Very few doe pics. A fox and a coyote. I think was a 4 week check, I think?

We've had frost 2 or 3 nights in a row. Our leaves are not quite at their peak yet, and we're dry again. The rivers are low again.

I hope Moe is back in shape soon.

Leaves are more than half gone but the ground cover is still standing.

Well, I hope Moe gets along good too. Nobody knows exactly what did happen.

Jim, Moe and I have a 3-way chat on facebook. Best friends, and that's the way we stay in touch, and all 3 of us know what's going on.

The other week, Jim invited Moe and I to his camp to shoot clay birds. Moe stopped to pick me up, and we'd go to the camp together. Moe was driving his truck, I noticed going up the road, it seemed like he had tunnel vision. Like his eyes were locked on the road. We were going 40-45 Mph, that's fine. I'd say something like: I see 4 or 5 crows down near the river, he wouldn't flintch. His eyes were locked, dead ahead.

Moe was really quiet. I knew that he was up late watching baseball on TV, and drinking beer. So, I didn't know if he was hungover or what? And another thing, a local boy wrecked his car and was killed on that same piece of road, like 2 or 3 days before. The boy was 26 years old, and a classmate of my daughter. A well known family, so I thought maybe that's what Moe was thinking about? Moe, Jim and I all know the boy's family.

While we were shooting, we were all wearing ear-plugs, taking turns working the trap thing and shooting. So there wasn't much talking going on. We cleaned up the empty 12-gauge hulls using my fishing magnet, it worked good. It picks them up just by the primer.

Coming home, I told Moe, something like this: We were shooting pretty good. He said something like: Yeah. And that was about it.

The more I think about it now, it's very possible that Moe had a stroke, that morning and we didn't catch it. Never once did he say that he didn't feel good or was light-headed or anything like that at all. If he'd told Jim and I, that something was wrong, we'd have taken him to a hospital right then.

Moe's wife Susan caught it that weekend. Susan said his speech was slurred and he didn't want to go visit their friend in Charleston, WV and watch baseball. That's when she took him to the hospital.

Years ago, my Dad had a stroke, doctors told us, that given the chance your brain can kind of "re-wire". And find a new route, for blood to flow. Hopefully, that will happen for Moe.

Doe season is in this weekend, for this part of the state. In a minute I'll going to hunt down the side of the ridge below Moe's house, and try to find one. I'll check on Moe later this morning.

Well, my 2024 big game season started with a very neat hunt.

Friday morning, it was late morning, I parked the truck at log landing, just across from Moe's house. I had both driver's side doors open, decided I needed another jacket. I had 32* that morning. As I was putting on my jackets and blaze orange, I noticed a black spot. I first thought it was a turkey, but it was a bear. The very first animal that I'd seen that morning. It was feeding on gum berries.

It had it's head down mostly, kept getting closer, I was taking pictures. It came up within 50 yards, it kept winding me and the truck. The wind was at my back, sun in my face. We were at the top of what we call Thorn Spring. The bear spooked and eased off, not at a hard run, but was taking long steps.

Thorn Spring Hollow, is exactly where I'd planned to hunt. So, I'm thinking, with a bear going down the hollow, I'll just stay on top. I loaded my rifle and took off. Deed honest, I wasn't out of sight of the truck until I could see 2 fawns standing in the road. The bear was on my right, someplace? The deer took off to my left, there were 3 total. I guess a doe and 2 fawns?

I went on down the ridge another 100 yards or so, there was a fawn that came running up the side of the ridge, that thing was nothing but a streak. It stopped near the top, looked back and tore out again. It might have been able to see the bear from where it was?

I was steady walking, keeping my head up watching. I'd went maybe 150 yards, up high on the ridge, there was a whole herd of deer running toward me. They had their heads down, ears back and tails tucked. I first spotted them about 100 yards off.

That gave me time to step off to the side and go prone, across a log. There were 2 does and 3 fawns. I think it was my 4th try, and finally got them stopped, I shot the biggest doe. She dropped in the road. One fawn ran to the left, at the shot. The other doe and 2 fawns, just stood there, stomping and snorting, looking at the doe on the ground. I took pictures of them.

It's just one of those crazy things that happens now and then. If you spend enough time in the woods, odd things happen. Talking to the mailman yesterday and told him the story. If I'd have been able to talk to the bear, and tell he/she to drop down in Thorn Spring, about 2/3's down and ease down the ridge. That's just about the way it worked.

I'll never know how far I was behind the bear or how far above it? But it was a fun hunt, nice clean kill, and a hunt that I'll remember.

Just for the record, I was hunting with my BAR .270, and the shot was at a range of 39 steps. Moe is to stop by later and get deer meat.

"I think it was my 4th try, and finally got them stopped" how did you stop them?

Congrats.

I'll probably spell this wrong? But I was making a PSSST sound. Same type of sound I use to get a dog's attention.

Sometimes, I'll say or yell "HEY". Sometimes they will stop other times they will speed up.

But I would'nt have had a shot if they didn't stop.

Turkey season is in now, I'm going to pick up Big Donnie at his house in a little bit. We'll be hunting Round Knob and the Square Wood's area, right on the Hardy/Grant county line. Some years that area is loaded with grapes. We'll see.

Well, D. and I didn't amount to much yesterday. We were running on a 1-hour delay, and I had to be at work at 2pm.

I asked Donnie if he had the keys, he said yep.

We loaded up and drove around to the upper gate, turns out we had the wrong set of keys. No big deal. We went back to his house and hunted on his family farm. I did jump 3 deer. The farm is mostly pasture, little clusters of timber, cedars and pines.

I've got a set of metal stamps, I'll mark his keys for him, so that won't happen again. We're going to hunt that area, maybe Friday? Or next week.

Last Friday morning, Big D. and I went turkey hunting, we had the right set of keys this time. We didn't have much time to start with, but it only takes a second to kill one. I guess from Donnie's house to the gate, it's a 30 minute drive, it's not that far air miles, but it takes a while to get there in a truck.

We went in what they call the Buzzard, and parked at the Saddle. There is a low place, between Round Knob and the Square Woods. Big D. headed around the side of the knob, and I started in up high in the Square Woods.

Walking up the mountain, I could see pods of grapes in the timber from 50 yards. Very good crop this season, but there just isn't any pulp, they are mostly seed.

Anyway, going up the ridge I did find 3 or 4 deer scrapes, our ground is dry, it almost looked like the dirt at the scrapes had been sifted. I did jump one deer, didn't get a good look, if it was a buck he didn't have much headgear. Out another ridge or 2, I did see a squirrel, another deer? Or it could have been the same one?

Didn't see any turkey scratching, and the ice storms from a year or 2 ago, have that place messed up too. There is so much timber down, it makes it slow going. On the way back to the truck I did see a chipmunk. As well as I remember, that makes 2 chipmunks that I've seen in the last 6 months. Not sure what is going on there? I remember years when you see 50 in a morning.

Big D. was comming out of the woods, about the same time, he didn't see anything. I took my metal stamps with me, when we got back to his house I stamped his keys. B Buzzard.

D. and I were talking about grouse and woodpeckers while we were on the road that morning. There are a few around, very few. If I'd have flushed a grouse going around the side, that would have made my day. But we had a good hunt.

I stopped this evening and got my buddy Moe, we went up on the mtn and checked my Lured Rock camera, and tossed off that deer carcass from the other week. Didn't have any bear or bobcats this check. I had a couple fox, coyote and coon pictures. Also have pics of a pretty decent buck. Our rifle deer season starts the week of Thanksgiving, 2 weeks from today.

About 3 weeks ago, I bought myself a deer call, if you know what you're doing and all you can grunt and make a fawn bleat. With the same call. I've never used a deer grunt call before, honestly, I've only had it in the woods 2 times so far. I think I'm getting better, my friends seem to think it sounds good.

Anyway, last Friday I went up on the hill below my buddy Moe's house. I parked at the same place where the bear was feeding on gum berries, a week or so before. Turkey season is in now, thinking to myself, turkeys like gum berries too. It's a long shot, but you never know, and only one way to find out.

It was a pretty day to hunt, down in the 30's, partly cloudy, and we'd had about 3/4's of an inch of rain the day before. The wind was hit and miss, just a light breeze, but it seemed every 25 steps or so, it'd be from a different direction.

I had one of my best box turkey calls and my new grunt call, I'd stop every so often and call for a little bit, then grunt for a little bit. I was making pretty good time, with the damp leaves and all.

Long story short, the first deer that I did see was a small buck, maybe a 4 point? He jumped above me, trotted down the ridge. On down, a doe trotted across in front of me, with a little buck, maybe 40 yards behind her. That buck, might have been a 5 or 6 point? Little tiny rack.

I'd been turkey calling and gruntiong off and on, so I don't know if that had anything to do with them moving or not?

After my last grunting, I walked into a little opening, noticed something glossy high on the ridge to my right. It would have been off almost 200 yards. I stopped and looked at it, it didn't move, but just looked out of place. It was in full sun, I was under a cloud at the time. Then I could see another spot out of place, I scoped them over, it was 3 turkeys. One high, another below, and one walking down the ridge. They really didn't move much.

So, I was in full sunshine at that time, I stood there and waited for the next cloud, and drifted down my ridge. Went down 200 yards or so, found a decent spot and watched. Calling off and on. Not sure why, after 20 minutes or so, a fawn came trotting down the ridge, headed toward where the turkeys should have been. I sat tight for another 20 minutes or so, Didn't see anything.

Then my buddy Moe sent me a text: I'm home come on up.

All together, it was a very good hunt. I wasn't in the woods for 3 hours, got to see 2 bucks, 4 deer total, 3 turkeys and 8 or 9 squirrels. All but 2 were tiny little gray squirrels, and I had almost all of them within 50 feet of me. They seemed very calm, but when I'm hunting, I travel about the same speed of a cow.

Stopped and checked on Moe and on back home.

That's the bad thing about having a job, if I'd had another 2 or 3 hours, there is a good chance that I'd have found those birds again. Anyway, nice day to be out, good exercise and all.

I'm not much of a deer hunter, but here goes.

I carry a grunt call and I've used it. This year, during bow season, I had a spike come out. I needed a couple of more seconds before I had a clean shot with the x-bow. The spike snorted and walked off. I called, it started coming back but I never had a good shot. It snorted a couple of times and walked off. I gave a couple of more calls.

15 minutes later it was too dark. A deer wheezed and ran off when I left. Was it the spike coming back or still there? I don't know.

I killed the spike last week during the shotgun season. It's all on Musher's Tails.

Ok, I watched the video. I didn't really get a good look at it's horns, but that's more like a 4-point, according to Tony.

Just about all of my trail cam pictures taken recently are night pictures.

My buddy Joel and I were talking the other day, I let him play my grunt call. He really likes it, so I ordered him one, should be here today or tomorrow? Joel was out the other morning, hunting from a ladder stand, with his crossbow. Just watching a trail, and had a buck come within 20 yards, the way he was sitting, he just couldn't get a shot.

Maybe, if he'd have had a grunt call, he might have been able to get the buck to walk out in a better spot? Who knows?

But about the only place where I plan on using the grunter, is in the really thick stuff. I'll be hunting from the ground, pretty much on the move. We'll have some warm weather during buck season, and the deer will bed down and just not move.

I've hunted from treestands and all, years ago I hunted with a bow some too. I've sat in trees till I was just about numb, from the cold. I'm older now, and have pretty much decided I'll keep my feet on the ground.

That one day that Big Donnie and I hunted, he showed me one of his treestands. I could reach his platform from the ground, I pushed up and pulled down on the boards, it's not in the best of shape. Honestly, Donnie doesn't need to be in that thing.

That stand is probably 20 or 25 years old, built between 2 trees with rough lumber. If there'd be a little bit of frost on that platform, she'd be slick.

Well, for the past 2 weeks I've been out in the woods at every chance. Sad to say, I lost a buck the other day. It was Friday, 11/29/2024, the day after Thanksgiving.

Long story short, I was hunting up the south side of a ridge, and jumped a buck over on the next ridge. Not sure, it probably just spotted me? Don't think it winded me? And I know that it didn't hear me, with the wind and all. It wasn't at a run, not at a trot, more like a sneak.

I could see it's horns, no problem with the naked eye. At first, I thought I'd never get a shot. I stepped off, 3 or 4 steps to the side, trying to get a couple of trees out of the way. I'm not positive, if I went down on one knee, or if I plopped down on my butt? Either way, I had a knee rest. It happened fast! Way faster that I just typed that.

I was tracking the buck in my rifle scope, safety off and ready to shoot. He came into a little opening, things looked good, he was in the clear, as far as I could tell. He was angling away from me, when the gun craacked, the deer dropped.

A split second later, I could see it's head, I could tell it was trying to get up. But I could't see it's body, it just slid into the thick stuff and was out of my sight.

I sat there with my eyes glued to the ridge. Where I was and where the deer was, there's no way that I could cut the distance. If I'd drop down in the hollow, you can't see up that far.

Time will fool you in a spot like that, but I watched that ridge for 30 minutes or so?

Thinking, he's down.

I marked my shot good, marked where I shot from and all. I eased across the hollow, up on the other ridge, honestly looking for a deer on the ground. I went to where the deer dropped, at the shot. Tracked it down the ridge, it was staying about level, and more or less just rolling around the ridge.

Just one deer alone. I was tracking in the leaves, blood and watching my step too. Seemed like the more I tracked it, the better blood trail I had.

It's steep on the north side of that ridge. Thinking about it now, following the blood trail, I could lean off to my left and touch the ground, with my left hand. It's steep!

I stopped in one spot, and sat on a rock, more or less to take a breather and let everything soak in. I could see my flag on the ridge to the north, could pretty much see where the deer was at the shot. I thought right then, I'd better just pull off of the track and find it in the morning.

They were calling for it to get down in the teen's that night. Sitting on the rock, thinking to myself, he's laying here someplace. I could see the blood trail out 15 feet from me. Thinking, I'll take it a little bit more.

Deed honest, I didn't go 40 or 50 yards, and jumped it. About 2 hops and he was gone.

Above I've mentioned the ice storms that we had 2 and 3 years ago. The buck was just on the other side of a "blow-down". He was gone. I tracked it down the ridge, another 75 yards, blood trail was getting better all the time.

I tracked him till 1/2 hour before dark, I didn't shoot him till late evening, and I was a good ways from the truck. Marked the trail good, figured I'd run back up in the morning and find him. I had to get back to work.

Anyway, the temperature dropped into the teens that night, and the wind picked up to 35 MPH. High on the mountain, who knows what the gusts went too? Long story short, the deer is on that ridge someplace.

With the downed timber and all, you'd almost need to step on it. Buddy of mine was hunting up there yesterday, (he knows the story) he found blood, where I last flagged the trail. That blood is a week old. The buck is on that ridge someplace. Last evening at dark, I did see a raven, kind of lost it in the timber. A couple minutes later there were 2 ravens that came out of there someplace.

I'll find that deer. Honestly, I'm pissed at myself, I had a flashlight in my pocket, I should have tracked it right on through that evening.

West Virginia's rifle bear season opened yesterday, 12/9/24. Honestly, I haven't had a whole lot of feedback yet, but guys are telling me that bear are scarce in the mountains.

The mountain where I have 3 cameras, all together I know of 4 or 5 other guys that have cameras out too. None of us have had a bear picture in the last 2 or 3 weeks. We've had some cold weather, here in town I was down to 14*F that one morning, in the teens 3 days in a row.

But I wanted to tell you about some local guys hunting in the corn fields north of town yesterday. Joey and his guys, they killed 2 nice bear. One was 325# and the other one was 353#, both male bear, that was live weight. I looked at both of them, they seemed to be mange free, so hopefully it's ran it's course.

There's not much to eat in the woods, and we still have standing corn in places. We were in the parking lot, a little cluster of us, just talking. Joey said that he'd seen 5 bear that day. They were hunting a river bottom farm, it's only 5 miles below town.

I've talked to 2 guys that were hunting in the mountains, neither of them have found a good track. Mid December, it's possible some of them have holed up.

I'm going to take the dog, and going right back to the ridge where I lost track of the deer. That ridge is as good as anyplace on the mountain, to find a bear. I'd really like to recover that deer, I've relived that shot 50 times in my head.

So, did you go out with the dog?

No, we had a steady rain and it was foggy on the mountain Wednesday, so I stayed home. We had around 3/4's of an inch of rain, then we had a dusting of snow. Some areas here in the county had 3" of snow, it's pretty much all melted now.

In just a little bit, I'm going to take the dog up and search again. We're below freezing now, winds light/variable, I'll be watching for ravens and keeping an eye on the dog's GPS.

The dog and I went to search yesterday. The weather forecast was wrong, we has a steady wind out of the northwest, and we didn't find anything special.

One thing that I did notice, and I noticed the Friday before, something was dragged down the backbone of the ridge to the south. There were 2 other guys up there hunting that day, I just figured that one of them had killed a deer, dragged it off to the road and loaded it up.

I just noticed that the grass and leaves were smashed down. There was no blood or hair. Just after dark, I talked to the 2 guys, neither of them had dragged anything off.

Yesterday, the track was a week old, I could still track it in the grass, where the rocks and twigs had been kicked out of place and all. I followed the track across the road, down the ridge, 30 yards or so? Pretty easy to follow.

Thinking about another friend, he killed a buck up there someplace, so, I asked him today, he killed his deer down near the river, that's a mile from this track. So, it wasn't him.

One thing that I've been thinking about, now if you drag a deer, by it's head, that trail is only going to be, what? 22 to 24 inches wide? This trail is more like 30 inches wide.

Now this trail is, give or take, 400 yards from where I stopped tracking my deer that evening. It's possible that the deer made it that far. I don't know?

But the first chance I get, maybe tomorrow? I'll go back and track that trail up the mountain, back tracking. If it was the deer that I shot, there will be blood or hair or a bed or something. If that's true, I'll take the track down the ridge.

It's very possible that a bear dragged it down the ridge. I don't know?

But I'll find out.

They are calling for bad weather tonight, our roads have been treated. Snow and ice.

I'll give you an update on my latest recovery efforts, I haven't found it yet.

Honestly, I haven't hunted since the day after I fired that shot, I've been taking my rifle, but haven't had it loaded or out of the truck. I've just been searching.

Wednesday, of last week the dog and I made a circle up and across the ridge, worked my way back up to where I pulled off of the blood trail that evening. Brandon has a treestand about 100 yards out, I found it 2 weeks or so ago? I searched out that way, in case the deer did hook off to it's right.

I walked past his treestand, checked it out. It's a 2 piece stand, he's got it up 20 feet or so? Using those little screw-in steps. Went on down past his cell camera, gave him a thumbs up and back off to the road.

I had the dog's GPS control box with me, trying to keep an eye on her location. At one point, just about even with the spot where I stopped on the blood trail. Looking at the GPS map, the dog made a little + . I didn't know that until I was back off to the truck.

At one point the dog came out of the brush, behind me and about 25 yards up the ridge. I know where we were. Between the rocks, the downed timber, the tree tops, the laurel and all, it's thick.

I'm starting to get kind of burnt out, looking for this deer, I'm going to bear hunt every chance that I have until the end of season. I'll be back on that ridge, with the dog. I may never find that deer carcass, if that's true, it's not because I haven't tried.

Talked to Brandon later that evening, told him I didn't like those little screwin steps at the treestand, and he should have me on camera. He got me on the camera and a bear later the same day. That bear knows where my deer is located.

I'm not ready to give up yet.

Good luck in finding your deer,and hopefully a bear also.

Christmas Day the dog and I went out for a run, long story short, I recovered my buck. If you remember above I said that the dog made a little + , on the GPS screen. That's where it was, she'd found it the week before.

The dog just came out of the brush, trotted past me like she has a 1,000 times before, I didn't know what she was doing.

But I had the dog wired up to her GPS and cut her in the wind, when I entered the property. We were about a mile and a half behind the gate, in the target area. I lost sight of the dog, she was north/east at 156 yards, that's straight up the mountain, pretty much. I think the GPS updates every 5 seconds? It was like 155, 157, back and forth. She wasn't moving.

I marked the spot in my head, eased back out the road and I could see her at 129 yards. My dog is a Walker, she's black and white and she stands out in the woods. I walked on out the road, where she was at 99 yards, due east. I hung my rifle on a tree limb and climbed on up there. The dog came back to meet me and took me right back to the carcass. I still didn't see it till I was within 30 feet of it.

I shot the deer on November 29th, and didn't find it till Christmas Day. Two days shy of being a month. The carcass had been rained on 2 or 3 times, it was snowed on at least 2 times. And I'd guess that the bear and coyotes had been messing with it too. Something had dragged it out from under a line of tree tops.

Looking at the carcass, I found where my bullet hit it high and just behind it's left shoulder, I also found where a piece of the bullet hit it high on it's neck. The way that I shot, it was almost like I was shooting down on it, even though the deer was above me. It's steep over on the north side of that ridge, he was going up and at an angle away from me.

Above I told you that I marked the blood trail, late that evening where I stopped tracking, so it'd be easy to find the next morning. As well as I can tell, the deer lost it in the tree tops and went down for good, about 75 yards out. I was out through that area 3 times, and Brandon was out through there at least once. It's just a tangled up mess!

For some people it might be hard to understand why I was even looking for a dead deer a month later. I lost the deer, fair and square. I should have recovered it that same evening, it would have been easy tracking the next morning without the strong winds. I couldn't make heads or tails of anything.

But I found it, now I can put that out of mind. I did drag the carcass off to the road, it's still got some red meat on it's shoulder and it's neck. I called the DNR this morning, it's tagged in so I'm legal to keep it's head. It's a 10 point, but no monster.

Minus it's head, I put the rest of the carcass near my "lured rock" camera. I have intentions of trapping after bear season.

While I was on the phone with the DNR, I asked if he knew of any beaver damage here in the area, the man said none that he knew of local. Bear hunting in the morning.

Glad that you found your buck!They sure can go along ways,even when hit good.

Too bad you lost it, but now you know it died quick.

Yes, I'm glad that I found it. It should be plain to see that stuff like that really gets under my skin.

I had so many questions. I wondered about everything you can think of and more. I thought maybe I'd hit him low, I wondered if the bullet hit a twig and blew up, which it did.

When I first started tracking it, I made a mental note, "down and to the left". I made a mistake while I was tracking, I was going too fast, but it was late in the day, and I was running out of daylight.

I should have flagged the trail and pulled off of it while I was sitting on that rock taking a breather. The buck had bedded down, filling up on the inside, within 75 yards of me.

Instead of tracking and moving right along, I should have been tracking, take 2 or 3 steps, stop and look up ahead and all around. I really expected to find it dead,

Thinking about it now, this is my best guess, when I jumped the deer, I think that was it's last little bit of energy. The trail was down and left. It came into a line of downed timber and tree tops, it turned hard to it's right and almost straight down the ridge. I's guess it was almost in a freefall at the time.

I knew I was getting down near the west side road, I didn't want to jump it again. That's when I flagged the trail, pulled off and went to the truck. They were calling for it to get into the teens that night.

After I flagged the trail, I took one last look, I could see the trail, out 12 or 15 feet. I thought it'd be easy tracking the next morning. I was wrong, the blood trail was gone. I could find blood 10 or 12 feet to my right, blood here and there, I circled around, it was just gone. I couldn't put it all back together.

If you've never lost a deer, you haven't hunted long enough.

My cousin sent me a text saying he shot a nice buck,and was on his
way to find it.
long story short, he had a friend with a tracking dog,and found it
the next day.That deer covered 400 yards and swam across (100 yards)
of a small watershed.
The dog followed it to the water's edge and they used bino's to luckily
spot the deer in the water on the other side.
He never did say were he hit it!

I know this stuff happens, and it sucks anyway that you look at it. I'm pretty careful about the shots that I take, and honestly, that's the first buck out of the last dozen or 15, that I haven't dropped or watched bite the dust. I remember a little 8-point that I shot one day, hunting with Moe, he trotted behind the timber and dropped maybe 30 yards out?

But while I have time, I'll tell you what happened with this last deer. Part of this is first hand, part of it is 20/20 and part of it will be my best guess. I'll start from the start.

I was hunting up the south side of a ridge, headed east, up near the top of the mountain. I jumped this buck, he was low on the north side of his ridge, headed up and away from me. I got situated, he came into a little opening (I thought) and I touched one off.

The deer hit the ground, I didn't know it at the time, but it fell with it's feet uphill. It slid up against a log, trying to get up, all I could see was it's head. I just didn't have anything to shoot at again. Thinking about it now, he would have been out 150 yards or so? Maybe a little bit more? But less than 200.

I sat tight, pretty much glued to that ridge, but there were 2 spots that I just couldn't see. I got a glimpse of it, for a split second, if I'd have had another split second, I could have had another shot, and finished it right then.

The deer got into the second blind spot, I waited and thought for sure he was down for good. Because of the brush, wine berry vines, and all the other briers, I had to swing wide right, up and around to get over there. I flagged the spot where I shot from.

I went to the spot where he first went down, and really I was just tracking him in the leaves. I remember one stretch, I only found one little speck of blood in probably 50 feet. It was just one deer alone, tracking gets really tough when you've got 3 or 4 deer all mixed up together.

Not to step on anyone's toes, but a lot of guys would take a look at that trail, and think: I must have just nicked him, and walk away. Sad to say, but true.

The blood trail got better and better. He was still going down and to the left. Going through the brush, I found a couple small saplings that he's painted up, if you know what I mean.

It was getting late in the day, and I should have pulled off of the track right then. Give it time. But I didn't.

I thought I'd take it a little bit more, and find it dead. The deer jumped, just on the other side of a line of downed timber. I did my best to "read", where it bedded. I had blood on the left, blood on it's right and out front. 20/20, I did get part of it's lungs.

My best guess, when he jumped, that was his last wild run. Running on instinct. Going down the ridge, that was a really good blood trail.

Thinking about it now, if I'd have had another hour of daylight, I'd have came home with it on the truck. I had a flashlight, just one. Where I was, with the timber down and all, it's just not a good place to be after dark. I don't trust that little light that much.

There is a lot more to the recovery and all. Anyway, I'm still pissed at myself, but I found him.

I've thought about this too, if I'd have passed up that shot, there would have been a chance for me to kick him out again. That way I'd have been able to hunt, and not search. I'd way rather hunt.

If you have never made a bad shot on an animal, you haven't shot at much.
Just my opinion!

I agree a feller will make a bad shot from time to time.

One of the first things that I thought about with this last deer, I wondered if my bullet had hit a twig. It did. Who knows how far in front of the deer? Who knows how many grains of the 130 grain bullet hit the deer? We'll never know.

The little cut, high on the deer's neck, was probably just a piece of the bullet's jacket? My best guess.

I think that I've mentioned this before, but I'll go over it again.

Years ago I was out hunting with my BAR 270. I was up high on the mountain hunting around the side, above a rock ledge. I remember about where I was. Long story short, at the base of the ledge, I kicked out a buck. I guess it winded me?

Anyway, when the deer jumped, it ran down his ridge, and while it was running down the mountain, I was getting into position. I'm pretty aggressive about getting a better shooting position. I mean, I might take 2 or 3 steps off to one side to get a tree-rest, or go down on one knee, or go prone. It just depends.

When the deer jumped, it didn't know where I was, he just ran. I got into a better position, the deer ran down the ridge, off in the hollow and stopped. He was just about broadside to me, I'd guess about at 125, 150 yards. (Before the ice storms, you could get an honest 200 yard shot on the ground).

Anyway, the only thing between me and the buck was a dogwood tree, just about in the middle. Half way to me, half way to him. I know some of you guys have wild dogwood trees, some of you might not. Dogwood trees are a slow growing tree, with dense wood and a dense canopy. Pretty white bloom in the spring, little red berries in the fall.

Through my scope, things looked good. I touched one off, the deer just stood there, other than it's head he didn't move. I could see the top of the dogwood tree shaking and all.

Things looked good to me, so, I fired my second shot. The deer just stood there, I could see the top of the dogwood twisting around an all.

I squirmed around and took a little bit of a different hold and fired my 3rd shot. The deer never took a step.

Thinking to myself, my last round is in the chamber, I'd just wait him out. I really expected it to just burn out around the side of the mountain, a run out of sight.

I waited and waited, he finally started to walk out from behind the dogwood tree. Like he was walking stiff legged. Thinking to myself, give me 2 more steps, and when he did, I dropped him.

I had to circle around to get down off of the ledge, walked by the dogwood tree. It looked you'd blasted it with a load of #2 shot from a shotgun.

Just a small twig will deflect a bullet. But that's one of those things, if you're hunting, it happens.

One other thing that I will add, that's the first and only time that I've ever emptied that rifle hunting. I did have a spare clip in my pocket. Just in case.

I'll add 2 links from WV Metronews, about WV's deer harvest.

https://wvmetronews.com/2025/01/02/west-virginia-buck-harvest-falls-for-a-second-straight-year/

https://wvmetronews.com/2025/01/04/ehd-and-fewer-hunters-contributed-to-lower-buck-numbers/

Bear harvest numbers should be out soon.

Here is a link to WV's Mountaineer Heritage hunt.

And it looks to be cold. Here in the valley we've got about 7 inches of snow, up in the mountains, it goes up to 15 inches or better. I've got 16*F now, a friend that lives an hour west of here has 6*. With a pretty good breeze too.

The snow is still drifting.

https://wvmetronews.com/2025/01/08/mount...ode-to-history/

That EHD is happening in Pa. as well!
The Game Warden said we had the perfect storm this past spring
and summer for it to happen. Also said after some good frost,it would go away.
The older hunters are dying off,and we need to get the phones and tablets out
of the younger generations hands,or we might lose hunting the way we know it.

In Wisconsin, a hunter can use a muzzleloader during any season that uses a firearm. There also is a special muzzleloader season, for deer only, right after the standard gun hunt season. Pistols are not legal because some can be loaded through the cylinder. Bear hunting has it's own special season, and method.

I agree, we're dying off faster than we're being replaced. Sad to say, but I think it's like that for everything outdoors. Hope I'm wrong.

That one link above has a couple good points. It's just like the property where my friend Diana lives, that property was busted up in 20 acre lots. It's ruined. And the prices, they are just out of line for the average working man.

I might have mentioned this before? But back during the Covid mess and all, there were for sale signs all over the place. Washington, DC, isn't really that far from here, 3 hours or a little less.

Those folks were looking for a place to get away, and the real estate business was booming. I noticed one property that was for sale, so I took the phone number and called later. The price was way out of line, but someone bought the place.

I was out scouting the other morning, we had a pretty good snow in the mountains. Going up the road, there were 2 fawns standing on the shoulder of the road. Gotta be careful driving now, that little strip of grass and road salt will draw them in.

Anyway, those fawns were tiny. My dog weighs 75# and she's bigger than those fawns. Went on up the mountain, just tracking out the road, other than a coyote, handfull of deer and squirrels, that was it. The snow had been on for a week.

Snow drifts pretty good up near the top, where the road breaks off on the west side, looked to be up to the headlights on my S-10, so I figured we'll just let things ride for another few days.

While I was on the mountain, I tracked a couple of fawns, deed honest I think you could have covered their little tracks with a Quarter. A 25-cent piece. That's not a good sign. There's not much up there for them to eat, now it's under snow.

The ground was froze before the snow, and I expect it to stick around for a while. I noticed 2 months ago, where the deer were eating the pine brush. It's mid January, it's going to be tough on the game.

Last Friday, the 17th, I went up on the mountain just to check things out. That batch of snow was 2 weeks old (3 weeks now), I'll tell you it was just too much for small game to navigate. That snow was a dry, fine textured snow and it was blowing and drifting for 10 or 12 days. Anyway, we had a couple warm and sunny days, the snow settled and crusted over with a heavy crust. Some places deer could walk on top.

The drifts still have the road messed up, and probably will for a while? My "lured rock" camera is only a half or 3/4's of a mile behind the gate, so I walked out, just tracking the road. Didn't see any game, I did track a bobcat, an old track. Most of it was drifted over and closed up.

The last deer carcass that I tossed over the bank, doesn't seem to have been touched. And there is a little bit of meat on it yet. I might have the bobcat on the camera, I didn't mess with it.

Sunday of this week, we got another snow. Here at the house I had 5 inches, it's a better tracking snow. Critters have had 5 nights to make tracks. So, I'll ride up tomorrow and walk out there again.

Depending on what I track, I might set snares in the morning? I'm not sure, but I'd guess there is going to be a good 10 inches of snow on the ground. Minus the crusty snow, about 5 or 6 inches?

We've had our 3 coldest days of the winter this week, starting Tuesday, I had 2*F, Zero and I had 1* this morning.

Still no word on the bear harvest, that should be out soon. Talking to some of our local hunters, it seems like the cold days we had before Thanksgiving/buck season, they just stopped moving.

Walking out the road the other day, I noticed a single deer track that had walked over and was eating on a laurel bush. In the mountains, that's about the only thing they do have to eat. Never know how the deer herd will fair this winter? But this weather is going to be tough for those little tiny fawns that I've mentioned.

We got the same weather pattern here! 6 inches of new snow and -8 for a low.
I have farm land around me ,and the deer are digging in the cornfields.

Yes, about the same as here. Big difference between here in town and up in the mountains. Friends in all directions have been below zero degrees.

Up on the mountain today, just not much action. The new snow has been on since Sunday, I did track a coyote, looked to be 2 or 3 days old. The snow at that elevation is a dry/fine snow. Still good for tracking.

Very few deer tracks. But I did track a weasel, that's the first and only weasel I've ever tracked in that area.

It came into the road, kind of zig-zagged across the road for 75 yards or so? Checking out every stump and snag along the way.

Not much traffic up the main road, but it is about half slick. I walked in again today, just not much sign, and the snow is good.

I'll give you an update. Monday, January 27th, my buddy Steve stopped by for a chat. Steve is retired, lives alone, just him and his dog. Steve goes out for a drive, just about everyday, sometimes it might just be a short trip. Other days he might ride around 75 or 80 miles, or more.

Anyway, Steve told me that he'd tracked where a bear had crossed D. Run Road. That's 25 miles out of town. Just happens, my buddy Ashby lives in that area. Long story short, I told Ashby there was a bear track on the east side of the mountain.

I was a little bit shy about telling Ashby, I didn't see the track in person. And as far as know, Ashby is still working 6 days per week and not getting home till 8pm. He's young and must be as tough as a pine knot.

Ashby sent me a message, later that night, right at bedtime. His old "cold nosed" dog rigged the track. He said she rigged it hard and had his truck rocking. He sent me a video of the track, I could hear his dog hammering.

It was warm that day, and on the south side all he could make out was it's toes and claws. There was still 6 or 8 or 10 inches of snow in places. Then, Jack's son tracked a bear about 2 or 3 miles north, could have been the same bear? We'll never know why it was up moving, there's nothing out there to eat.

We had some warm days, the snow melted off here in the valley, higher up it was slush and then it rained. Most of the river ice had melted, the rivers got high, but right here locally it was no problem. Our streams go down fast.

Otherwise, I've not been hearing of any bear being seen or caught on camera. Still hearing of a few bucks with antlers yet.

Our ground is pretty much soaked now, yesterday we had anywhere from over an inch of rain, sleet or ice. Some places the timber is down big time. The rivers are up now, more than they have been for a long time. The rain has stopped now, give the rivers till daylight and we'll be back to normal, pretty much. As of an hour ago, some of the back roads are flooded.

We're muddy here and can't go anyplace without a chainsaw.

I'll give you another update. Sunday, Feburaary 9th, I checked the weather forecast. They were calling for 100% chance of snow on Monday, 90% chance of snow on Tuesday. And it did snow, but very lightly. School was canceled both days, and a delay on Wednesday. Long story short, right here in town we had about 4 inches total. I know that's not much, but this county covers a good bit of ground.

Longer story short. The snow stopped sometime Tuesday night, after my bedtime? Wednesday morning, I tracked out the mountain, a little bit more snow up there. I found a weasel track, same place as before, and that was it. There for about a 2 mile stretch, there wasn't even a snowed-in deer track.

I checked the "lured rock" camera, it'd been about 6 weeks since the last SD card change. I did have a picture of a bobcat, that was about 3 weeks old. And pictures of 4 or 5 deer, they were all the taken the same day. It's possible it was only 3 deer? They were eating pine brush and laurel on the edge of the road. Otherwise, nothing.

Last Friday, with the same snow on the ground, I checked out a different spot. It's a little bit higher ground, up around 3,200 feet, still had a good soft tracking snow. Other than a couple sets of deer tracks, the only tracks I found were a pair of coyotes. The tracks looked to have been made right at the end of the snow.

I've talked to a half dozen of my best friends, it just seems like nothing is moving.


Here is a link to the WV bear harvest. https://wvmetronews.com/2025/01/28/bear-harvest-lower-but-not-significantly-for-2024/

Talking to different guys that bear hunt with dogs and all, about the only thing we can figure, is the first batch of cold weather we had, they just stopped moving. Another thing we've thought about, with them going in early, maybe we'll have an ever bigger bear harvest this comming fall and winter. We'll see.

I was grouse hunting in late January with the temp around 5-10 below
and jumped a bear out of its bed! That bear was sleeping under a pine tree
and had pine needles pulled up around the tree.
I also was trailing one while checking my coyote and bobcat sets,
he was following a creek,and fell in the water at the only deep hole in that area.
The ice was froze over so maybe it was trying to cross the creek.
It seems in the areas that i hunt,the animals come down to the low areas and feed.

Flushing out a bear always makes for a good day. Talking about grouse, I don't recall even tracking a grouse last fall or winter. We have a few, and it seems they are all up in the highest mountains.

Above in this thread I've mentioned my buddy Brandon. Don't think that I've told you this before, Brandon's family owns the local sawmill. It's a top of the line mill, it's mainly a rail mill. They saw posts and all for a rail fence. His family is one of the owners of the mountain where I hang out.

We stay in touch, share pictures an all. Some of the pictures we get on our trail cameras, we don't share with the public. It just cuts down on problems.

Anyway, at the mill they have all kinds of equipment, so Brandon took their trackhoe to the mountain the other week. Above I've told you about me scratching out the spring with a grubbing hoe.

I asked Brandon to take his hoe up to the spring and make us a little pond. After all of the days that he's hunted that mountain, he didn't know exactly where it was located. I gave him directions, and he found it. He sent me a picture, we have a nice little water hole now.

I have been looking for turkey sign,It seems to be a few around.
Also keeping my eye on leeks,they are just coming up here.
That spring should be a good place for a trail cam!

Yes, I have a camera at the spring, it is a good spot. Someone else has a camera up there too, I guess it belongs to Chris? I haven't talked to him for 8 or 10 months?

Trying to explain to Brandon, the best way to get his hoe up the mountain to the spring. There is a skidder path, it's about 30 years old, and with every rain and freeze and thaw, the path is getting smaller. Years ago a man told me that after 50 years, Mother Nature will pretty much take erase all of the cuts. I'd say that's about right.

I told Brandon to be careful, it's steep and rough. He told me later that he was puckered to the seat going around that one turn. His trackhoe weighs 8,000 pounds, so it's not a big hoe, and it's not a toy either. But a hoe is top-heavy compared to a dozer.

Anyway, he said that it took him an hour and a half to walk that thing back to the end of the road. For anyone that has ever operated a vehicle on tracks, that's a long and bumpy ride.

Brandon texted me while he was at the spring, and asked about trying to bring the hoe down the hollow. I told him there was a lot of timber across the hollow. and it's steep and rocky. He texted me back in a few minutes: Nope, I'm not going down the hollow.

We talked about this a month ago, I asked him to block the trail when he came back off. So he blocked it off, and said nobody will be using the trail. It's just one of those places where game can get out of the way. If you want to hunt that area, you will walk. I like spots like that too.

In one of the other threads I mentioned the bobcat that I watched cross the road, 2 weeks or so ago. It just happens that my friend Diana saw one the other day, and my buddy Willie got to see one too. All 3 of us within a week or 10 days time.

I've been asking, as far as I know, nobody has seen a bear yet. They should be out moving. I know guys that are still getting bucks on their cameras. I haven't checked my cameras for a while, I figure batteries are dead in a couple of them.

Someone was selling ramps here in town over the weekend, I think $10 for a shopping bag full. I've planted ramps all over the place, doesn't seem like they are spreading.

A man told me yesterday that he heard a gobbler. People are seeing them out in the fields a good bit. I did see 6 or 8 big birds a week or so ago. It's time.

Friday morning I took the dog to the mountain, wanted to check my cameras, check out Brandon's work, cut the dog in the wind and put out some salt. I dumped three 50# bags of white salt. It's just regular salt for livestock, it's around $6 per bag? Two spots are old saltlicks, and I started a new one. Game will find it.

I'll tell you Brandon did a really good job, he was up there at least 2 days. He spent a good bit of time running a chainsaw too. He started a mineral lick, and sowed a clover/alfalfa/chicory mix, in the places he was down to bare ground. It hasn't been long, but the clover is already up. It's just 2 little leaves, right at ground level now, but it's looking good. We've had some good rains lately, the ground is moist.

Above I said that someone had stolen one of Brandon's SD cards, last fall or so? When you first turn onto the right-of-way to this property there is a pipe gate. Back when they put up the gate, folks didn't have 4-wheelers and side/by/sides and such. There was room on one end of the gate, where you could squeeze past.

We knew that people were going around the gate, and nobody really cared. Until someone stole that $10 SD card. I talked to all of the landowners, we all agree, that crossed the line. So, while Brandon was up there with his trackhoe, I had him put a boulder in that spot and plug the hole.

I've said this before, it's about like a padlock, it'll keep an honest man honest.

Anyway, I checked 2 of my cameras. I hadn't checked them since back in deer season. I have a picture of a buck taken on March 23rd, it's a 6-point or small 8? And have a picture of a bear, taken April 7th. We've guessed it to be around 150 pounds. Only 1 bobcat picture, several coons, zero fox, and one coyote.

But since November, that is the first and only bear that I've got on camera. I do have a picture of 3 gobblers, one is strutting, fanned out and all. People have been hearing them off and on.

West Virginia's spring turkey season opened April, 21st. Plus a 2 day youth season, the Saturday and Sunday before the regular season.

I've only had a chance to get out 4 times, so far, seems like they are very quiet. Wednesday of the first week, Big Donnie and I had a good round with one. Donnie just had his left knee replaced, so he's on light duty. I told him they probably used a Black Angus knuckle. But I helped him find a good spot, I pulled back about 40 yards and told him we'd just hang tight and call for an hour and a half or 2.

Donnie said it gobbled about 45 times, also said he could hear a hen with him. So, probably more than 1 hen? The bird stayed just out of sight, D. said he was about 60 yards for a while. I gave him the best I could muster on 3 of my favorite calls. The rascal walked away from us. We should have killed it, and probably would have if we'd been more agressive. With Donnie's knee, it's not worth the risk.

We were back on the same property Wednesday of this week, didn't hear a peep.

The other 2 days I've been out, I haven't heard a bird. With my ears, I hear stuff, and just can't tell for sure. But about everyone that I've talked to, say they are just not gobbling much.

I'll give you a turkey report. I know of a couple that have been harvested, but not many here local.

My buddy Jim is hunting with friends in PA this week. He said that they have turkeys out the butt, where they are hunting. Jim sent me pictures yesterday, with 4 guys hunting, they killed 3 long-beards before 10 O'clock. I haven't heard from him yet this morning.

We've talked about food plots for the game a little bit. I drove on the Ratliff Place the other morning, there are 4 or 5 guys that have the property leased for hunting. I bumped into Chuck and Joey, they were getting ready to till up another little area. They have a small farm tractor, it's 4WD with a bucket on the front and a tiller on the back.

There is a transmission powerline that goes across the property, most of the food plots they've made, are in the right of way. Honestly, they are looking good. But one thing that I want to point out, they have a piece of twine, like a chalk line. The line circles the food plots, about waist high, with surveyor tape about 6 feet apart.

I asked the reason for all of that stuff, Chuck said it's to help keep turkeys from messing around. I know another man that broadcast wheat, before it had a chance to sprout, the turkeys had pretty much cleaned it up. He said they were in there everyday. I guess those ribbons flapping in breeze might help ?

Above I told you that my buddy Jim went to PA, to turkey hunt. He was there about a week< he's home now. One day last week Jim and I went out here local, and he told me about his trip.

Jim said he was hearing 8 to 10 different gobblers, all but 1 day that he was there. I forget, but I think it was really windy that one morning and he only heard 1. But he was seeing 15 or 20 turkeys just riding around changing spots and all.

The morning that he and I went out here local, we were in some good turkey woods, we never heard a peep. He's hunted about every day of season, I think today makes 6 days in a row that he hasn't heard a gobble. I guess they are done?

Seems like our spring season is always 2 or 3 weeks past peak gobbling.

Early in this thread, I mentioned someone's campsite on one of my landowner's property. With the tent, little fireplace thing, growing dope and all. It was in the fall, I think 2 years ago?

Anyway, the landowner's son told me 2 or 3 weeks before turkey season came in, he was out there feeding the cows. He said every time that a cow would bawl, a turkey would gobble, up in there someplace near the campsite. I told him that I'd go check out the campsite and turkey hunt one morning.

I was out there yesterday morning, the tent is still there, nobody home. But someone has been there since the last time I was there. The tent hasn't been used for a while, but I'll check it again in 2 or 3 weeks. He or she has trash and junk scattered all over the place.

I think in my original comment about the tent and all, I said that there was a shovel, one of those little garden tools used to fluff his dope patch. Where I took the hatchet and brought it home. I brought the garden tool home yesterday, it's a "Hound Dog". About 20$ or so? Showed it to the landowner today, he said he didn't want the thing.

But if I'd happen to run into the person that made all of that mess, I'll either run them off or call 911. The landowner doesn't want anyone living on his farm. But I never heard a peep yesterday. Guess I should have let out a cow bawl?

It's a shame how some people treat others property.
The turkeys are giving me a hard time this year,I
also think our season starts to late.

One thing that I forgot to mention above, not sure if it's like this everywhere or not? But I've noticed more poison ivy and oak this spring than ever before. Or "3 leaf greeny" as some of us call it. The other morning when I went to check on the campsite and all, I walked up this ditch line, and the poison was almost waist deep. Plus it was growing on the trees. 150 yards up through that mess, I figured about half way, I'm gonna come out on a different route!

My buddy Jim is back in Pa. I'm not sure exactly where he's hunting, but it's someplace over around Washington, Pa. Jim said the place is just loaded with turkeys. They killed one yesterday, said it was pouring down rain today.

Jim and I talked about this the other day, a good fire would do our woods good. It'd be good for the game and healthy for the woods. But, there are so many camps and homes in the mountains today, it's almost impossible to have a fire.

Finally talked Moe into going hunting with me, we're headed out in the morning. Our season ends Sunday, the 25th. We're going to hunt just across from his house, there should be turkeys in that area. I'd love to see him blast one. Or at least have a good round with one.

I hope Moe gets one!

You guys will have a great time regardless.

Moe and I went out Friday morning, I picked him up at his house. He wasn't dressed for hunting, he was along for the ride.

We drove over to the ridge across from his house and on down to a little point. It's a good spot to listen and call. The temperature was in the 40's, so it was chilly and damp but the wind was calm. Beautiful morning really.

I dropped down on both sides of the ridge and down below the point and tried to stir up a gobbler. Moe owl hooted a time or 2. I've been owl hooting with my voice, just started doing that last spring. Seems like sometimes you can move 50 or 75 yards and have one answer. But we stayed there about an hour, I'd guess? Didn't hear a peep. So we moved on up the mountain, maybe 3/4's of a mile.

When we got there the wind had picked up, had the leaves flipped upside down, I didn't even call. And not much reason to listen. We went on up to the end of the road, just sitting there talking. Honestly, that's the main reason for our ride that morning. I wanted to talk to him.

You see, Moe's doctor took his keys away from him about a month ago, told him not to be driving. I know that was hard on Moe, and about the only thing that he'd been doing was sitting around the house watching baseball games.

This past week, his doctor gave Moe his keys back, but only for local trips. That's what we were talking about. I don't want to see him wreck and hurt himself and it'd be so much worse if he'd hurt someone else.

We should start another thread. I honestly don't understand the doctor's reasoning. You'll meet more oncomming traffic driving through town, than you will in an hour on most of our local roads. But if he'd happen to have a little fender-bender, he'll be grounded for good.

It's a tough thing to do, but when the time comes, you don't have a choice.

It was good of you to take Moe hunting!
I believe getting old,and being stuck in the house,
makes you older.
The turkeys won this year!

I agree, a feller has got to stay on the move. Or you'll fall apart.

A couple things that I forgot to mention in my comment above, Moe and I aren't family related at all. My family and Moe's family are just long-time family friends. I knew Moe's parents and Moe knew mine too.

Moe is a little bit older than me, and I treat him just the same as if he'd be my brother.

That morning Moe and I were talking, I offered to let him drive, (you can't hurt my little truck). He'd been grounded for a little bit, but he was content to ride.

Anyway, I told him to be very careful, while he was out on the road. Before I took him back to the house, he told me that it was: Just nice to get out. I understand and I agree.

Yesterday when I was cutting and spraying autumn olives, Moe called me when I was on the way off of the mountain. (I told him what I'd be doing.) He invited me to stop by for a cold one. I'll tell you, after wearing rubber gloves, long sleeves, messing with a chainsaw and sprayer most of the morning, I didn't turn down the offer!

One of my hunting spots have a lot of autumn olives!
That stuff sure makes a tangled up mess,but the rabbits
have the underneath bare.
In my younger days i worked for a guy,and they took his father licence away,
he had to hide all the keys to different vehicles,or his dad would find them
and off to town he went. I felt sorry for that old timer!

Yes, it's a bad situation.

A while back one of my landowners stopped by and told me that they'd just made hay, in the one field. He said to help myself with the groundhogs. It was the Sunday morning after July the 4th.

His property joins a trailer court, not sure, maybe 40 homes or so? On Sunday's I try not to shoot until 8am. Don't want to cause problems.

Anyway, I eased up the farm lane, looking right, left and ahead. The lane is beside a fence line, pasture on my side, hay field on the left. I didn't see it until I was 4 feet from the thing, there was a fawn deer stuck in the fence. Tell you how small it was, it tried to jump through a woven-wire fence, with 6 inch squares. That's part of that fence line I've mentioned before, that cost my landowner $28,500. It's a good fence and the wire is stretched tight.

I sized it up, nothing was broken, looked like the wire had pretty much cut a ring around it's leg, just above it's hoof. So I grabbed it with both hands across it's shoulders and picked it up. Guys, that thing let out a long and loud bawl and flew into a kicking fit. So I was holding it in one arm, right back leg in my other hand. I took a half a step toward the fence and it yanked it's foot free. It ripped off another long and loud bawl, and started kicking like crazy again. It happened so fast, I just dropped it. The fawn jumped up and took off, when it went across the hump and outta sight, he/she was running like the wind.

It was nice out that morning, the only thing I was wearing is my hunting shorts, boots and my hat. The fawn's hair felt sticky, on my arm and belly while I holding it. But, all of that might have taken 30 seconds.

I didn't notice it until I got in the truck and put my hand on the steering wheel, both of my hands were bleeding. I knew it was kicking like crazy, but that little turd cut me in 5 places.

I was running short on time this morning, I'll add this little tidbit. I love to hunt deer and they're pretty good eating too. At the same time, I hate to see an animal die in the situation that it was in. If it'd been all broken up and all, I'd have put it down. But as well as I could tell, it was 100%, when it ran off.

I'd guess that it would have died in the fence before dark, and most likely the black vultures would have picked it apart before sundown. ???

One day last week, I stopped to get my buddy Moe, took him up on the mountain and checked the "lured rock" camera. I had a bear, a coyote, coons and 2 almost decent bucks. We did see a doe and 2 fawns going up the road. That's about it. Dog had a good run too.

As the Old Timers would say: The air is a changing. It is, it's starting to feel like Fall.

We haven't had a frost yet, but I've had temps in the 40's, 3 days this week.

Wanted to tell you, I went to the farm the other day, (more or less to make one last raid on the garden). There were 8 young turkey gobblers in the pasture above the greenhouse. All of them had little beards, 3 or 4 inches long. I'd say those turkeys hatched during the spring of 2024. A year and a half old now?

They were out under some white oak trees, not sure if the acorns are starting to drop, or if they were after grasshoppers and crickets? Anyway, they were nice looking birds.

I've had friends show me pictures of some really nice buck deer. A couple out past 20 inches or so? My buddy Jim sent a video the other morning, he had 8 rack bucks. Two of them were pretty nice. Trash man said he'd seen 5 or 6 bucks in a herd. I've got another friend that has 5 in her back yard about every morning.

But, keep in mind, that's 20 miles from this herd of bucks to the next herd. In another month or so, they will fan out, split up and all. And then you're dealing with 1,000's of acres.

From what I've seen, in some spots, our deer population is doing good. In other areas, there are less.

One thing that puzzles me, nobody is or has seen many fox/coon squished in the road. I mean that's with the mailman, trash guys, Pepsi man, Coke man, and my friends that travel. That's really odd.

Turkey season came in a week or so ago, in my part of the state. Check the regulations.

Big Donnie and I went out last Wednesday morning, more or less scouting. I'll tell you we have a really good acorn crop. The hickory trees produced good in some spots. Walnut trees were loaded this fall.

We rode across the top of the mountain, on one of the clubs, came off on the east side. I did track a coyote and an adult deer in that one sand spot in the road. We did see a squirrel. Seems like the acorns are both, up high and low.

Friday morning the dog and I made a little circle on the farm (where I's seen those young gobblers) couldn't find them again. I did see a nice looking fawn, it's spots are gone now. 2 squirrels, 2 red-headed woodpeckers, and a cow.

The cow was up in the woods eating acorns, acorns will kill a cow. I talked to the local vet later that day, he said that acorns will cause kidney failure. I was always told that the shells would cut up their stomach? Either way, I put the word out, the man stopped by later and told me that all of his cows were back inside the fence and accounted for. I'd hate to see one of my landowners lose a %1,500 cow. It's a real chore keeping up a fence.

But I couldn't find the turkeys.