Rat's Another hunting season in the books

[dbutch]

Time to reclaim the top of the work bench....

My hunting season starts With duck blind building Memorial day weekend and ends Jan 31 st on squirrels...Sure was fun..with the high temps and dry conditions this summer I noticed quite the affect on habitat.
Ducks concentrated..less deer hanging in the usual spots etc. fewer squirrels. Woodcock numbers up..grouse down...turkeys were a no show.
Another enjoyable season using black powder Fowler's and rifles.

My turkey tag kicks in April 10..looking forward to it already.....

Any body else notice a difference?

 

[flyfisher76544]

Major changes here. We had a good early wet spring, but that quickly changed with our dry summer. Several of our duck holes were bone dry as well as the swamps. Ducks were concentrating on the rivers and what ponds still had water. Deer and hogs were staying close to water during the early season, but as a few storms finally hit, every animal spread out. Acorn crop was good, but that just let the animals spread out. Seemed like every oak was dropping acorns this year which made it extremely hard to narrow down which oaks were being targeted. I did notice that the squirrels went to "ground" earlier this year than previous years.

 

[roundball]

September was outstanding as I had a few good private outings around some tobacco fields and for the first time managed to get several doves using 20 & 28ga Flintlock smoothbores.

But then in November/December I had the worst deer season in I don't know how many years...ultra-huge acorn crop may have played a role.
With prep & travel, average 5 hours / trip x 28 trips = 140 hrs. Only saw 11 deer = 13hrs invested per deer sighting.
Only able to get 3 (47hrs invested per deer harvested) to the needy family that takes them.

Then I started with the squirrels and while only a few to date with the 28ga and the .40cal, they were very good little hunts and while walking the property I was scouting potential new stand locations. I still have through the end of February for squirrels so I'll go a few more times and be looking for sheds while I'm out there.

Turkey opens April 13...a little later than usual but I'll be after them...going to try to check off another hunting experience using a PRB like the settlers usually did. While rifles are not allowed for turkey hunting, I found from our WRC that it's legal out of a smoothbore...and I'll be on posted private property by myself, shooting 18" off the ground at a 25-30yd target, so no safety issues with other hunters.

 

[Twowithone]

Pa.s ended yesterday also.

 

[hanshi]

I bombed out this year though I was partly to blame. Now I'm looking forward to April and turkey season.

 

[luieb45]

Our ducks got all spread out this season due to the lack of cold fronts in November. It really sucked to get up and hunt and only see 5 ducks on a hole that usually you would see 200 or better.

 

[vthunter52]

Waterfowl on Lake Champlain this year was way above average, especially the late diver season.

For some reason the deer stayed hidden. Tracked 2-3 through the mountains,but they have moved to be much more nocturnal of late. We only have a 16 day season in Nov. followed with a late 10 day ML season in Dec. You really have to have done your work early. Lately the rut has been getting variable due to the changing weather, and pressure. We now have deer not being bred until late Dec., which is not historically common in the North Country. Turkey opens May 1, and already,I've spotted some good Toms! The coming year is always a mystery,and that makes the challenge all that much more interesting.

 

[Rat Trapper]

Spring turkey and fall turkey was successful. Duck hunting wasn't as good as 2011, but better than some years. Pheasant hunting went well. Lots of deer on trail cameras, but they pretty much failed to show where I was sitting all fall. With lots of small and big bucks on camera, it was a disapointment to not see them during my time in the woods. During ML season I did pull the trigger on couple does for the freezer. First year that I have hunted since 1965 that I did not get a deer with bow. Got out once for rabbits with my 36 seneca and made meat.
I agree it's time to find the top of the work bench. Tonight my hunting partner and I plan to work on couple of my ML. Need to move some sights around and change others.

 

[jamesthomas]

Did'nt even see a deer this year, but I was only able to go twice for two days each. Mainly it was due to blowing out my back a few weeks ago. I still got woke up at 4:30am this morning feeling like somebody had shoved a knife in to the hilt in the muscle next to my right shoulderblade. :surrender:

 

[robtattoo]

Aw maaan!

I honestly thought this was going to be a thread about hunting rats.
Now I feel both inspired and a little stoopid.

 

[Spikebuck]

Got a full month of squirrels and rabbits left. Then have to wait until April for turkey. Could probably use the break anyway!

 

[Old Creek]

we are really dry here in the fl pan handle. i have not hunted in about 10 years but i drive 50 miles of forest road every day and the game we see has dropped almost 100% in the last six months or so. it always drops off during hunting season but never like this, we went from seeing 10 or twelve mature turkeys a day to one every month or so and from the same number of deer to only seeing the resident deer in the yard and even then only seeing them at night. we were seeing 2 or 3 bear a month and I have only seen 2 in the last six months or so and one of them seemed to be an orphaned cub, he was real poor and wondering down the highway and when I pulled onto a forest road so my grandson could get a better look he bee lined to the car like he had found his long lost mother. it was kinda scary because it made my granson think it was tame enough to pet and they have bear come through their yard pretty often heading to the bee yards.
I talked to a couple of the older guys who still hunt and they say they have seen the same thing and they both beleive the deer have been hit by disease and one of my guys at work said he has heard that a couple of deer have been found dead in his area and he was told they had something called purple tounge or blue tounge. i never heard of it before. I have seen in my time prime squirrel ground go void when there appeared to be an abundance of food and water and light hunting pressure so maybe that is part of a normal cycle??

creek