opening weekend

[purple heart]

Well it's finally here. Opening weekend of rifle season. I've been sitting here
reading your hunting stories just waiting for this weekend. Actually it hasn't
been all that bad. I did do some bow hunting. The young guy that hunts with
me got a pretty nice doe and we did take his son out on youth weekend and
the little bugger got a nice 5 point that dressed out at 162 lbs. It should be
my turn by now.:)
Actually we split all the venison we get between us and the land owners so
nobody has a dry year as far as venison goes.
The trouble this year has been coyotes. They've either killed off quite a few
deer over the summer or at least drove most of the deer off the property we
hunt. There's still a few kicking around so we'll hope for the best.
The rut was on last weekend and with the warm weather:mad: I hope it slowed enough to last another week.:)

[Twanger]

Good luck PH! I hope you get a nice one.

[GF.]

And a coupla coyotes while you're at it :D

I'm making progress; on Saturday, I get to go up and check out a new patch o' dirt, so I could be there hunting it by the rifle opener on 18th, though I'm not sure if I'll start off with a rifle or commit to the bow. Sure has been painful to be sidelined the last 6 weeks or so without permission to go to my usual spot, especially with the decent weather and the rut really cooking along right now...

Sounds as if the coyotes are booming everywhere these days; I saw a post from a guy here in CT who shot a buck and stayed on stand a while longer. When he got down, a coyote had been helping himself to the deer in broad daylight.:eek:

And it seems like all of the local bowhunting fanatics are seeing 'yotes from their stands as a regular thing, not just the occasional sighting. Hoping to skewer a big 'un myself this year, but we shall see.....

[purple heart]

Good luck PH! I hope you get a nice one.

Thanks Twanger. I hope I get something for the freezer at least.

Are you guiding the party from Vermont this year?

If we had more and better deer I'd invite you to join us but it would be
a real step backward for you or anybody that's use to seeing lots of deer.

[Twanger]

I'm hoping they consider coming down for late Muzzleloader season.
They didn't come down for the early season.
I've got a couple or three buddies who are also interested in hunting late muzzleloader season with me.

I let one of them shoot the Javelina pistol and he loved that stupid thing. He'd laugh his fool head off every time he shot it. I might put him up on the ridge trail with it where shots are typically inside 30 yards.