Pa opener was one of the best and one of the worst for me. I started the morning off deep into the Tioga State Forest on a flat of oaks that the deer have been hitting hard. Started seeing deer right off the bat, nothing that I felt was worth dragging out or had a shot at. At 10:30, I had a lone deer, what I thought was a doe, approach, and as it went down off the ridge, I could have sworn I seen it staggering. Thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me, I decided to still hunt my way out to my vehicle.
When I got there at 12:30, there was a another hunter and his son having lunch. We exchanged tales, and he told me of a nice buck that his son had hit, but were unable to recover. I didn't think much of it until I got about 2 miles away and I thought about that lone deer that wasn't acting right. I turned around, and went back to where I was parked and the man and his son were still there. I asked them about where they lost blood, and sure enough it sounded like it was only about 200 yards from where I spotted this deer. I told them about it, and we decided to go have a look. Sure enough, about 40 yards down over the ridge from where I had last seen this deer, he laid deader than a doornail. The kid hit him a little to far back, but had just caught the liver. That young man sure was a happy camper when he laid eyes on that six pointer. I couldn't believe that I had missed those antlers when I seen him.
Now the bad part. I purchased a new hand climbing stand made by one of the most popular standmakers on Friday night. Saturday afternoon I decided to try it out. What a mistake. Going up wasn't so bad, but at last light when I decided to come down, I got into some trouble. It seems that when I tried to play contortionist and bend my body in ways that no hefty 51 year old man should try, I may have herniated a disk. I have 3 bulgers so as it is, and I'm pretty sure that I blew one out. Will find out this week after a Dr visit and MRI. I knew I should have purchased the sit and climb model. :mad:
So, it looks like I may have ruined my season. Hopefully maybe I can pray for a miracle. But at this point, I can barely walk 20 feet much less hunt. So keep those stories coming. I'll surely be reading them.