# Heading to PA Friday for a 8 days of bowhunting...



## kmarv (Mar 25, 2006)

I'll be hunting on 4 different farms, all private land. The neighbors of my family's farm have seen a huge 12 hanging around, god-willing I'll get a crack at him. The lows are in the 30's with highs in the 50's...man I can't wait! They've been doing statewide antler restrictions for about 5 or 6 years, and they're really starting to pay off. The farmer at one of the properties has a batchelor group of 7 bucks coming around and he said 4 of them would easily be P&Y...guess I won't be sleeping the next couple nights. Anyone interested in taking a last minute road trip? Wish me luck! I'll post pics when I get back...


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## bluewaterrip (May 8, 2006)

I was just in PA 2 weeks ago. Whish I could swing a trip with you. Good luck and post pics if you get anything.


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## Redfishr (Jul 26, 2004)

Since the antler restrictions were put in place in PA, the deer have been allowed to grow into the real northern monarks they can be.
There was a time when 80 percent of the buck population was killed every year in PA.
The change has been nothing short of remarkable..
Good luck on your hunt.
You could actually kill a B&C, they live there now.....


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## Fishin' Soldier (Dec 25, 2007)

Good luck. Wish iI had seen this before I would have been camping on your front lawn. I am at the airport right now heading to Philly. Too bad I am headed there for work.


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## txdougman (Jul 12, 2005)

Good Luck! 

I sure do miss hunting all the farms and state game lands in western PA. Grew up there, still got family in Washington and Houston PA.Sure do miss those big bodied deer up there. Oh, and the huntin was free...just needed a lisc.
I'll be waitin on your post trip pics!


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## txdougman (Jul 12, 2005)

Oops, you outta be back now...post those stories...pics.


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## Redfishr (Jul 26, 2004)

Yea, wheres the story.... ?


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## kmarv (Mar 25, 2006)

Sorry for the delay, guys...I got back from the trip and remembered I had a job and have been slammed catching up. The trip was excellent...best time I've had in a while. I left at about 1:30 PM on a Wednesday, drove until around 11:30 PM and parked at a rest area just outside of Meridian, MS. I cracked the windows in my truck and passed out, breathing in the cool, crisp outside air...the first of many great nights sleep to come. I woke up around 6:30 and drove to my Uncle's house West of Atlanta. After about a case of Natty Light, I finally went to sleep, waking up at arount 9:30. I left ATL at 10:30, and drove straight to the family farm near Covington, PA. I got there at 1:30 AM Saturday morning, and was so jacked to be "home" I picked up a six pack and enjoyed hearing rain fall on the fields. 
I woke up Saturday around 8:30 to clear skies and headed to one of the wooded lots I would be hunting. I had killed my first deer with a bow out of a platform I built on this lot about 10 years ago. I followed all the old logging roads looking for rubs, scrapes, acorns, walnuts, any sign that might help, and found very little, with the exception of some rotted (and eaten) acorns. I marked a couple promising stand sites on my GPS, and climbed up the platform to make sure it was still solid. I then returned to the farmhouse, picked up some stands, and headed out to the woods around the farm. I set up one of my climbers about 40 yards in from a hayfield along a creekbed. The neighboring farmer had been seeing a "monster 12 with about a 24" spread" in that field, so I figured that was a promising place to start. I went and took a shower, got my clothes on, sprayed down and was 25' up an oak tree by 3PM. I saw nothing but squirrels for the first hour and a half, then had an old doe come slowly from my right. She got within 30 yards and looked up at me, but never knew what I was, so I had an exciting staring contest with her...for the next 1.5 hours! She would move about 5 yards, stop, then stare at me for about 15 minutes. She did this over and over, at one point coming within 12 yards and broadside from me. I quickly remembered some of the differences between hunting TX and PA.

More to come...I gotta get some sleep...


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