Muzzleloading season snuck up on me this year. I can’t believe it’s already here. I’m not overly prepared this year. I’ve wandered all over the place, but I’ve kind of forgotten to find a few places to hunt. Although I have a lot of potential places, I never really pinpointed a location for myself.
I chose to hunt in an area I’ve been looking at since early last winter. I know there is a good buck in the area, so I decided to throw all of my eggs into that basket today and go the place. I wandered through the darkness with my GPS for a while before finding my way to the area. Unfortunately, I ended up getting a little tangled up and realized I was standing in the middle of a scrape I had marked. With that being said, I knew I probably blew all of my chances of seeing something since my scent was all over everything I had walked through while being lost for a little bit. I should’ve paid better attention to know how to get there a little easier.
I hunted until around noon before calling it good. When I heard some blue jays squawking shortly after daylight, I got ready. I figured some deer might be approaching out of the heavy evergreens on the ridge below me. I was sitting on a beech flat that had crisscrossing runways on it. Something in my gut told me I might get lucky. I didn’t see much of anything before packing it in for the morning. Usually, I stay in all day, but this year is much different for me.
As many of you know, my dad has been ill for quite a while. This will require me to adjust my regular plans that I’ve followed in past seasons. I’ll have to hunt in a variety of places and won’t be able to get back in very much. I’ll have him drop me off in my regular places and go park where he wants to hunt. I’ve looked for places for him to hunt near the road, so this seems to work the best for him. If he drops me off and gives me a time to pick me up, I can meet up with him to make sure everything is OK. I’m sure it will be a good year to learn about new things. I’ll still go to my favorite places and wander around, but I’ll try to make the most of the good days. I won’t have much time to waste like I normally would.
In the afternoon, we went into a swampy area near the road and looked around. I didn’t see much I liked. It looked a lot better in mid-summer, but I think the deer have moved out of the area since that time. Deer habits tend to change with the seasons, and I’m guessing that’s what happened in this case.
Brian hunted in a new area we found a while back. We thought the area had the potential to have some good bucks but maybe a fair amount of pressure too. Well, we were right with one of the guesses. He saw 11 people while hunting. The people were together, and it was also their first time in the area. I’m guessing they won’t last due to the general description that he Brian gave to me. They just didn’t seem like Adirondackers. The place probably doesn’t get much pressure. It just happened to get a lot of it on the weekend that you can shoot does in the Adirondacks.
At the end of the day, none of us saw a deer. It’s been a slow start for all of us. I’m not sure if that’s what’s going to happen the rest of the season, but it has been a little discouraging up to this point. We’re hoping it doesn’t continue like this much longer.