Well, today was the last day of Northern Zone rifle season in New York. It was a really nice day and extremely quiet in the woods. The snow got soft shortly after daylight, which made walking pretty easy. I decided to go on a scouting mission to see what I could learn for next year. The snow the last few weeks has made it easy to confirm a few of my suspicions on areas deer use a lot and which direction they seem to travel.
Around 8:30 I saw a few does feeding down a runway. There’s nothing like an Adirondack deer either. I realized that when I observed the doe and her reaction to the surroundings. They really are a beautiful creature. When the wind changed directions the lead doe caught my scent and high-stepped it out of there in the direction she came from. A few minutes later I saw some movement in the same area. I saw the deer for only a split second, but it was plenty long enough for this trained eye to see he had at least one really long tine on his beam. Since the buck was fairly close to where my trail camera had been I’m thinking there’s a possibility it was the same deer I got on camera, but you never know.
I didn’t see anything else the rest of the day. My walk out of the woods was very relaxing. It seemed like the season was gone in the blink of an eye. It was very rewarding on many levels. I don’t have any complaints and I treasure each season more than the last. It’s always sad to see the sunset on the last day of rifle season. All the guns in the rack at camp Saturday night……………now they’re all at rest waiting for next season to open.
