Last Monday I managed to fill my buck tag by 7:30AM with a dandy PA buck. Today was the first opportunity to head out after a baldy to fill my doe tag. At daylight I was greeted by a squirrel, couple rabbits, and three grouse. The temps were crazy warm for December!! So I was ready for a nice, long comfortable day in the stand.

I was hunting from the same stand and in this location deer can come from anywhere. About 11AM I glanced over in the direction of where my buck came from and saw a bunch of heads and ears coming through the golden rod on the powerline. The first one onto the mowed path was a mature doe and there were several more behind her. The leader started to get nervous, I think she spotted me turning into position. As she turned to start up the hill and away from my position I bleated, she hit the skids and the Competitor barked sending a 125gr NBT. Range was about 80yds and she managed to scramble about another 80yds until she expired.

This year more than ever it seems that all I remember is planting the reticle on the sweet spot and the rest is on cruise control. I've shot a LOT of deer but the first antelope doe in WY and the two PA deer were just like autopilot.

Now I get to ride the pine for another 50 weeks!!

Congratulations Buddy, now it's time to play with the hot rods!

Nice job Dan! I guess that's make-up for the years where it was a struggle!

congratulations, kind of bittersweet, but success is what we prepare for, and when things go as planned, that's a good thing.

Congrats! Fun stuff.

Not bad, Dan-O!

All kidding aside, ya gotta love it when your plans come together. Congratulations. Backstraps and steaks for quite awhile!

So true. Last year was one of those years. Shot a scrappy little buck that was barely legal (must have three on one side) and never did get a good shot on a doe. That was in two weeks of steady hunting. This year I hunted about 5 hours!



Also very true. The ammo loading, range time, etc, etc is all put to use but it is joy filled and sad at the same time when that last tag is filled out when there in a week of hunting left yet.

Congrats on a great deer season!

Well done.

WTG Dan. Now for the processing and then the reward, enjoying the harvest all winter long.

Our season closed Sunday and we never did manage to fill any more tags. It was a horrible season. I didn't get to hunt much with running the wife, grand daughter and myself the DR 3 days last week. Oh well antlerless season is only about 3 weeks away and we still have two tags to fill for that season. Maybe the .30-30 AI can strike again before the year is over.

Larry

Congrats, Dan. Filling tags early is bitter-sweet.