Hunter in cold n snow

[ed1315]

10510

The cold and snow has kept me out of the woods but not this guy

[mrbb]

well here are a couple more critters in the cold and snow


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/021_zps5b6b21fd.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/021_zps5b6b21fd.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/033_zpsef36afa9.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/033_zpsef36afa9.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/034_zps9d244b48.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/034_zps9d244b48.jpg.html)

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/037_zps4d703737.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/037_zps4d703737.jpg.html)

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/042_zps20599451.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/042_zps20599451.jpg.html)

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/036_zps75b3eddf.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/036_zps75b3eddf.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/047_zps43ff850a.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/047_zps43ff850a.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/048_zps9e8fe2af.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/048_zps9e8fe2af.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/056_zps520e124a.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/056_zps520e124a.jpg.html)

[nomad_archer]

Wow that is a dandy buck and bear

[mrbb]

Wow that is a dandy buck and bear

we;; thanks, but that buck isn't that big, maybe 130 or so, passed him a few times this archery season
the bear , now that is a big one, he is all of 500 lbs, have a bunch still out, even in this last cold snow storm, there hammering my standing corn, deer too!
but as you can see, only at night!
no critters even with the cold and snow on there feet in day light! crazy, how they sit all day and only fed at night even in the cold!
hope it changes for late season, or will be a deer less yr for me!

[Griz]

we;; thanks, but that buck isn't that big, maybe 130 or so, passed him a few times this archery season
the bear , now that is a big one, he is all of 500 lbs, have a bunch still out, even in this last cold snow storm, there hammering my standing corn, deer too!
but as you can see, only at night!
no critters even with the cold and snow on there feet in day light! crazy, how they sit all day and only fed at night even in the cold!
hope it changes for late season, or will be a deer less yr for me!
I would of thought all the bears would be sleeping and warm right now. But goes to show, you never know. Thats a nice bear. Great Pics!

[mrbb]

that's a miss conception about bears, they are NOT true hibernators , they can and will only den up if food becomes scare's, AND they have had enough fat stored up to make it asleep.
Most females are always first to den too, and most females that are pregnant seem to den even sooner, as they give birth while in a den
Many males will just curl up on the ground and sleep too, not all dig a den or find a den to hibernate in too
Many times its these bears that seem to stay awake the longest, or never den at all
if a male bear has GREAT food source, they may never den
at my farm where I hunt and at my house, I have had bears out all yr many many times, even in yrs with deep snow and many days well below zero
always cool to see bears in the snow
at my place I get them in the backyard coming to get bird seeds
its super cool to watch them too, there so smart
they will walk in exact same foot prints over and over, going both ways too, and it will just look like one set of tracks, even if they come 5-6 times, will just be that one set of tracks
never seen any other animal do that
makes me wonder how or why they learned to do that?
guess its easier on there feet maybe in the snow, as don't think they need to hide from much LOl

[nomad_archer]

we;; thanks, but that buck isn't that big, maybe 130 or so, passed him a few times this archery season
the bear , now that is a big one, he is all of 500 lbs, have a bunch still out, even in this last cold snow storm, there hammering my standing corn, deer too!


For a public land guy like me that has probably seen less than a handful of 130" + deer while hunting he sure looks big to me. But hunting mostly public land in NW pa in the mountains will do that.

[mrbb]

For a public land guy like me that has probably seen less than a handful of 130" + deer while hunting he sure looks big to me. But hunting mostly public land in NW pa in the mountains will do that.

HAHAHA, I hear that, I hunted up at my hunting camp for yrs and yrs in north central PA on huge tracks of mature forest, and even in the 80's big one's weere rare rare rare,
Have to admit that past 4-5 yrs now, many guys in my camp have killed 120+ deer, considering that for about 35 yrs no one ver killed a buck over say 75 inches, thats a huge jump in quality
there still far and few, but just higest odds of all time on killing on public lands is now if you ask me
and trust me, I don't have a ton of big one's at my place either, I just don't call 130 class deer BIG anymore after killing a bunch
120+ deer are hard any where in PA unl;ess you can own a enough land to keep them on, as far too many hunters will kill the fist buck they see, big or small, and many don't even care if there legal still(3 or 4 point to a side deal)
but Pa has the best bucks its ever had in its history right now, all over!
wasnt't trying to be a smart as by saying that buck wasn't a big one, just saying what it really was size wise
many folsk cannot judge well,

[nomad_archer]

HAHA I knew what you were getting at. I grew up in SW PA and did see some monsters but I only rifle hunted back then and they were really hard to come by especially standing still. We have been getting more and larger bucks up at our cabin. We used to get small basket racks and the such. Last year we had a guy get a 130" deer up there and my dad an I both saw a buck a little smaller than the one in your picture we just couldnt get any shooting. So right now the conditions are right to get a solid buck in pa it will only get better as long as they stick with the antler restrictions.

[mrbb]

I agree with hunter numbers dropping and the antler estrictions, things will I hope keep getting better
still wish they would do more timbering on them big tracts, and more food plots on the smaller one's
wildlife in general I think is dropping due to poor food in the wilds,bad habitat
yrs back we had so much more of everything(minus turkeys LOl) grouse used to be fun to hunt, not I 'd feel guilty if I shot one, as there so rare, same with woodcock
and won't even get into wild pheasants, there gone! many yrs now!

[nomad_archer]

We have talked about this before I really wish they would do habitat improvement. Up by my camp the timber companies and tree farms that are open to public hunting have been doing some cutting for the last 8 years or so. With that the habitat has improved. Couple that with the renewed oil boom up there and those well pads get very little traffic but provide another good source of green feed for the deer to supplement the acorns, weeds and tree branches that was in there diet. I don't mess with the National forest since that is all old grown up forest that needs to be timbered.

The grouse at my camp have made an outstanding recovery recently with all the new cutting they have been doing since it has provided cover. Although every time I flush one walking in or out in the dark in archery season I always have to check my shorts since they seem to flush 3ft in front of me. The days of the wild reproducing pheasant are long over all we have left are stocked pheasants which don't breed in the wild. Its amazing we still have a pheasant season I would much rather see them try to do reintroduction efforts across the state like they did with the wild turkey. I know the close some parts of the state to pheasant hunting while they try the reintroduction. I have seen one wild pheasant that wasn't recently stocked last spring gobbler season silly thing was standing in the middle of the road, I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't nuts.

[mrbb]

well sounds like there doing some logging up your way,and its always good to see, as that stuff does so much good for wildlife overall
amazing how grouse can come back if given good cover and food, and timbering does a lot of that for many animals
as for Pheasants, all the billions,a nd yup, its in the billions that this state spent on stocking pen raised pheasants, they should ahve used more of that $$ to improve the habitat for them, boought land or, bought wild birds from out of state and used them as a recovery deal and stopped a few seasons to try to get a come back
Pheasant is a sore note for me, as I was a a big bird hunter most of my yrs
and it took Pheasants Forever to pay the costs of shipping and buying wild birds for teh dam state to get involved i the last few yrs
and they act like it was there doing taking credit for the work
when all they really did was ALLOW, that's right allow the PF to import them, as before that it was illegal for them to bring any in to PA
and in all the areas they have re stocked wild birds, there holding there own and even breeding
they have a huge area up in NE PA where there is a lot of birds due to this, and they closed the seasons there to help, I'll give the state credit for at least doing that
but crap with the amount of $$ they dumped in pen raised birds, we should have a hell of a great pheasant population, or at least in some area's where they could live all yr
a huge waste of money
and it was funny a few yrs back they dropped the raising birds, and then cried they were under budgets, when stopping that, saved them many many millions, and they never said where all that extra budget funding went??
thena few yrs later they brought it back in a small amount!!
scam I think, they all got raises, and cut the program to do it!
I am not a fan of PA's Game dept, sadly due to things I know and seen them do,and worse stories I heard that I know were true! a pure shame, we have so much land to work with and game, we should have a hell of a source of wildlife to hunt in PA , BUT ???

[nomad_archer]

It is amazing how the grouse have come back but they hardly get hunted and the private land owners are doing things to make money oil and timbering that is helping the habitat. The big one is the lumber company is actually cutting up there. It really is I great thing to see. The private lands open to public hunting are getting better because of this. The Game lands, state forests and national forest is a different story entirely.