Shooter Buck
Active member
My brothers and I decided to check out the Adirondack early muzzleloader season this year as a chance to get out in the woods with a rifle before the New England seasons open. We had never been out there before so we did a little computer scouting and headed out in the spring for a quick trip. That trip only led us to an area we did not want to hunt. We did a lot more computer scouting this summer and were packed up to head out and check out a few other areas for the opening day on Saturday. We got out there midday and found a spot to set up our tents and camp site. It was warm in the mid fifties when we went out for the afternoon hunt. I headed up a mountain right behind camp and my brother went to check out a mountain to the north. I found a deer track about 50 yards from the tents and took it as a good omen. The hunt turned up one pile of deer pop and a nice view. My brothers found a few fresh scrapes on their hunt.
We got back to camp and cooked some back straps from last year’s deer for dinner. We hung around the campfire for a bit and it started feeling colder. We realized it was really getting cold when the water we left out started freezing. The first night in the tents was a chilly one getting down into the low 20s. We woke for the next mornings hunt and luckily had a long ride to the area we were hunting which gave us a chance to warm up. We were about a half mile from our camping spot when we ran into some moose in a clearing right off the road. The bull and spike were right on the cow. The big bull was lip curling and ready to go. We watched them for a while and continued on to our spot. We planned to head a few miles into and area and check out some swail bogs. Another fun hunt exploring some beautiful country but not much for deer sign.
The afternoon hunt we checked out an area between some swamps trying to get some deer moving into each other but again not much sign.
Tuesday was our last day to hunt and we all went back into the same area trying to cover some ground. We met up midday to discuss what we had seen and decided we hadn’t seen enough to stay in the area. We got back to camp had lunch and made plans for the afternoon hunt. My older brother (Pine-lock) decided since we hadn’t been seeing deer looking for them miles away from the truck that he would hunt closer to the truck. We all split up and he went 100 yards from the truck and sat on the edge of a big bog. I made my way around a mountain on the other side of the road and found some more nice views. With about an hour left in the hunt Pine-lock thought he heard something moving in the woods across the bog. A short while later he had a deer blow at him and saw their tails bounce up the hill on the far side of the bog. That turned out to be our closest encounter for the trip.
We went into this hunt knowing there were not a lot of deer in the ADKs and from the sounds of everyone we met out there they were seeing the same sign as we were. A lot of the guys we ran into were jealous we saw the moose. We see moose pretty frequently in Maine so it was a normal hunting sight for us but sounds like it was actually a rare encounter for out there. All in all it was a fun trip exploring some new woods. I feel like if we had more time to scout and hunt out there we could get into the deer a little better. We didn’t come close to making a dent in the amount of wilderness that is out there. It was a good warm up hunt for Maine and now I’m ready to go next week.
We got back to camp and cooked some back straps from last year’s deer for dinner. We hung around the campfire for a bit and it started feeling colder. We realized it was really getting cold when the water we left out started freezing. The first night in the tents was a chilly one getting down into the low 20s. We woke for the next mornings hunt and luckily had a long ride to the area we were hunting which gave us a chance to warm up. We were about a half mile from our camping spot when we ran into some moose in a clearing right off the road. The bull and spike were right on the cow. The big bull was lip curling and ready to go. We watched them for a while and continued on to our spot. We planned to head a few miles into and area and check out some swail bogs. Another fun hunt exploring some beautiful country but not much for deer sign.
The afternoon hunt we checked out an area between some swamps trying to get some deer moving into each other but again not much sign.
Tuesday was our last day to hunt and we all went back into the same area trying to cover some ground. We met up midday to discuss what we had seen and decided we hadn’t seen enough to stay in the area. We got back to camp had lunch and made plans for the afternoon hunt. My older brother (Pine-lock) decided since we hadn’t been seeing deer looking for them miles away from the truck that he would hunt closer to the truck. We all split up and he went 100 yards from the truck and sat on the edge of a big bog. I made my way around a mountain on the other side of the road and found some more nice views. With about an hour left in the hunt Pine-lock thought he heard something moving in the woods across the bog. A short while later he had a deer blow at him and saw their tails bounce up the hill on the far side of the bog. That turned out to be our closest encounter for the trip.
We went into this hunt knowing there were not a lot of deer in the ADKs and from the sounds of everyone we met out there they were seeing the same sign as we were. A lot of the guys we ran into were jealous we saw the moose. We see moose pretty frequently in Maine so it was a normal hunting sight for us but sounds like it was actually a rare encounter for out there. All in all it was a fun trip exploring some new woods. I feel like if we had more time to scout and hunt out there we could get into the deer a little better. We didn’t come close to making a dent in the amount of wilderness that is out there. It was a good warm up hunt for Maine and now I’m ready to go next week.
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