The 2016 hunting season began with a trip to Maine. It has been a few years coming, and finally I was able to make the trip. I went up with a group of guys, my dad, Louie and his father as well as Louie's buddy Matt and his father. We stayed in a log cabin on a great property in Caribou, ME. We spent two days hunting some old logging trails a few miles from our cabin. The other day we took the journey to the North Maine Woods Inc roads. We got up early and drove to Ashland ME. We checked in at the logging road gate and then drove into the big Maine woods on dirt logging roads to mile marker 44. We checked a few roads but only flushed one grouse that I ended up finding and shooting on the other side of the road. All in all it was a great trip. We ended up shooting 1 grouse per day, which sounds slow, but it was my first successful grouse hunt. After talking with a few other people hunting that weekend, we weren't the only ones seeing a lack of birds. The first day was the most productive, starting off with Louie's father shooting a grouse, my father shooting a woodcock and a snow shoe hare (pictured below). Piper did well, finding many grouse, or PAHTRIDGE, (as the Mainers say), especially on our last day. She is still out running her nose and not holding a long enough point, something we will be working on this off season.
I spent a lot of time duck hunting this year. In the early season I saw mostly mallards and a few black ducks. Towards the colder end of the season I saw teal and mainly buffleheads. Louie and Tom came down several times this year and were only skunked once. My usual blind on the Parker's River is becoming heavily used and I believe the heavy pressure is affecting the bird population and travel patterns negatively. I sought out a few other areas, Bells Neck and Plashes Pond, but have yet to find the honey hole that produces like Parker's River has. Piper did a fantastic job, especially with cold weather and blind retrieves. We need to work on keeping her in her blind until I send her, she runs towards flying birds after the shot. I tied her off to a tree and made her sit until I sent her, but I also wanted her to mark the downed birds. The current and tide is strong on the Parker's River. I want Piper to see the bird go down, so she can have a head start on them, even more so when she has to dodge heavy ice flows like she was this year on a day of hunting in 4 degree weather.
This year I shot my first deer on Cape Cod. I scouted an area near my house in Barnstable. On an early Saturday morning, I packed in my climber tree stand to an area I had found some sign in a natural funnel between two ponds. I became a little disoriented getting set up in the dark but not moments after getting set in my tree stand I heard something headed my way. It was a few minutes after shooting light but I was having a hard time seeing what was headed my way. I finally saw that it was a deer and waited for the perfect broadside shot. When I went to shoot, I could barely see the pins through my peep sight. I made a lucky shot and double lunged with a pass through. The deer ran about 100 yards and died. When I found my deer, I was pleased to see it was a buck, about a year and a half old 5 pointer.
Coincidentally that day, my dad, who had spent quite a few hours in a stand across the street from his house, finally put a good shot on a buck that walked within 25 yards. He hadn't shot a deer with a bow since the 1980's, so needless to say, he was excited.
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