What up team, looks like a killer lineup this year. I always enjoy this contest and the camaraderie on the team, thanks to all that work to put it on.
A few familiar internet faces on the team this year. To those unfamiliar my real name is Joe and I live in Central PA. I hunt pretty much all mountain public land these days and primarily bow hunt but I'll dust out the rifle if need be.
2 weeks out until our season still. It's been too hot and humid to set me in the mood anyway. I really don't care to be in the woods much until it's consistenly under 70 degrees and this ridiculous humidity retreats back down south where it belongs. I'm slowly ramping up preparations for hunting, but more focused on squeezing in another trip or two to Lake Erie with my old man before the boat gets put away for a long winter.
Another season with life changes throwing a wrench into my plans. I am leaving my job October 15 after 11 years working for "the man" to focus on building up my own accounting/consulting practice from scratch. Exciting and super terrifying at the same time. So I'll have the opportunity to hunt as much as I want the second half of the season, but it's going to be different now that I'm not getting PTO, and I need to find a handful of clients pronto.
I haven't scouted much since April but I did cover a lot of ground last winter/spring and have some new spots I feel really good about going into this year. Last year was a little wild how much pressure there was on public around here in places I never dealt with much before. Hoping that chills out a little this year. That got old pretty fast and even has me thinking about getting some property of my own, something I have said I would never do.
Put a few cells cams out on Labor Day and I have a couple bucks in that 115-130" class which is where most of the bucks top out around these parts. I have one, that I believe is the buck I missed last year, that I feel I have a pretty good bead on where he's at. I never do well in October but feeling a little confident I can get on this dude. He's a good buck but I'm not even sure I'd shoot him the first week. I just can't imagine being done before the season even gets fun.