Pittsburgh whitetail hunt 2024

[Reelax]

Went back to Pittsburgh NH for a week to try to find a buck or 2 with close friends. This year my brother and I invited some extra people to get the deer moving and spread the cooking around.

Shawn (Crawfish) Joe (AveJoe) and Andy (Riverrat) joined us on Friday night to fill in the camp and the poker table. This year there were nights that went to 1am and lots of stories we can tell for years to come. Riverrat ran all over the hills and saw a buck with a doe in the snow early on his 1st day. We all waited for a shot, but nothing came. We had rain, drizzle, wind and some snow. When it was cold we saw deer. I had a buck walk to 50 yards on day 2 and ended up calling him back to 70 after he got my wind but missed as he was in the thick stuff and walking.
After Shawn help look for hair and blood and circle the area we went back to hunting. That was good for a shirt missing its tail!

On day 7 after 62hrs in the woods hunting I was sitting on the edge of a thick ridge with fir trees with a nice basin with sign below me. Shawn had to leave at 9, at 912 he walked by in the distance. At 1030 a buck came up behind me and when turned to look at the twig break cause he was at 15ft, closing toward me at a quick walk. I raised my gun up just a little off my lap realizing if I used my scope I’d just see hair. I let him have the 1st round from the hip:)
And kept shooting with scope till he fell 60 yards away. 4 shots 4 hits… no tracking. Being the 1st day of rifle I had my semi auto in stead of the muzzleloader I had been carrying for 6 days.

By the time I got the buck, Shawn was back at camp packing and my older brother was 1.2 miles from me in the woods.

For me, moving the trip up earlier by a week this year got us more action. Saw 2 bucks crusin at 1030 and 1045 on the 2 colder days. Next year I’m gonna shoot for Nov3. Having the bucks in seek phase instead of locked down with does increased the sightings..

Saw many cool things in the woods like an ancient stone fire place and chimney from the Indian Stream republic era back when America was being divided up. Had a wood burning cast iron kitchen stove 15’ in front of it to the side. Right where it was in the house that was LONG gone. Amazing it still stands so square. I almost started a fire in it to warm up;)

Great times with great friends. Thanks for sharing guys!!

Buck on!

[Crayfish]

I had a lot of fun, Matt. Thanks for the invite. Despite the 5hrs of sleep every night, I covered a lot of ground and saw 3 deer total in 6 days. But, I saw plenty of BIG buck sign to keep me going. My bones were aching every night .... 5 or 6 or 8 drinks seemed to dull the pain.

20241109_072559.jpg (183.58 KiB) Viewed 676 times

20241112_125722.jpg (236.35 KiB) Viewed 676 times

20241113_074115.jpg (232.31 KiB) Viewed 676 times

20241113_112952.jpg (169.45 KiB) Viewed 676 times

[Crayfish]

I'm not sure how to rotate the pics so they show correctly.

[striper192001]

Just awesome.......please an invite next year !

[AvgJoe]

Another great adventure w Reelax!

From the blusty top of the hills to sun drentched deer beach it's a heck of an area to explore. There are deer, but they aren't dumb.

Thank you, and hope we can do it again next year!

[The River Rat]

Talking about epic adventure ! Couldn't ever stand to have had such a great time with any 2 , 3 or 4 Brothers. . . . Absolutely top notch croud at the pit. I don't believe there's anything that interest me more than huntin and fishin tails explained by experienced outdoorsman

[Reelax]

The NH buck was not as big as my cross bow buck from this year in VT, but after 6 days of hunting and only half a day left this was the perfect deer to end it with for the memory and bring venison home from NH.

Have many pics of this VT buck with his 6pt and spike buddies Sept and Oct they ran as a bachelor group right thru Oct 15. finally caught up to him on Oct18. Had to cancel a fishin trip to deal with him.. sorry crawfish and Homewrecker.

Planting 500 stocks of sweet corn in my yard this year had this bachelor group setup instead of the does that come around… I had only bucks on my cams once the corn ripened…

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Nice story and pics Matt. Congrats getting nice deers.