Deer Season 2014

I arrived at camp around 6:00 on Sunday, Nov. 30. After opening camp and starting the furnace, I waited for my brother and niece to arrive. They arrived safely a few hours later. Monday morning came early and we awoke to a misty rain. I drove to my usual spot, and started up the mountain carrying my tree stand on my back, and my backpack and rifle in my arms. By 6:45, I was set up and ready for my 40th straight "first day of buck season." There was a bit of shooting early, but very little the rest of the day. The weather was cloudy, but the rain held off most of the day. Late in the day one of the camps shot 6 times just prior to their last drive of the day. I assumed they got something. I hunted till almost dark, then started back to my truck not seeing a single deer. Monday evening, my brother and niece headed home and I prepared my dinner and then went to bed early. On Tuesday morning, I awoke to much colder temperatures around 18-degrees. I started back to my usual spot and was in place in my stand by about 6:45. It was a very cold/calm morning. Around 11:00 am, it got cloudy and very windy. Then it came like a freight train - snow and sleet started coming down like rain. It only took about 10 minutes for the ground to be covered. I realized I needed to get down off the mountain and off the state forest roads while I could. I got to the truck about 1/2 hour later and started back to camp. I saw a nice buck hanging at the camp closest to ours (confirming that they did shoot one Monday afternoon). It took about 1-2 hours to close up camp for the winter. The snow/sleet was still coming down. I got down to the hard roads by about 4:00 and started the 3 1/2 hour drive home. Deer season was cut short due to the weather. Rather than hunting on Wednesday, I was back at work. No deer sighted this season. There were very few hunters around this year, and I'm convinced the poor weather saved a lot of deer this season.