The Labor Day weekend has passed by already and we are in the full start of September now.

That means one thing for an outdoorsman, making choices of what activities are going to be prioritized into your schedule.

It all started with helping my cousin check out the accuracy of his .50-caliber inline at the range. He is gung ho on the early season black powder season coming up in October and wants to make sure that his equipment is in top shape.

Now is the time to visit rifle ranges due to slower times of use and the opportunity to correct any issues with your firearms. His rifle checked out fine and he is zeroed in with no excuses for a miss!

Right about the time I was trying to plan the early black powder hunt, my niece Megan called me and threw a wrench into the planned hunt. She had arranged a salmon and steelhead fishing float trip on a river in Michigan free of charge with a friend that is a full-time guide.

All I had to do was buy a weekend license and pack my clothes and they would pick me up on the way to Michigan. The problem was that it fell on the same weekend as the end of the October deer hunt.

This meant that I had to make a choice with my plans for doing some fun activities. According to my wife, I had enough fun jammed into my fall calendar between hunting, fishing, Steeler games and the Pens. My reply was that you never can have enough fun!

I pulled out my monthly appointment calendar and started to check out dates for work, play and all the season openers. I didn’t see that many conflicts if I planned it out right and allowed for work and home responsibilities.

We have already painted the living room and put down the new carpet as planned, but have not put in a new door into the garage. That must be done soon so that I don’t have any unfinished business weighing on me. I’ve found that you can’t truly enjoy goofing off if you have a task unfinished waiting for you.

Elk trip upcoming

Sometimes you can’t do everything that you want to do because of time constraints, financial considerations and just plain old logistics. In the middle of all my fall activities, I also have a PA elk trip to prepare for in November. I had to make the decision to unload a Pens game the weekend before the hunt because I wanted to do some early scouting.

When you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it needs to be priority one!

I have some good friends who are really into the camping and horseback riding business. Robbie and Greg Bryan are all in for the hunt and will provide awesome support services for me and the crew.

We have quite the gang gathering for the elk hunt experience and their dad, Ken Bryan, isn’t about to be left out of the mix, either. Now all I have to do is my part of the hunt!

The PGC sent me maps of the Zone 3 hunting area and it really looks promising and remote. It is a combination of State Forestland and Game lands with 99.9 percent public lands. In looking at my hunting digest, I have found it to also be turkey season and archery season for deer as well as general small game.

We may have a few visitors around the area when the elk season opens up on Nov. 5. The best news that I received was that if I score on an elk, the Bryan boys have the ability and equipment to bring it out on the horses. Awesome! The last thing I want to do is drag an elk for miles along game roads and trails.

Archery season

Archery season opens up in less than a month and your equipment and archery skills should be getting tuned up now.

I have seen plenty of deer moving about and the areas with apples of any sort are having a boom year! Not much in acorns or any other kind of mast crop, so if you find some it would be a good bet for any early deer opportunity.

The bucks are still in velvet and the fawns are still with the does. Many of the late fawns are still carrying spots and I decided long ago that these deer family groups are off limits to me. It’s pretty tough for a yearling fawn to survive on its own before they are wised up by their mothers.

Hunter education

Last chances for the PGC Hunter-Trapper Education safety classes — I know that the Boyers Sportsmen and the Marion Township VFC are having a class in Boyers Sept. 22 at the firehall.

Until we meet again get out your planners and make some good choices!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle