The last week of rifle season for deer becomes a time for going back to basics.

The deer really know what is going on in the woods about the second week of rifle season. There is no standing around going on or curiosity on the deer’s part. The first whiff of a human being gets the deer in motion and even the slightest motion or thing appearing out of place is a warning to head for thick cover and away from the cause of the alarm.

I had my chance at scoring on a buck coming out of the swamps and crossing a creek fairly close to my selected stand.

The buck was with a group of does and they were all pushed out of cover by some other hunter and they were on high alert.

I watched the lead doe shake off the water on her coat in the frosty morning air. It was barely daylight but legal shooting hours, the hours change every couple of days and I have made it a point to keep updated on the Hunting Hours Time Table for this week showed a beginning time of 6:44 a.m. but the PA Meridian Map added 20 minutes, which made legal shooting hours at 7:04 a.m.

We lose the time in the morning, but gain it in the evening hunt to 5:25 p.m. The general rule has been one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset. We always try to get in the woods before sunset and stay on stand which means picking out a good spot on a trail and hope that your buck crosses paths with you.

So, my early stand proved to be a correct choice and the group of deer came into my shooting area.

Unfortunately, the buck was staying in thickets and my efforts to prove that he was a legal three up rack was not successful.

Finally, I thought I might have a shot when I noticed some hunter orange in my shooting background area. Unbelievably, a hunter was in my sight line and certainly closed down any good shot that I might have with this buck.

In review the shooting hours was a legal time, the stand was the proper location, the deer moved right up my game trail, and they were either walking or stopping for me to scan them over. The unknown element was that another hunter approached from a different direction which made safe shooting impossible.

Now it’s late in the season and we are going to go back to basics and put on small two-man drives were one of my hunting buddies, the Professor and I, will do small walk abouts and try to push deer toward the other hunter.

It’s a slow process and you are required to be on high alert at all times. It can be successful; it can be frustrating but it is one of the most basic hunting techniques that a deer hunter can use.

The word from the Pennsylvania Game Commission is that they reached their black bear hunting goals and have set a new harvest record of 4,577 bears so far in 2019.

The PGC expanded bear hunting opportunities this hunting season with many new opportunities in an effort to help curb bear populations and to provide plenty of hunting opportunities to PA hunters.

Pennsylvania has an estimated population of black bears around 20,000. Bear hunting licenses went over 200,000 in 2019.

The previous harvest records for black bears stood at 4,164 in 2005, 4,350 bears in 2011 and now 4,577 bears in 2019.

After this weekend the deer will be given a reprieve from hunters until after Christmas when the primitive flintlock season opens on Dec. 26.

Hunters with a valid muzzleloader stamp and unused tags can hunt either bucks or does with the appropriate license. Many hunters enjoy the primitive hunt and are quite proficient with their black powder rifles. Only flintlocks with iron sights are permitted to be used as well as archery equipment. The wearing of buckskin, fur clothing and hats makes the old-time hunt feel very authentic.

The hunting season for deer effectively ends at the close of flintlock season on Jan. 20th. If you haven’t harvested a deer between the start of the deer seasons on Oct. 5th through Jan. 20th you likely need to get back to basics or just have some old-fashioned bad luck.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.