The end of the Pennsylvania deer rifle season found the ground covered with snow and the temperatures hovering around 21 degrees of chilling cold.

Throughout the season, I had hoped for some snow, but as the old adage goes, be careful for what you wish.

I had promised my neighbor and friend Frank Marshall that we would get together and do some day deer hunting together. Our wives aren’t too keen on two old guys wandering around in the woods, but I guess two of us makes it a little better for them.

We both like to get back into the more out of the way places and do a little deer stalking if we can and the snow cover made that a possibility.

When you have snow, the deer signs of recent activity are much easier to follow and sometimes new patterns of deer travel show themselves with fresh tracks. We were hunting a patch of thickets and pines that stretched for a good bit. We parked along a pull off and saw that only one other person was hunting in the area.

That’s good and bad; you need some hunter activity to move deer around, but at the same time, they may interfere with your hunting plan. As it worked out, we didn’t seem to be a factor for each other in this hunt.

We walked up an old logging road that was crisscrossed with fresh deer tracks heading to nowhere in particular, but in a direction that was showing a random feeding mode. Snips of browse on tree twigs and the scraping of snow and leaves to uncover mast or grass was evident.

We knew that some deer were definitely in the area. I was looking for a legal buck and the hunting was proving difficult. I had seen bucks throughout the hunting season, but putting three up on the antlers was being elusive.

Either they weren’t waiting around for an antler point count or the thick cover did its work in blending them in too well. Seeing bucks was great, but you need to close the deal.

We came to a T in the trail and we decided to split up with each of us choosing to go in opposite directions. I chose left and headed towards some hilly country with plenty of thickets. I have always had a fair amount of good fortune in this type of cover, so I put myself into a stealth mode.

Walking a deer trail, I started seeing more sign of deer activity. Deer beds are really evident when the snow is deeper. Large oval depressions in the leaves and ground cover were starting to pop up here and there. Around eight beds were vacant from either the other hunter in the area booting them out in his travels or because they were feeding with the oncoming snow storms.

Deer stalking takes tremendous patience. You need to pay attention to the wind, look ahead and around you at all times and listen to noises around you.

Blue jays started squawking and I heard the slight sound of hooves crunching leaves. There was definitely something on the move and I was in the middle of some action.

The brush was thick and there were only a few specific locations that allowed me to peer through the cover. That is why deer like this location and that is why hunters avoid it most of the time, and this was why I chose to place myself in here.

The sounds continued to get closer to me and then I sensed deer more than saw them. One, two now three deer moved towards me across the trail I was traveling. They were close, but behind me and I didn’t dare move lest I tipped them off of my presence.

The wind was blowing across the trail and away from me and the deer…good fortune for me! How close can a deer get to you without knowing you were there? The answer to this question was five yards and I could clearly see the first two deer were does.

I wasn’t looking for a doe and Frank was off on his own trail and out of this ongoing drama. Now I saw that number three was a buck and possibly a legal buck. However, I was looking over my shoulder and being right handed, my rifle was in the wrong direction as well.

The lead doe stopped feet from me and the second doe bumped her along into the trail in a nervous fashion. It was cool seeing them in action, but being so close limited my actions as well. I decided to wait it out and hope that they would cross the trail and give me a shot.

Today, someone was looking out for that buck as the lead deer suddenly turned and led them back into the thicket. She sensed something amiss and trusted her instincts.

I wasn’t angry at the near miss for a buck, rather I was glad to test out my old hunting tactics, and as an old buck hunter with 50 years of hunting experience, happy that I still had some of those skill sets left.

Until we meet again, happy holidays and remember to spend it with someone you love!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle