The first day of rifle season in Pennsylvania is a special time for hunters and Pennsylvanians in general.

Schools are closed down for the first Monday after Thanksgiving, retailers start offering big shopping days and deer hunters head for their lucky hunting spot.

This year had me playing host to many of my cousins who were visiting from Michigan and Virginia. They have a Pennsylvanian background and even in their later years desire to be part of the magic of the First Day of Buck!

Getting the big buck is not the point of the gathering, but more about revisiting family and old friends that they have met along the way. Special thanks need to go out to my friends and neighbors that have shown them so much Pennsylvanian country hospitality.

The first morning found me getting them settled in and then I headed up to the headwaters region of the Slippery Rock Creek. Surprisingly, the area was open to my hunt with no other hunters in my vicinity. I gathered my .280 Remington and other necessities and began my hunt.

I was barely on the trail along the Slippery Rock Creek when I noticed or maybe sensed deer watching me. What a start, five minutes into the hunt and I had a deer sighting.

I peered through the early morning light with a slight mist around the creek and I could make out the shape of a white-tail deer. They were on the other side of the creek and apparently felt safe. When I raised my rifle towards them, they decided that the jig was up and they faded back into the thickets.

Good omen for a morning hunt and I continued to pick my way carefully along the creek bank only to stop as I heard a flock of turkeys greeting each other in their morning roost and then flying down to the creek for their morning drink. I could hear them more than see them and I didn’t try to get closer lest they startle and warn the whole valley of my presence.

Right after the turkey show, I had the wood duck presentation as a small raft of woodies made their presence known as well. It was a noisy morning as I watched the woodlands for a legal buck.

The view was spectacular, like a Redlin painting which made me feel nostalgic. I didn’t have to wait long for the next act as I noticed activity a few feet down the bank from where I stood. A brown furry critter came out of the bank and towards me and stopped short a few feet from me and looked up.

To my amazement, it was a wild mink and not to alarmed nor aggressive. We looked each other over and the mink was outstanding. He had a beautiful chocolate brown fur with darker ears and black eyes that shined bright.

He turned around quickly and gracefully and went back into his den. Not for long, though ... out he came and ambled along the creek bank away from me.

The buck hunting did not pan out, but I still felt satisfied with my morning hunt thus far. It was about this time that I received a text from my neighbor Joe Bonetti. It was a picture of a handsome 10-point buck that his daughter, Julia, had just taken.

Julia is a third-generation hunter along with her grandparents and father. Julia is off to a wonderful hunting career with a doe in the early season and a buck in the rifle season. Pink rifle and all, welcome to the hunting family of Pennsylvania, Julia!

Now I moved my location for the afternoon hunt and once again was in a tree stand along another creek. I noticed that the beavers have been working the local streams as some areas are flooded and others are definitely drier.

In one of the drier areas that is usually difficult to enter, a mystery was solved. Beaver boy and the Professor were doing a late day walk about and they came upon the final resting place of a buck we had hunted in this wetland for the past two years.

Yes, the buck had met its demise by reasons unknown, but he left behind his legacy, a beautiful 10-point rack with plenty of spread and antler height. The professor plans to clean it up and respectfully display the antlers in a fitting way. He will also come up with a noteworthy name for this buck as he is apt to do.

One year, he shot a buck that made it past me and he refers to it as the Hewitt Buck much to his enjoyment, but now we know that a mystery is solved.

My plan is to keep working those creek bottoms and start a new adventure of giant bucks with great abilities to escape the deer hunters and just maybe I will find him in my sights!

Until we meet again, hunt safe and good luck, buck skinners!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle