Four of us traveled up to Camp F-Troop last week for the fall muzzleloader deer season, and the trip was a great success. We climbed mountains, visited our favorite old boulders from hunting seasons past and enjoyed crisp mornings and sunny afternoons in the colorful autumn forest. Todd and I took our guns and cameras for excellent walks in the woods, and Billy shot a fine, hefty doe an hour before dark on Tuesday, but Brett claimed the most interesting hunt of all, since he had to work past three bucks in one day Monday to find an antlerless deer.

That morning Brett hunted alone at Fern Hollow Run while the rest of us were still en route. He hiked up the fire trail that runs above the trout stream for a mile and stopped frequently to search for signs of deer. At 10 a.m. he left the trail and climbed the slope toward the mountaintop plateau, where sometime later, he stopped and rested against the side of a large sandstone boulder.

Just then a big deer broke over the crest of the ridge and trotted toward him, apparently spooked by someone or something on the sidehill slope below. It was a buck, he saw right away, and a good one. Brett froze in place as the deer closed to within 30 yards and stopped and stood motionless among the amber and bronze leaves recently fallen to the ground. It was an elegant eight-point with heavy and symmetrical antlers, a beautiful animal, but unfortunately not fair game in this season. Then Brett noticed something else, the dark-colored sparring marks of dried blood on the deer’s thick neck. Apparently there was another buck in the area big enough to challenge this one.

An hour later, Todd, Billy and I arrived at camp, and the four of us planned an afternoon hunt. We scattered up the mountainside behind camp in a semi-organized manner with plans to meet up just after dark. Brett hiked south for half a mile to a spot where a small trail angles uphill toward the mountaintop. Not 15 minutes later he spotted a deer on the trail 100 yards above. He cranked up his scope to 7-power and studied the deer as it drank from a shallow watercourse at the edge of the trail. The deer lifted its head and revealed two small shovel-tipped forkhorns. Another buck! Brett was amazed.

After a moment, the young buck wandered off up the trail. Brett watched it disappear and shook his head in frustration, then headed north up the hill toward the area where he knew Todd, Billy and I would be hunting. A half hour later he stopped behind a big white pine, scanned the upward slope for sign and noticed an odd-colored light patch in the sun that didn’t quite fit in with the dull colors of the forest. He lifted his scope and saw that it was a third buck staring back at him, a thick-bodied deer with wide antlers of heavy mass and eight or ten points. “Come on,” Brett said to himself. “I go years without seeing a buck in the woods sometimes, and now I walk up on three in one day when they’re not legal game?” He watched as the big buck spooked and bounded away, then continued his hunt.

Later, Brett heard a small commotion in the dry leaves to his left. He turned and saw a group of six deer come over the ridge and stop 75 yards away. He raised his scope and saw that they were antlerless — finally — a herd of three adult does and three yearlings. But he couldn’t shoot because the deer were milling around close together, and he was afraid of hitting more than one.

Eventually one of the adult does stepped away from the group and stood broadside, looking back at the others. Brett fired his 50-caliber Thompson Center inline, and the deer dropped and rolled down the hill until it came to rest against a shag-barked hickory. He tagged and field-dressed the animal and began dragging it quickly down the slope. He knew he had a good story to tell the boys at camp that night.

Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.

Trail Notes: Looking for the ideal holiday gift for an outdoors person? Paperback copies of my book The F-Troop Camp Chronicles are on sale at The Book Rack, Daffin’s, Copyland, Luigi’s Pizza, Greenville News, Courthouse Square Drygoods Co, Allied News, CDS Sports, and Neshannock Creek Fly Shop. For special prices on signed and numbered hardcovers, use the contact info below.

Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for THE HERALD and the ALLIED NEWS. He can be contacted at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Visit his Website at www.donfeigert.com.