This coming week is one of the most anticipated weeks that Small Town Outdoors has looked forward to in quite some time.
We would have to guess most people are looking forward to Tuesday, which is the 25th of December, which means that it’s Christmas!
As for Small Town Outdoors, and all of our followers, we’re looking forward to Wednesday or Thursday. What’s the significance of one of those days, you may ask? Well one of those days, we will be releasing a blog and social media posts with the 4 official color schemes that people can vote on to be used on our first sweatshirts which will be released soon after the first of the year (pay close attention to social media and our website each of those days so you can give your opinion on what color scheme you like best!).
And finally, Wednesday brings some more significance for all you hunters out there. Wednesday, December 26th, is the first day of late archery/flintlock muzzleloader season in PA.
Now, with late archery just a few days away, it seems as though we never discussed a topic that seemed to be common through a lot of Northwestern PA during regular archery season: the weather.
MY OH MY. Mother Nature threw a lot of curveballs during October/November, but there was one factor that was a killer during archery. And that was the wind.
Maybe it was just around our area where it seemed really bad, but at least for the Small Town Outdoors crew, the wind did not seem to want to cooperate a majority of the times we went out. Granted, we were only able to get out once or twice a week with the way our work schedules were; but it seemed like a majority of those times (mainly Friday’s and Saturday’s) the wind was not only howling, but very unpredictable.
This was a beautiful Saturday hunt, however, the wind was swirling all day and made it difficult to pin down wind direction.
As a hunter in general, wind direction is extremely important to pay attention to. You want to put yourself in the best position possible to not be winded. So when you can, you want to try to be downwind of the deer every chance you get, or at least have your scent blowing away from the direction the deer are moving. This makes it harder for them to pick up your scent, which especially in archery hunting, gives you a better chance to get the deer in close for an ethical and realistic shot. It doesn’t always work out that way, but the more you pay attention to it depending on the pattern of the deer in that area, the better chance you’re giving yourself to pursue a successful hunt.
And a lot of times during archery this year, the wind direction was hard to pinpoint. It seemed like a majority of the time we went out this year, along with friends and family of ours as well, the wind was swirling and howling. That makes it hard for hunters to select a spot where they’d be most effective, and it also may have effected deer movement because they weren’t able to pick up scent as easily. Not to mention the fact that when the wind is blowing in the 15-20 mph range, it’s harder to reach calls throughout the woods.
Tate and Tyler of Small Town Outdoors had this buck behind them at about 10 yards from their blind, on a day where it was a downpour and the wind wasn’t favorable.
Even though we had some luck harvesting a couple bucks within STO, the weather during archery was noticeably worse than it has been in years, at least in our experiences. What are your thoughts?
Here’s hoping late archery/flintlock season treats everyone a little better weather wise, and good luck to everyone that goes out in this winter hunting season!
Find the outdoors within, and remember to subscribe to our blog and follow us on our social media’s!
