Pennsylvania public land challenge!

[mipubbucks24]

As someone else posted I would really love Dan and Joe to compare and contrast each state after 3 years of the PLC. Not so much compare and contrast vs WI but the state that the challenge was in. If there is one thing that can be taken from this is there are good bucks on public land in all 3 of these states. Might take some major time and effort to get on them but they do exists.

[elk yinzer]

I don't see many deer grunting or fighting 20 feet up in trees and I think that has a big impact on calling success. Animals are pretty good at pinpointing sounds. Especially the rattling. Ever hear a real buck fight? There's a lot of noise and only a piece of it is the antlers clanging together.

[Thesouthpaw]

I don't see many deer grunting or fighting 20 feet up in trees and I think that has a big impact on calling success. Animals are pretty good at pinpointing sounds. Especially the rattling. Ever hear a real buck fight? There's a lot of noise and only a piece of it is the antlers clanging together.

You hit the nail on the head with rattling. When two bucks are legitimately going at it, the woods sounds like its falling apart.

[cuttiebrownbo]

Pa hunter here....

The 4 biggest bucks I have had in archery range 130-150s in PA have been the immediate result of rattling, grunting or and the gold ol can call. I shot 115+ Almost every year with my bow and half of them are the results of some sort of calling/rattling.

I have shot multiple does early season with doe grunts or whatever you want to call them.

Set up and technique and sequences matter a lot. How u call depends on set up, sign, expected deer travel, etc.

If a buck runs a doe by you sometime I’m telling you to get that can call out and let a couple estrus bleats rip. Especially, if it’s first thing in the morning. I have had those bucks chase does by me just to come back right to my tree hours later with nose on ground - I believe they are searching for the hot doe that bleated at them as they ran by.

I have success on extremely fresh scrape activity with rattling antlers. Pa is blessed and cursed with heavy mountain laurel but if I’m on open ridge with a finger or laurel running down the draw with scrapes on the dw side of the laurel I am confident in getting a buck moving my way with rattling antlers. Pin pointing bedding really helps with this. Just be careful if you are moving they will have picked out and be out of there before you even know it.

I hunt the NC and NE part of the state.

I hunt with guys who swear they don’t work and scare deer away - we hunt the same areas - so I guess you just got to find what gives you confidence.

[cuttiebrownbo]

I would just like to add the bucks I don’t kill off of calling occur during the first 2 weeks of the season. I don’t even carry a call with me until around Oct 20th

[headgear]

I don't see many deer grunting or fighting 20 feet up in trees and I think that has a big impact on calling success. Animals are pretty good at pinpointing sounds. Especially the rattling. Ever hear a real buck fight? There's a lot of noise and only a piece of it is the antlers clanging together.

When I am in a tree I sometimes tie the bow rope to a branch or even my fanny pack and crunch some leaves at the base while I am calling, otherwise when on the ground I use my feet. They are good at pinpointing sounds, even the young bucks come in from a long distance out and they know exactly the area to look and they will come right up to your exact tree. We fail more than we succeed by a wide margin but I have called in too many good public land bucks blind calling to ever think quitting now. When it works it is just too much fun. With that said I have never ever rattled in a buck so I hardly ever do that but maybe I should give it another try.

[Grasshopper]

Ive definitely witnessed successful calling in pressured pa areas. My brother called in and killed a 3.5 or better 120" buck with his noisy loggy bayou climber. Once I was taking down a preset stand a few days after archery season and rattled in a 3.5 year old 10 point with the noise of metal clanking together. If I see a buck pesting does in the distance I'm letting out the loudest grunt I can. I used to carry a bleat can, grunt call, and rattle bag. Now I only carry the grunt call, but at times I will bring a rattle bag. I don't often blind call, and I don't call to every deer I see. It probably fails more often than it works, but it will sometimes work.
For some reason if a buck is already moving fast like pesting a doe maybe the adrenaline dumbs them down a bit, but most bucks that were already fired up a bit react in a positive way.

[Cchez]

I hunt northeast MN, and i've never had much luck rattling. Probably because i haven't done a lot of it. My best luck has been with grunt tubes and or bleats. One thing i did do with rattling though was i tied together 6 antlers (3 pairs) and then tied them to a long thin rope so that i could keep the sound down on the ground while being up in the tree. Id bounce them off brush and the ground to try and simulate the sounds of a real fight better. Only problem was the party was over if i got tangled in the brush.

[Jmitch]

I only carry a grunt tube anymore and have had some really good success using it to seal the deal a few times on really big mature dominant bucks. In my limited experience the really big ones react really well and aggressively in the right situations. I never call blind and never call when they can see where the call is coming from. I find deer are a lot like turkeys and once they see where the sound should be and dont see anything they hang up. Its important to read his behaviour and how it reacts then work them a little. The buck I killed last week probably took between 15 and 20 grunts but I watched him thru binos in the brush the whole time. It was too thick for him to see where the call came from and kept getting visibly more aggressive until I gave him one snort weeze and he committed. At that point I stopped completely and he kept working towards me slowly until he ultimately gave me an opening. I had a different one a few years ago that was a dominate buck. He was chasing a doe and running off other bucks all morning. Finally it worked out where I was closer to his doe then him and i gave him one grunt as he was running off two little bucks the other direction. He gave one snort weeze then almost ran straight at me looking for a fight. Ended up killing him too. I think a lot depends on the individual buck and situation but it can and does work and I'd bet it'd work anywhere

[Chuck B]

Another awesome challenge in the books. Can’t wait to see what you guys do next year!

[SneakyHunter]

I've had a lot of success with calling/ratting in PA. I feel very confident when i can see a buck and watch his reaction. Blind calling/ratting not so much.

[Coalcracker]

Dan and THP,
Thoroughly enjoyed the Public Land Challenge (again). Keep up the good work.

At nearly 52 years old, I consider myself fortunate for having the opportunity to learn from you guys. You can never learn enough.

My biggest takeaways from the show were:
#1. Time spent scouting. I don't do enough during the season. I'm too passive or afraid of scaring the big buck away. That's already changed.

#2. Adaptable. Adapting to what you find and trying to capitalize on the situation. #1 puts you in position to take advantage. Being adaptable allows you to make the best of the situation. (I "was" a tree stand hunter. Pick a spot based on prior knowledge) Although this can be very effective, I'm finding it also cements you to one approach and some of us are too stubborn to pull stakes and move on when its not the time and place to be. This has also changed for me but I do continue using spots based on years of prior knowledge that are productive. I'm not completely abandoning good locations and I don't believe any hunter should. If it works, keep using it.

#3. Overall Time....So, the show got me to thinking. In order to accomplish #1 and #2, there is certainly a time factor involved. THP and The Beast crews spent 4-5 consecutive days scouting, hunting, scouting etc. putting the pieces together on the most active, recent sign of buck activity. They also made some educated assumptions, which we all do. It doesn't guarantee success by any means but dedicating the time will go a long way. I personally don't dedicate enough time to consistently kill or have opportunity at mature bucks. This hasn't really changed and I'm not sure it will based on my profession and lifestyle. With that in mind, my expectations should be in line with the effort and location but traditionally, its not. (LOL)

THP and The Beast are in my opinion true professionals of our sport. However they manage it, they dedicate the time necessary to consistently get on or kill their prey. Never always but pretty dang consistent!!

Hats off to them! I appreciate what they do and how they go about doing it!
That goes for all of you Beast hunters! Those who sacrifice time for anything else in their lives to be better hunters.

[Prairie Sasquatch]

All of these guys are great hunters and I’ve learned a lot from them. The one thing they have going for them that really helps is continuous blocks of time to hunt. I love to hunt and fish and most of the guys I hang with are the same way. Doesn’t matter if you are deer hunting waterfowl hunting walleye fishing whatever. After 30 years of hunting and fishing I’ve learned the people who are successful just hunt and fish a lot. Part of it is accumulated knowledge the other part is being out and gaining that timely information. I’m getting to the point that I only want to hunt in blocks of at least 3 days. It’s such a huge advantage.

[MNarrow]

All of these guys are great hunters and I’ve learned a lot from them. The one thing they have going for them that really helps is continuous blocks of time to hunt. I love to hunt and fish and most of the guys I hang with are the same way. Doesn’t matter if you are deer hunting waterfowl hunting walleye fishing whatever. After 30 years of hunting and fishing I’ve learned the people who are successful just hunt and fish a lot. Part of it is accumulated knowledge the other part is being out and gaining that timely information. I’m getting to the point that I only want to hunt in blocks of at least 3 days. It’s such a huge advantage.

This and also stepping out of your comfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things, new tactics, new areas, etc is where the learning really takes place.

[DeadHeadSpread]

The first two years of the challenge were great, but this one hit home since I am a PA guy. Not sure about you guys but I will be craving more and will probably rewatch these many times. I know this takes a ton of work to put together the episodes and everyone that works on this deserves a ton of credit. That said, I wish a few more of the THP guys besides Zach would have hunted this year, and Dan and Joe are so great to watch they each deserve their own cameramen for every hunt. Maybe I’m selfish but I would love there to be a lot more footage for us to watch!