Oct 26, 2012 4 min read

Just in case you haven’t noticed, the maple, oak and hickory trees are showing their colors. It would now be a fine time to take a ride up to the mountains east of Uniontown. The variety of colors among the various maples alone makes for a brilliant vista. When the talk turns to colors, I think of Mike Supek of Jefferson. Mike is certainly a colorful character. He also is, incidentally, a very good deer hunter. About three weeks ago, Mike showed me a photo of an apparently old pot-bellied, sway-backed buck. Despite locating other bucks, some of decent size, Mike said he was going to target this old patriarch. A few friends said he was a bit out of plumb for seeking this old timer, for the buck carried only one four point antler. It is rare for a Pennsylvania hunter to go after a single buck and succeed, but Mike was determined that this old buck would either fall to his arrow or maybe later in the year one of his .300 bullets. Supek has trouble hunting more than Saturdays, for his job as a truck driver keeps him away for home most other days. I guess by now you know where this is leading. Mike arrowed this big buck the first weekend of October and then faced the four-hour task of getting him out of the deep gutter where he fell. His hunting partner had a bag shoulder, so Mike had to get the big buck out almost alone. Later, at the processor, the deer weighed 192 pounds field dressed. We haven’t had the teeth checked for age as of yet, but this buck certainly looked old. In Pennsylvania, that means he was shot at more than once and certainly must have become a wise old animal, making him a true trophy. Congratulations, Mike; you told me weeks in advance you would down the old buck, and you did. I recently read that grouse hunting in Southwest Pennsylvania was going to be fair this year. I think the writer of those lines was being optimistic, for I haven’t seen a grouse in Washington or Greene counties for at least six years. I recently asked one of the state’s top grouse hunters where I could get a few flushes in either county. His answer? No where. There are no grouse in the local thickets. He might have been exaggerating, but certainly grouse numbers are very low here at home. On the other side of the coin, there are grouse in the northern tier of the state. I have accidently flushed grouse while hunting bear in Elk County. I have even seen grouse walking along the roads in Elk County. When is the last time you saw a grouse along the road? While hunting grouse in Greene and Washington counties might be a waste of time, there is grouse hunting to be found in the northern counties and as close to home as eastern Westmoreland County. The most consistent hunting that could be found in the area is pursuing the squirrel found in the local woodlots. Both the grey and fox squirrel can be located easily in this corner of the state. Squirrel can be bagged the easy way by just sitting and watching, or success can be had by quietly moving through the woods. When sitting, I prefer to use the .22 rifle, but a sc attergun works better when moving around. The ideal conditions for stalking is after a rain when the leaves are wet. Otherwise, the moving hunter makes too much noise to be successful. One problem when the .22 is used involves safety. When shooting at a squirrel with the rifle, be sure there is a good backstop. A shot sent skyward may carry a couple of miles. Find the food supply (nuts), and the hunter will find squirrels. This is the one small game that is really good to eat and has remained in good numbers. While I prefer the rifle, most hunters use a shotgun. Remember, squirrels have a thick tough skin and require reasonably heavy shot and high-brass shells. They are hard to anchor with light shotgun loads. This fall, I have received more than one report of bald eagles appearing in Washington County. One report came from the Cherry Valley area and the other not far from Peters Township. With its distinctive white head and up to eight food wingspan, a bald eagle is hard to mistake for another bird. George H. Block writes a Sunday outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.