This Saturday starts hunting seasons in earnest for deer, bear, small game and waterfowl in Pennsylvania.

It is a marvelous time to be afield and the woods and fields will be alive with activity from all types of hunters and hunting interests. Game animals will be on the move and hunters’ chances of seeing wildlife on their hunts will be markedly improved.

Early muzzleloader season for antlerless deer and black bear will be a focus of many inline hunters throughout the week. The last three days of the week will allow modern rifles to be used by both senior and junior hunters Oct. 19-21. A bear license and a doe license are required along with the regular hunting license. The fluorescent orange requirements are in force as well.

One of my favorite hunting memories involved both a black bear and some white-tail deer during the early season. We were hunting some extra-thick brushy areas hoping to bounce some deer out of the brush. We were invited to hunt an agricultural area that was getting visited by both deer and bears in the corn fields daily.

However, they cleared out by shooting light and took cover in the heavy brush and briars. Hunting in the thick cover was extremely difficult and the deer kept tight to the cover. Every now and then I would catch a glimpse of brown movement, but never in a clear spot.

I decided to take a 5-minute break and plopped down on a fallen log on the edge of a clearing next to the underbrush. Sitting quietly, I heard the sound of a small game rifle which probably was a squirrel hunter over in the next hollow. I wondered how they were doing when I heard some leaves rustling in the distance, but heading my way.

Peering intently through the grapevines that hung over the oaks, I saw two deer coming my way. They both slid into somewhat of a hollow which left them covered from view. I prepared myself for the chance that they might appear somewhere in my shooting range. It seemed an eternity, but finally I detected some movement behind a mound of earth in the grapevines that likely was pushed there by an old logging operation. It was my deer and they both were in sneak-mode in the cover.

I was sitting on a log with a heavy branch reaching out to me that made a perfect bench rest. Hunting with a black powder inline muzzleloader meant that you would have one shot and that you better make it count. The trouble with my location was that the deer were keeping the earth mound as cover and there was no ready target to make a clear shot. The only thing that I could see was some ears popping up as the deer moved along the trail. I didn’t dare waste a quick shot in fear that I would blow my only opportunity of the day.

Fate presented me with an opportunity as I heard some more small-game hunters shooting at squirrels in the hollow that the deer vacated earlier. The doe stopped walking and was checking her back trail to keep an eye out for the other hunters. She then stepped up on the mound for a better look and gave me a better opportunity for a shot. I would either make a solid shot or I would have a clean miss and I was OK with the chance for either.

Earlier in the week, the guys had put a group of deer past me and I had the perfect shot, but my powder failed when I fired due to dampness. I had a fizzle sound and some dirty smoke roll out of my rifle barrel as I fired and I watched a nice group of deer walk away. I scrubbed and cleaned my .50 caliber to get ready for the next opportunity. This was it and I needed to clear my thoughts and make this shot count.

I steadied my sights on the target and pressed the set trigger and then gently pressed the second trigger and fired. The boom of the rifle echoed through the hillside and I knew that this time it performed flawlessly. The smoke of the burnt powder filled the air and blocked my view.

I immediately reloaded the rifle in case I needed another shot and looked down toward my target area. I couldn’t see any movement or signs of a deer, so I proceeded slowly at the ready. Up over the mound I moved, searching the leaf cover for my deer. Suddenly, my search was rewarded as I saw a large doe that was exactly where I had hoped to find her.

A perfect muzzleloader hunt on a perfect October morning was complete. Until we meet again, be safe and make sure of your targets out there!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle