Now to start the serious planning.

The wait is over...results from special hunt applications posted online today.  I was selected for 2 special tags...a 2nd antler-less deer tag, and an antler-less elk tag, both of them using a muzzle loader. 

I need to take it seriously this year.  The 2nd deer tag allows me to take a doe from the hunting unit north of Pomeroy in addition to whatever else I might take during the general season.  Heck...if I play my cards right, I can use the 2nd tag first, and then go looking for another doe during the late muzzle loader season in November.  Trophy's aren't very important to me...I'd much rather put two does in the freezer than get my name in the record books for nailing a top 10 rack...those antlers need to cook a long time to get tender.

I've never hunted in the area where my 2nd tag is good for, so sometime in the next few weeks, I need to go do some scouting, and some meeting and greeting.  That's serious farm country there, and I think if I start knocking on a few doors in a polite manner, I might be able to find a few folks who will let me work on their doe problem.  I might even bring my older daughter with me...she's not hunting, but she's still great advertising. 

The cow tag is the big one.  Each year you apply and don't get selected, you earn points...it took me 7 points to get selected for this cow tag, so, that's a pretty major time investment.  Luckily, the area I was selected for is where I've been hunting elk for the last 5 years.  The only question is, will the elk be there.  Modern season takes place at the beginning og November...this cow tag takes place a full month earlier. 

I've got no real excuse not to get one.  Each year I've been up there elk hunting, I've seen cows at what would be muzzle loader distances.  I fully intend to do some scouting.  It's barely over an hour and a half from my front door to the bottom of Bethel Ridge, so, I have no reason not to get in the woods a few time in August and September.