On our whitetail preserve we hunt from mid-August through the month of January. This gives our guests the ability to choose to hunt any spectrum of the whitetail breeding season, Pre-rut, Peak Rut, and Post rut when planning your whitetail hunt.
The whitetail hunts at Powder Ridge Outfitters are categorized based on three main hunt categories, classic, trophy, and world class. The hunts are generally based on the gross SCI antler score of the bucks that we will be pursuing. We only harvest deer that are three years old or older. If a buck does not meet the age criteria of our management plan, it will not be targeted for harvest, regardless of antler size.
All hunts are one on one guided. Our guides will determine the classification of all bucks for the hunter to be sure we are targeting the correct animals.
Your hunt with us is booked for three days/three nights. Check in is 12 pm Wednesday and Check out by 2pm on Saturday (No Saturday nights or Sundays). Your hunt includes lodging, meals, and guide service. Transportation to local airports can be added at an additional cost. No license is required to hunt Whitetails with us on our private preserve.
If hunting a big, trophy velvet whitetail is a dream of yours, the very beginning of deer season in Pennsylvania offers you that exact opportunity. Our velvet whitetail hunts take place during the last two weeks of August through early September, before the bucks begin shedding their velvet. One of the biggest benefits of hunting this early in the season, besides the fact that you can shoot a buck in velvet, is the opportunity to be one of the first hunters on the preserve for the season. That means you get the first chance at any of the mature, huntable bucks for the season. Even better, bucks are less pressured and still following their predictable summer patterns in bachelor groups.
Our early season velvet hunts have high success rates, and at the very least, you should be able to lay eyes on some beautiful bucks in full velvet.
Even after bucks have begun to shed their velvet, early season buck patterns and hunting conditions are an ideal time to be in the woods. With comfortable temperatures of late summer and early fall and predictable deer patterns, this is one of our favorite times to hunt. Many of our bucks are still in their summer bachelor groups and consistent feeding patterns, and it is not uncommon to see multiple world class deer feeding together in the well-managed fields and hardwood timber hillsides that encompass the preserve. A lot of the best deer that we harvest each year are taken during this early season hunt. Generally, we consider "early season" to be any time from August (when they are still in velvet) through mid-October. All packages/classes of hunts can be booked during this time of year. Contact us for current availability.
Late October through the month of November brings on the peak of the whitetail rut and is no doubt an exciting time of year to be in the whitetail woods. These hunts give our hunters the potential to experience some very intense rutting activity that only takes place on a well-managed property. By limiting the hunters per hunt, we have the ability to use multiple techniques in pursuing your trophy buck. Whether stand hunting over known doe feeding areas, or rattling and still hunting our way through the Powder Ridge timber, this is no doubt going to be a trophy hunt experience rivaled by few. The best time to experience our rut at Powder Ridge is to book your hunt during late October through the week prior to Thanksgiving. Any package/class of hunt can be booked during the rut.
Our Late season hunts take place during the first three weeks of December and the two weeks following the new year. As the rut winds down in November, we start to see our deer become more consistent in their late season feeding patterns. If you've ever wanted to hunt big, mature deer in the wintry woods of the northeast, this is the hunt to be on. Although late season can be cold in the north, this post rut hunt still offers our hunters some incredible late season opportunities at some exceptional deer. We are conservative in the amount of hunts we book each year to ensure we still have great late season opportunities. We generally only book Classic and Trophy class hunts during the late season.
