IndianaDan's journal

[indianadan]

Opening weekend in Indiana was a big skunker! My well laid plans were foiled by a farmer (and his combine) and the neighbor kid ripping his quad. I think I can count on both hands the number of times in the past three years that I've went hunting and not seen at least one deer....so it goes.

I only hunted once and that was Sat. evening. 75 degrees with a North wind which is very uncommon as we usually have an East wind.

Hopefully next weekend will find the nearby corn field cut, and some cooler temps.

[indianadan]

Second time out and put on a decent hunt this evening. Left the house at 4:55 and was in the stand by 5:18. With sunset at 7:14 means I had 2 1/2 hours to hunt. I had a wind from the North at 8-9 mph and 55 degrees.
At 7:00 I hear something directly in front of me. I thought it was another damn squirrel, but I saw a glimpse of white through the foliage. I slowly grab my bow off the hook and snap on the release. I can now tell that there are two bucks that are going to come by my stand at 20 yards. The first buck gets by and he's a little basket racked 6 point. The next buck is nicer so I draw slowly....as I'm at fulldraw I do a closer inspection and he looks to be 2 1/2 yo 9 point...he might've been 13" or 14" inside. I let down slowly. He had me thinking about it....he would've been my biggest buck with a bow, but I couldn't do it. These were the same bucks that I jumped at the end of August while squirrel hunting. There was what looked like a bigger one running with them in August, but maybe it was the 9 point in velvet and he just looked bigger. I only got a real quick glimpse. Anyway....I think it was a neat encounter, and I had them pegged so I feel good. They just weren't big enough.

Saw a doe and her fawn also, but they skirted me out of range.

Forgot to say the beans have been cut since last weekend. The deer were going to the fields to feed.

I hope they will start on the corn soon.

[indianadan]

Was on stand by 5:00 pm. Sunset at 7:03. Swirling wind, but mostly out of the East like normal. Had a doe and 3 small ones come by at 6:00. Came to full draw and she walked broadside at 20 yards, but everytime I stopped her with a mouth bleet she quartered to and stopped. It happened twice and I let down they went on unspooked. Lone doe came by at 6:20. She was a big mature doe with no fawns in tow. She stopped perfectly broadside at 23 yards and I shoot directly over her back. She takes two jumps and stops to look around and figure out what happened. She is at 40 yards and broadside, she has me thinking, but she is on edge from the miss so I don't even try. She walks back the way she came. I rattle lightly and hit the can call twice about 10 minutes later and I hear a deer running to me from behind. I see it is a doe. She gets to 40 yards and doesn't see a deer and gets suspicious. She comes all the way to 15 yards, but she is stomping and wired for sound. I managed to get to full draw when her head went behind a tree, but she was always facing me or facing directly away from me. Total deer seen 11 with 6 being in bow range. Now that I got my early season miss out of the way it is time to put one down!!

[indianadan]

swirling wind tonight. Mostly from the N. I wanted to hunt the oaks where I saw all the deer headed to last night, but I didn't want to chance messing up a good thing. I chose to hunt the same stand I hunted last night. I didn't think I'd see anything because of my hunt last night. I saw 3 deer. They were in a distant field. All I could make out between the foliage was them running back and forth with tails raised. I have no idea what they were running from. Maybe a buck pushing some does around?? I saw one go into the woods I was hunting about 200 yards from me. I think she made a giant circle because about 2 minutes later she came by me at 50 yards on a fast trot with tail tucked. I waited for a buck to follow, but none showed.

I hope to get a steady E or W wind soon so I can hunt the oaks.

[indianadan]

Eventful hunt Sat afternoon. SHot a buck, but the shot looked a bit back. When exiting the stand I had my mind on other things like tracking this deer. My head was level with my stand platform (which is at 18') when I fell some 13'. I feel like a real idiot. I'm not hurt seriously just sore now two days later.

Sign at the hit and the arrow looked good. No stomach matter or gut smell. I suspect he is hit in the liver. With rain forecasted for the overnight I elected to track. BIG mistake. I jumped this deer about 100 yards from the hit. I backed out and resumed the track next morning at first light in the rain. This blood trail was decent at first and then turned spotty with blood only every 15-20 yards. The exit wound on his left side would stop leaving blood and then once in a while I would find a spot of blood on the left of his track. I tracked this deer another 3 hours and 500 yards through briars and brambles on hands and knees, tall weeds, and across a cut bean field, and through another block of woods before I lost blood on the edge of a hay field. I did circles for another hour and found zilch. It rained all day yesterday, and is raining mixed with snow right now. I'm going out in a while to do some more searching, but I'm afraid with no blood I'm going to have to rely on luck or buzzards/crows to help me find this one. I think he's dead, and will count my buck tag filled even if I don't find him.

Between my fall and the decision to track to soon I feel pretty dang stupid right now. It sure puts a damper on my Kentucky trip later this week.

[indianadan]

Log for the Kentucky hunt....

I knew the hunt was going to be decent when I saw deer the first afternoon while just driving around. Massive wasn't home from work when I got there Thursday afternoon, so I made a mess on his front porch with my gear and started driving around. While pulling into the parking lot on Pikes Ridge 2 does started crossing in front of me. They jumped back into the woods when they saw me, but when I pulled down into the parking lot they completed their crossing of the road and stood and watched me. Then while driving back out of Pikes Ridge area I saw another doe and 3 turkeys feeding next to the road. I had already seen as many deer in the first afternoon than I had all hunt last year in Sept. and I hadn't left the truck yet.

The first morning Texas Dave, Massive and I hunted the area Maynard had seen deer the previous morning. Dave was just settling in when he had a 3 point under him. Massive got the deer on video also, but because I was on the other side of a slight point I didn't see or hear the deer. Dave also saw a small button that morning. At about 9:30 I heard a deer blow. I turned around and saw that Massive was not in his stand. He said he had to stretch. I've figured out that to keep Ryan on stand you have to supply him with a few of those small white wind checkers that most of us call cigarettes! ;D

After our hunt we did a bit of walking. Ryan pointed out a scrape line that he had come across in days previous. Overall in the 4 days I was there I must've seen 50 rubs and almost that amount of scrapes, some of them fresh and some covered slightly with leaves and not so fresh. One could get distracted by this buck sign, but Ryan pointed out that I needed to stay on the fresh trails and he was mostly looking for fresh tracks. Sometimes that's difficult to do when the leaves are falling as fast as they were.

The second morning Dave and myself headed to Corbin's Bend to a knoll of white oaks he had hunted in past years. He offered to video the hunt...what a guy! We sat until 9:30 with no action. Dave motioned to me asking me if I wanted him to rattle. I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. I guess it couldn't hurt. He rattled and we grunted back and forth a few times and I tipped the can over twice for good measure. Five minutes later I heard steps coming toward us. I looked behind me and saw a deer. I turned toward Dave and got his attention. He mouthed "buck or doe?" I shrugged and said doe, because I hadn't got a real good look yet. I stood up and slipped my bow from the holder and Dave got his camera going. Another quick look at the deer told me he was a buck, but not legal...a smallish 6 or 8 point. I didn't really pay all that much attention to his rack once I saw he wasn't legal. As the buck came in he gave me several opportunities to draw and shoot. If the deer would've been a doe or a shooter it would've had an arrow in it. I hadn't climbed high enough, but the deer got to 8 yards before looking up picking me off. He jumped a few yards out, but continued circling us at 20 yards giving Dave the opportunity for some good footage. He eventually came across our trail and spooked for good. When we watched the video later we saw he was a 6. After Massive watched the video he gave me hell for not climbing high enough.

That afternoon while walking we found a spot that had several rubs and a fresh scrape with several decent sized limbs snapped off of a tree. Right next to this rub and scrap were two trails about 5 yards apart that were tracked up pretty good. I decided to hunt out of my blind that evening over looking these trails. I set up my blind in a line of brush near where these trails came out into a field. The buck sign was great, but the fresh trails had me thinking the hunt was good for at least a doe. I was right and I had a big doe broadside at 16 yards with an hour of shooting light left. I was at full draw when she popped out. She made the blind quickly, (piss poor brush in job I guess???) but just stood there with only her front leg and shoulder exposed for about 30 seconds. I guess she didn't really know what the blind was, but that it was a new addition to her neighborhood that she didn't recognize. My pin settled on her shoulder waiting for her to take one more step, but she wouldn't do it. She never blew or flagged, but just slowly turned and went back the way she came. I'm sort of kicking myself now for not releasing on her, but sometimes the deer wins.

The only legal shooter bucks I saw were as they crossed the road in the dark and helping drag on out for one of Massive's buddies. The morning I left EShore's buddy Rick had killed a 7 point, but I haven't seen it yet. I'm sure he'll be along with some pics soon.

Those damn Green River deer kicked my ass again, but I had a great time. I learned a few things (climb higher and brush a blind in better) and met some fine people. I believe I'll be heading back down there to hunt the late season.

Want to say thanks to Massive for all he does in hosting these hunts. Thanks to Dave and Massive also for showing a rookie around a little.

I'll try to get some pics up soon.

7 hunts....1 buck, 5 does two shots opportunities

not bad for a rookie

[indianadan]

I finally put something on the ground. A momma and fawn came by at last light. No shot on momma, so I put the fawn down with a spine shot and followed it up through the lungs with arrow #2. No tracking and the deer ends up 5 steps from the tree. I get down to find it is a button buck...just didn't see them buttons. The way my season has gone I will take it. We were down to our last three packs of ground venison.

Warm and windy this afternoon. Near 70 for the high and wind gusting to 15-20 mph. Thought about skipping the hunt, but I haven't hunted but 6 times since Oct 1, not counting my 7 hunts in Kentucky.

About 3:30 I hear a deer blow up wind of me. I turn slowly and stand up to see a very large bodied buck who is outside his ears dogging a doe and snort wheezing to beat the band. They go round and round like this for a while until he stops. He beds down some 200 yards from me. I got some pretty shaky footage of him. I even messed with him a bit with the rattling antlers and grunt tube. He would stand and look my direction, but he wouldn't come my way. I suspect the doe was bedded nearby is why he wouldn't budge. He stayed that way until I couldn't make him out anymore due to darkness.