Please consider joining us for the 4th Annual Southern Indiana Bowhunt (http://sticknstring.webs.com/2010southerninbowhunt.htm) Oct 8-11 in Jackson-Washington State Forest near Brownstown, IN.
at least think about joining us...we won't be hard to find. We're usually two or three sites and make up 90% of the occupancy!!
I'm planning to be there Thursday afternoon thru Sunday @noon.
John,
I'm planning on it depending on work. The mine was down for two weeks due to a roof fall and it looks like some saturdays in the future. I just hope it don't run into hunting season before we get caught up on coal.
We still got to get a stump shoot in sometime.
Guess I could afford the small game fee for non residents but, I'm unsure my vehicle has the stamina to make it. 4hours at 70mph in a 1999, 4cyl wrangler with 180,000 on it?
Then I'd have to go another hour on to Petersburg and beg Kris to cut me some tree's....... Shoot, I keep talking myself in and out of this trip. :knothead:
My brother and I are planning on attending this year
Are you hunting small game or deer?
We'll be in those counties, hunting whitetails the first through the fifth, private land, pics we've seen of the terrain down there, is looking very promising, hope you guys have a good hunt.
Cherokee Scout, the answer is ...YES :bigsmyl:
We hunt feathered and furry things that weekend and maybe a few gilled ones..if we happened to find a mythological, Hoosier porker...we'd hunt that too!! :wavey: :thumbsup:
Osagetree, talk yourself IN to this hunt, gonna be some purty osage bows, good campfires, and plenty of ground to hunt.
Todweelz, Thanx! Hope your luck is as good or better than ours.
ttt....
Sounds great, can probaly make that for sure and bring a couple trad buds.
Dang it, wish this wasn't during hunting season. I'd like to come since its so close.
TJ - Ky's archery season is 4 mo long. Spare a pre-rut weekend and join us for another hunt. I'll just be getting back from chasin' elk in CO the week before (can you smell the backstrap on the grill - I'm sharing with the camp!) and turning around and heading to IN for this hunt. I won't miss it.
See you guys there.
I have had a slight change in vacation here. I can't get Friday off so I will now be down from Friday evening until Tuesday evening. Billy, can you change your time to include Monday? I hate to miss a day/evening with you.
I got the arrows all squared away and spent some quality time stump-shooting this weekend. Indiana's deer population is probably at an all-time high. We need to kill some more deer. Squirrels are going crazy right now and the nuts are dropping early. Hope there are some left for the hunt.
John - the change works a little better for me anyway. I'll give you a call tomorrow on my way West. If I leave early enough, maybe we can grab some lunch.
ya i might have to head up there with sputter
For those on the fence, remember, this is a pre-rut deal. The October lull will be in place so bucks won't be doing a whole lot. All your normal places will be real slow so you need to hunt some big woods for a change. In the meantime, you'll meet some really nice trad guys and maybe gals and share a meal, a beverage, and a campfire. I will tell you exactly where to hunt for your best chance at a big woods deer. the area we hunt is featured prominenetly in a book or two and I have seen the deer that come out of there.
I've read those books John... He sure gets it done around there...
I don't know what that weekend brings, but hope to slip in at least for a howdy with you and Darren...
Jonathan
I'm still planning on coming if for nothing else just to share a campfire and hunt one morning.
Getting closer Fellers. Got most of my camping gear packed up and looking forward to meeting some real good folks.
Is any one gonna show up Thursday evening??? I am not working Friday and thought about showing up early.
well we made it back without incident and will let someone else tell the "last of the mohican" deer story.
Yep the "Last of the Mohican" is gonna be good as well as the rest of the camp tales. LOL
I had a blast this weekend and look forward to the next one for sure.
Met some great TGer's and ate good for sure and just for the record before the rest of the story comes along I'm already spoken for :readit: :laughing:
Stiks
Yep, yep he's been "claimed" !!! :jumper:
4 years in a row I've been there! 4 years I've learned and grown as a bowhunter....OK; part of that is the food in camp :D ....
Let's see...Deer-loaf burgers Thursday. Deer stew Friday. Wild Turkey breast and Deer back strap Saturday...tons of laffs and once again; I left all smiles !!
Good people, beautiful bows and arras, shared knowledge and fun...
Is it 2011; yet???
I am back!!! We lived. I'll get a full rundown of the hunt later but the best story is what is being nicknamed the "Last of the Mohican Deer Story". It happened on Saturday so we'll start there. This is really Darren's story to tell but he asked me to do it.
Saturday morning we all got up early to hunt. I went to a spot that proved fruitful last year in deer sightings at least. This year was different. It was a beautiful morning to be in the woods. This has been an aweful year for rain. We haven't had appreciable rain, at least in Indy, since July 28. The woods are crunchy and tinder dry. Still-hunting is out.
I posted overlooking this beautiful "creek"bottom. Of course it's dry right now. The acorn crop is overwhelming. There are literally piles of nuts under every tree. It' was also very hot, with forecasts for highs in the upper 80's all weekend. I didn't anticipate a lot of deer movement. I wasn't disappointed.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/JW2010-02.jpg)
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/JW2010-01.jpg)
I hunted until around 10:00 and then saw my only deer of the morning as I was getting into my hunting truck, shown here.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/huntingtruck.jpg) I can't wait to jam a deer into it :)
Good thing I already know the story or it would be eating me up right about now. LOL
I'll let John tell it and keep you guys waiting in suspense.
Stiks
Sometime around the time I was leaving the woods, Darren's deer story begins. He hunted up above the campground and around 9:00 as he was changing locations, a deer approached and caught him in the open. He managed to kneel down behind a stump but the doe caught the movement. She was suspicious but not spooked and continued forward. At about 25 yards, she walked behind a tree which allowed Darren to get his bow up. She walked behind another and he drew. She slowly moved forward offering a broadside shot. The shot was a bit farther back than hoped for but still looked to be in the vitals. As she crashed off, Darren watched her progress but quickly lost sight of her in the thick stuff.
45 minutes later he took up the trail. Blood showed pretty quickly and seemed red enough to be liver but definitely not lung. Still hoping for the best, he followed good blood for a couple hundred yards. He realized then that the blood he was following was muscle blood and he needed to keep on her to keep her bleeding. But the nagging doubt of the apparent shot location caused a bit of uncertainty. The shot looked to be dead center mass. Muscle blood didn't make sense. Still he followed. And the blood stayed good and fairly easy to follow. Her route caused much concern though as she was going uphill. Still he kept on.
At about 800 yards into the trail, he jumped her. At this point he wanted a second opinion and maybe some help. He came back to camp. We discussed it and decided it was likely a high hit through the backstrap and a difficult trail would continue. But we had to keep her moving. Billy, Brent, Darren and I went back to where he had jumped her.
The doe had actually climbed the ridge into the little valley that holds the campground and is in a non-hunting area. We got back on the trail and quickly saw that the blood was petering out. This can be good or bad but definitely makes it more difficult. We'd find blood and Billy would post on it. Then we'd find the next spot. She was still going uphill when we lost it for a while. Darren and Brent went forward and left looking closely for some sign. I split off right and after a while found another small spot of blood. The good news was that she had turned downhill. The bad news is that we lost blood quickly again after finding a fairly large, still wet pool. It didn't look like a bed but could be. After several tense and unproductive minutes, I found a tiny spot, again downhill from last blood. We saw where she had apparently run and concluded that we had bumped her. Walking along her trail, I looked downhill and saw a suspicious gray spot in the creek bottom. I pointed it out to Darren about the time I concluded it was a log. But then the log moved. It was her, about 40 yards away and looking straight at us. Darren pulled an arrow from his quiver and was going to try to finish her off and then she jumped up and started running again.
Darren asked me "Should I try to run her down". Without answering we both just took off and ran on pure instinct crashing downhill, trying to keep an eye on her without killing ourselves on the blowdowns or rocks we were forced to hurdle or the bankcuts we jumped. I must admit it was exhilarating as heck. With my binocular vision trained on the running, and weakening, doe my peripheral vision guided my body over the terrain. It is the first time I have truly appreciated our predatory nature. It was primitive and visceral and felt like it was exactly what I was designed to do. My heart accelerates now in the retelling. We were a two man pack chasing our prey.
The doe managed to run down the creek bottom for a hundred yards or so and then went back uphill. At the top, she stopped and was panting. Darren was still holding the arrow he pulled earlier (and just run downhill with) and stopped, preparing for a shot. Within seconds the doe took off again. We rushed after her again and at the top of the hill, we panted to a stop as we saw her down again, this time in a deep bend that had cut into the bank. She was spent and Darren was able to put a perfect finishing shot into her lungs at 18 yards. She jumped up on her final run and I said "She's done now". Within 50 yards, she was.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/darrendeer1.jpg)
She's a nice doe. Here's Darren, Billy, and Brent. Billy and Brent had held back as reserve for when Darren and I pooped out.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/darrendeer2.jpg)
Here' the track assist team. That's me in the middle. Still trying to catch my breath.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/darrendeer3.jpg)
The shot turned out to be exactly where Darren had seen it. It entered center mass on the right, deflected off a rib and exited the left hindquarter. The arrow passed through the stomach, cut a small slit in the "armpit" from inside and then cut through the front of the rear leg. Passing through the leg had apparently wiped all stomach matter from the arrow. A gut shot presented as a muscle hit. So, when we would normally have left her lay to die, we thought we were doing the right thing by chasing her down. Interesting.
Here's the track she took.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/JW2010-10.jpg)
She started on the right, sidehilled for couple hundred yards, went down into a hollow and then up and over a saddle in the main ridge. Then she went up and down a couple hollows and finally up another large point and finally down into the creek. Over a 4 hour period, she covered over 1000 yards. Darren and I went back through the trail and GPS coordinated confirmed a nearly 1/2 mile track over some of the toughest terrain in Indiana. She was kind enough to go towards the campground and Darren and Billy only had to drag her a couple hundred yards to the road, which was a couple hundred yards from camp.
After all the formalities of tagging and checking, the boys got to retrieving all useable pieces from the doe. Darren did the bulk of meat cutting and Chris (Sticks-n-Strings) recovered the sinew. I think Billy got the liver and Darren and I took the heart and tongue. It's an interesting thing to see a bunch of self-bowyers descend on a carcass.
(http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/JW-Bowhunt-2010/darrendeer4.jpg)
We had backstraps and fried potatoes for dinner. I was frying backstrap while Darren was finishing up the meat cutting. I heard tell that a bit of backstrap tartar was consumed in the coven-like gathering of meat eaters.
:thumbsup:
I tell you what boys that Backstrap tartar never tasted better than fresh of the bone. MMM MMM GOOD!
Stiks
I'll second that! Nothin like it.
Stiks,did you finish working on that new doe bleat call.
had alot of fun. hope to see all of you soon.
Great story Guys! Sorry I missed it again this year, one of the day I will make this hunt.
It seems it keeps falling on the youth hunt weekend over here!
Darren & John I so hope sombodys checking a trail camera soon and going what the.......
:biglaugh:
All joking aside that was a great recovery on that deer. My hats off to you for not giving up!
I bet that was a good victory cigar as well!
Brent the new doe bleat will be completed and in use in time for the next hunt we have. It will be all natural.
adeeden, you missed a great time and Darren does have an exeptional taste for a good stogi.
Stiks
Darren and I were talking and wondering why the heck this deer went the way she did. She went from security cover to a heavily used park where she knew she'd bump into people. It just struck me though looking at that Google Earth pic. She was gut shot. It is dry everywhere in the forest. The only water around is in that lake and another pond further away. She was doing the classic gut shot thing and heading for water. If we hadn't have done what we did, she might have made it and died in that lake within view of a lot of people.
The victory cigars were so good that we had another, and another, and another :)
If one consistently has a chance to read the posts of those who return from hunting camps, it is easily understood why we fortunate trad folk tend to view our pastime so passionately. These situations bring out the absolute best in most folks and we collectively get to enjoy an aspect of life together that trancends the views of "hunting" that are constantly being marketed AT us. While I certainly enjoy the success of finally killing a deer from the ground on public land, the real trophy for me is the opportunity to spend quality time with quality people in the pursuit of a cagy critter. My recent elk hunt was exactly the same.
I'm obviously not happy with my first shot, but the results are very satisfying.
And the story behind the story of Kris/Stiks being "claimed" is that he is like a human multi-tool, so I very wisely announced that I was claiming him as my newest and personal camp accessory. He's fast with a knife, skilled as a cook and has enough stories and hilarious analogies for every situation.
THE victory cigar was an Arturo Fuente Anejo, given to me by fellow TG'er Hayslope (Thanks Tony!), but as John said we had a few others as well.
Big thanks to John, Billy, Brent, Kris, Mike, Jordan & Merle for making the 4th annual hunt the best ever. Looking forward to next year already.
Great job fellas....kudos on your determination and fortitude. We can all be proud of your efforts. Darren, excellent job!!!! Now it's on to #2.
Told you feller's I was taken! :readit:
Stiks
Congrats Darren!!
Great read and pics.. Thanks for sharing.
"Uncle Wayne"
Nice work folks recovering that deer! Sounds like a good time. Sorry I missed you. I was hoping to return from the NASP Worlds in Orlando in time to get over there on Monday for a spell but it didn't work out.
I am headed to Attica, IN sometime after Oct. 20th.
Man!! I missed it too! I tried and tried to work something out.
I too will make this hunt eventually! Good hunting guys!
:thumbsup: Bona
Very well done Darren! Great pictures and story. Did you do the ribs over the open fire like in CO??? What great memories! :campfire:
Awesome story! Similar to an experience I posted about with a winter bow doe of 2009. Glad you made a recovery.
The best "deer camp" experience I have ever had, great group of guys. Already thinking about next time!!!
Bona, the guys said you were going to try and make it. I was hoping to meet you. Maybe I'll be able to make the rabbit hunt this year.
I weighed the meat last night. It came in at 46 lbs minus one of the backstraps (we ate that in camp Saturrday night). The other strap weighed exactly 3 lbs, so 49 lbs of meat. When we weigh field dressed deer we usually get 50-55% of the dressed weight in boned-out meat, so it looks like this doe came in at just under 100 lbs. She was long of both body and leg, but had no fat on her at all. Deer from the big woods/hills sure are different from the farm land deer I usually kill.
I agree with you Mike about the deer camp experience!
It was a great time for sure
i would like to thank all that was their.it was my first trad hunt,it was great!!!! and thank all of you guys for butting up with me.i had such a good time.you guys are the best"" :D THANK YOU it ment alot to me to be their
Nice job Darren, John and gang... Sorry to have not gotten there again this year... Looks like I missed out on a good time...
Jonathan