Deer Season '17

Not me yet. Headed to Michigan to fish for a few days. I will start hunting in a week. Good luck to all that get out tomorrow or later!!

At the beginning of August I took a tumble chasing after a ball in the outfield playing softball, which led to this...



Not the ideal thing to do two months before archery season. My doctor assured me that I would be good to go before 10-1, so I was happy with that. I had the cast removed on 9-15, but had to travel for work the next week and didn't have a chance to shoot my bow. I'm not one to shoot all summer as I don't have a shot much over 20 yards where I hunt, so I wasn't overly worried about the lack of practice. Last week I made sure the Heli-m was still on point and took it to the bow shop to make sure everything was good to go. The checkup was good, so I was ready for the opener. I had high hopes as I knew there had been a mom and a couple of little ones hanging close to my grandma's place.

It was my first time hunting the opener in four years, so I was just happy to be in the woods on a beautiful morning...



Nothing was moving outside of squirrels, and one raccoon that I first thought was the largest squirrel ever. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to pass the time and I was scrolling through FB when I heard some leaves crunch and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I saw a doe was coming up the old railroad bed, with two little ones trailing about twenty yards behind, and I was still sitting there with no glove on and my phone in hand. I put the phone back in my pocket and slipped on my glove, she still doesn't see me. I slip my hand into the wrist sling of my bow and get it to the ready, she still doesn't see me. I'm expecting her to bust me at any moment as she stops to look around, but then she just keeps tooling along. I was initially set up to take a shot to the right, but as she kept strolling I had to adjust my feet to shoot to the left, and she still doesn't see me (Worst. Mom. Ever.). Finally, she got to ten yards and I gave her the "maaahh" to get her to stop, she looked up, the arrow flew and then the leaves turned red...



I watched her run eighty yards or so before she crashed, and I thought I had a huge job ahead of me. The old railroad bed is bordered to the east by a bank that leads down to the old strip pit pond on my grandma's property. Based on the rustling of the leaves I thought she had tumbled all the way down that hill, but I was pleasantly surprised when I followed the blood trail and found her only a few feet down a small hill just off the old railroad bed. I drug her up to the path, snapped a quick picture...



Then got her loaded in the cart of the riding lawn mower to haul her back up to the house. That's the second deer I've hauled in that little cart. Never thought it would come in handy for hunting all those years ago hauling sticks to the burn pile for my grandma.

It was a great feeling to be back in a tree and an even better feeling to get a doe down to replenish the freezer. I'm really happy that the gun opener starts late this year, because that gives the archery folks a full three weeks of prime November time in the woods. I have the first three weeks of November off from work, so I plan to hit the woods looking for a buck for the wall since I already have a doe for the freezer.

Way to go Eli! Enjoyed the read too.

Well yesterday was a little windy to be sitting in a tree (I had a family reunion yesterday anyway). Today wasn't really great for golf or deer hunting but I played golf anyway. Just need to make it through this week. I have to work Saturday too so vacation doesn't start Friday evening like it should.

Well, I'm finally going to crawl up into a tree here within the next day or so. Looking forward to it.

I finally made it out and crawled up into my favorite stand. This stand sits on a fencerow between 2 woods and the field on the one side just had a cover crop of oats, turnips and wheat planted. The green shoots were just starting to come up and the deer were hammering it! I had this happen a couple of years ago and the field was on fire all season. It was ridiculously hot and the biting gnats drove me insane. However, it was a pretty good first outing. I saw 17 (no bucks) and had a group of 4 trot across the field and come right to me. I could've shot a nice doe out of that group but I really didn't want to deal with her in this heat. Plus, the landowner told me not to shoot any does this season...which really sucks since we have plenty of does in our area. He has bought into the hype that deer are about to go extinct in Indiana I'm going to have to find another spot to hunt for does this season because I need at least 2 deer in the freezer to last my family til next season.

Hunting Sullivan county