This is Dennis. This morning Me, Ronald, James, Billy, and Ron McD are going deer hunting. ARMED TO THE TEETH I'll try to write an after action report. DEN
Well we went to Perry co. A lot of HNF in that area. Not a lot of deer. Billy saw one at long range and Ronald had a 5pt walk right past him. No shots taken. I can recommend the Waffel House in Cordon though DEN
I can't remember a worse deer season, for me at least. Opening weekend the weather was just about the worst ever, last weekend as I was sitting in the woods I felt a cold start coming on. You know how you can feel it start ? By Sunday I was trying to hunt all the while an involuntary cough was bugging me. The cough got worse all week and by Thanksgiving night I was feeling rough. Wanted to hunt Turkey Day but just could not muster the strength. Got up late Friday morning and thought I would try to go. Got into the woods about 1/2 hour and the coughing started again, so much I had to leave the woods and go home. Hoping the Doc can see me this morning. Tomorrow they say rain and snow. Pretty much all of firearms season is a bust for me.. Still have M/loader season but by that time the deer are so screwed up you don't have any idea how to hunt them.Late archery always seems to be a waste of time too. Oh well....
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I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.- Hank Rearden
Tim, I hear you. Not gone well for me as far as stacking up meat. I told one of the fellers that I know that after this weekend it's about over That's when he said why? He said he's killed a lot of deer in December. He bow hunts only. That got me thinking. You know that the deer calm down pretty fast really. I would say that most are done deer hunting when gun goes out. A few may hunt the first week of m/l, but let the weather turn bad and I'll bet 90% won't go. Combine that with the fact that the deer need to feed more and a lot of their food sources are gone. They also tend to herd up in late season. I've also seen a lot of rut activity in late winter the last few years. Me and Ronald watched bucks chase does all over the place one day last Feb. Also ask John about the early squirrell rut. All in all not a bad time to be out with a longbow. DEN
Glad you brought up the squirrel rut. I was in the woods this evening and heard what sounded like a herd of deer coming my way, but then a squealing sound came from the same direction. As it got closer I made out a big boar squirrel jumping the little albino squirrel I have been seeing. My first thought was he was trying to kill her due to her "abnormalities" so to speak but he was , well, you know ....... So the rut is early this year , eh ?
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I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.- Hank Rearden
I'd liked to have seen that. Here's one for you. This afternoon about 2:30 we took the dogs for a walk over at the camp. Well actually we were gonna take them to Bass Pro. We always have to take them to the camp on the way because Oliver always....well lets just say he gets too excited at the store. Anyway as soon as we left the Jeep I look down in the creek and see something on the bank. I couldn't figure out what it was. Some kind of black duck. All of a sudden another one climbed out and they were otters. We watched them for a couple minutes and all of a sudden the dogs started barking at my neighbor as he came walking up. The otters took off. He said he had been watching them for a while. There were three of them and they had been catching fish and bringing them up on the bank to eat them. I dont know the closest place they stocked them but I don't think it was Silver Creek. Might have come up from the Ohio. We went to Bass Pro and couldn't find a place to park. That place was jam packed. We turned around and came home. Oliver's mad
Dennis, the State stocked river otters at Muscatatuck NWR a few years ago. I'm not surprised that they went downstream. The late deer season is a great time to hunt, if you have the guts for the cold. The "Weekend warriors" are all done, and sitting on their arse watching a ballgame, and the bucks are trying to breed last year's doe fawns. It is a time to sit in a tree or well made blind though, because the ground cover is mostly gone.
Those otter at Muscatatuck had tracking collars. They are all gone now I think, accounted for via their collars. The last one was located down near the Mississippi as I remember. But their progeny live on.Dandy little critters. Think about the animals that were basically extinct around here and are now thriving. In my lifetime it's been deer, turkey, beaver,otter,eagles, and some others. Mostly due to hunters and their tax money. Oh, and one more not indigenous to Indiana--'Dillo !!
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I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.- Hank Rearden
I'm pretty sure they put otters on Blue River and Patoka Lake, I've seen them at both places, real neat. I had no idea they were on Silver Creek but it doesn't suprise me.
We watched a big otter drag a catfish easily his size up on the bank at Patoka one spring a few years back, we measured the remains of the fish a few hours later - 28".
I'll try to write an after action report. DEN
That's when he said why? He said he's killed a lot of deer in December. He bow hunts only.
