2023 Indiana Deer Hunt (Part 2) - Moonlighting

After a very rainy and blowing Tuesday at work, I had Wednesday off.  I opted to not go out in the morning allowing me a chance to have a quiet morning and walk the dogs.  I also watched some TV as I've been working through rewatching Moonlighting.  It is shocking how quickly this show went from pretty good (even ~35+ years later) to very bad.  Fonzie is all lined up on that shark.

Early afternoon I packed up everything and got changed into heavy camo clothes.  After telling the dogs they are awesome, I headed out to Mike's.  While driving, 7-8 deer ran through a field with one going right in front of the trucklette.  I saw this as a good sign?  Maybe not for hunting this year, but with the population low, seeing healthy does makes me glad the EHD outbreak wasn't worse.

Once at Mike's I got all my gear and hoofed it down to my 2-tree.  In the daylight I was able to set up easily and get comfortable.  Temperatures were a bit cool but with quite a bit of wind - at least the direction of the wind was almost perfect.

Not much was moving however - not even the squirrels.  But I was really enjoying the time in the stand ... outdoors ... in my element.  At one point I noticed a healthy-looking coyote behind me walking off to the west.  Even with minimal shooting, no doubt it's had a fill of offal over the last few days.

I let my mind wander where it wanted to.  I couldn't help but think how much more I like morning hunts than evening hunts.  Not only does stand fatigue set in during the end of the hunt, but the world is an intensely noisy place - both literally and figuratively.  Mornings are usually blessedly quiet.  Somewhere not too far away someone was chain sawing with a vengeance.  It was annoying, but at least far enough away that I could mostly tune it out.  Much more annoying was a really, really loud dog barking all afternoon.  No doubt the deer are used to it, and barking dogs living in rural areas are kind of a thing.  But every time it started up again I grumbled.  I was looking forward to the quiet of the following day's Thanksgiving morning hunt.

Shadows started to get long as the afternoon approached evening and I noticed movement ahead of me to my left.  A small deer was very carefully working its way towards me on the ridge in front of me.  I told myself that it could be a spike, although I knew it definitely wasn't.  I carefully got my gun up and looked through the scope - doe confirmed.  I put my gun down but kept it in my hands only to avoid more movement.  I sat watching the doe.

I noticed more movement directly in front of me on the ridge.  I'm not 100% sure where its path was from, but saw the hard antler of a buck; without looking closely I knew it was a shooter.  I had only seconds to act so brought my gun up, the deer paused, I fired.  I was a bit worried I missed as it quickly took 3 running steps, then 2 slow steps, and it dropped.  I reloaded my .243 and watched for a few minutes.

I got out of my stand and walked the short distance to it.  I may be am the luckiest person in the world with every deer over the last fours years a 10-point or better.

It was getting dark so I quickly packed out my stuff and returned with my knives and sled.  Field-dressing was a messy issue since the Hornady SSTs have a tendency to turn the insides into deer soup - but they do work.  The deer was much larger than the sled, so I had to wrap the antlers in my pull chord to lift his head when I pulled.  But all things considered, it wasn't too bad getting the deer out.  I paused for several minutes after crossing the creek at the bottom of the ridge.  There was just enough water for a small, clear pool to exist.  The moonlight reflected in the water creating visual poetry.

The drag is about a quarter-mile, but a difficult one - especially the last hill.  Many deadfalls and evil honeysuckle make this much worse.  I was drenched in sweat by the time I made it to my truck but was still able to slide the sled into the Maverick bed.  Mike came out around this time, "Mike, you need to grow smaller deer."  Mike graciously let me wash up my hands and I talked with him and his wife for a bit before heading home.  

Right near home, four more does ran across the road in front of me.  I slowed down to let them pass.  Out the passenger window, they almost glowed in the moonlight.  The next day is Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for.

_________

Post Mortem

SO suggested we hold off on our Thanksgiving feast to be able to take care of my deer.  She is wonderful...  And Thanksgiving day was a day of cutting, grinding and freezing followed by deer nachos for dinner.  The turkey will wait.

My shot was a few inches farther back than I would have liked, but I can't argue with the buck only taking five steps.

I noticed two things while processing my deer.  First, there was some kind of damage in the neck of the deer that wasn't from my bullet.  I couldn't see much external damage, but a thin area in the lower neck might have been from something healing; I'm really not sure what was going on.  I ended up cutting through the skin in this area so my back and forth on what to do with the deer is going towards a skull mount.

Second, I was able to recover the bullet on the offside right under the hide (48% weight retention).  This is nearly perfect performance since it means that little bullet dumped every bit of energy inside the animal.  Two holes may bleed more for tracking purposes, but I'll take five steps over tracking any day.

2023 Indiana Deer Hunt - The Great Skunk Hunt (Part 3)

I generally like how the Indiana DNR manages deer.  While it would be a change likely to cause revolt, I think more states should adopt the one-antlered-deer-per-year rule.  There are some years I see as many bucks as does. It can be frustrating some years, but it can make people think before breaking the trigger on a small buck. 

The county where I hunt must be ground zero for 2022 EHD outbreak as the state said "NO!" to shooting any does.  I am glad the state is taking action, but I also see a few years of tough hunting ahead until the population rebounds from the 2022 outbreak.  Estimates are that the deer heard is around 30% of what it normally is.  That is brutal.  This makes it start to look more like the deer hunting I did when I first started hunting about a million years ago.  I may at times look at the past with rose-colored glasses, but not when it comes to those kinds of deer numbers.  The "DNR expects the population will recover in about five years."  So it goes...

I always internally debate putting my stand up the day before the gun opener.  It makes opening morning much easier, but it is extra human intrusion right before hunting.  Friday was very rainy, but it was lessoning after work.  After going back and forth several times, I made the quick trip to put of the stand; this was the right decision since the remaining rain broke up overhead, leaving my stand dry.  It also got me more excited about deer hunting seeing "my" woods all ready for me.

________________

I woke up opening morning at my usual too-early.  My usual angst and love-hate relationship with deer hunting had given me a low-grade migraine.  By getting up early I was able to nap with the dogs; this also made them very happy.  Soon enough it was time to get ready and head out to Mike's.

Once at Mike's, I made my way to where my stand was set up and easily got it up the tree.  Temperatures were cool with clear skies and almost no wind.  The love-hate relationship was leaning heavily back into love.

Shortly after it got light, I saw a decent(ish) buck working generally toward me after wheezing a few times.  He was moving and through some thick brush, making getting him in the scope difficult.  Additionally with no wind my scope was fogging up from my breath.  Adding to all this, the lighting was weird since I was looking toward the sun while the deer was in deep shadows.  I finally got a grainy bead on him in the scope, but knew better than to try to shoot.  I let him continue on.  Had I known how the next few days were to go, I might have tried harder, but there is no question I made the right decision.  A short time later I heard shooting off toward the southwest where he was headed; unlikely I'll ever see that deer again.

The morning continued on and I heard much ruckus across the ravine - seeing turkeys on the ridge.  With turkey populations struggling in much of the East, it is nice to be able to see them.

If it weren't for my headache, it would have been a nearly perfect day.  Temperatures rose from just below freezing to around 50F with bright sun and no wind.  It was so sunny, it was actually annoying at times since I was generally facing south.  It was also a very long time to sit without seeing anything else.  I was glad for the rambunctious squirrels since they at least gave me something to watch.  As it got darker, I started seeing bears in all the shadows; I must be mentally ill - or deer hunting was bringing me back to Manitoba.  Eventually it got dark and I was done for the day after seeing only the one deer.  I couldn't help but think back to several years previous when I would routinely see double-digits of deer most times I went out.  It wasn't only me though as I heard unbelievably little shooting for opening day.

________________

Sunday came and I felt a lot better, but the energy level was a bit low after seeing so few deer on opening day.  But after spending a bit of quality time with the dogs, I was out the door again.  I was in the stand well before light.  It was once again just below freezing with a crystal clear sky and no wind.  I sat comfortably in my stand and let my vigilance rise.

As it started to get light, I saw one deer on the ridge across the ravine.  It was too far away to see whether it was a buck or doe and was too far to shoot anyway.  I could just see it milling around before working its way off to the west.  

I like hunting in the ravine, and for the last two years it has worked well for me.  But I was seeing deer go back to the pattern which would put them past my "favorite" stand.  And as much as I know the ravine can be a deer highway, my untested belief is that it tends to be used more during the pitch black of nocturnal behavior.  Around 11:00 I decided to head up to my favorite stand.  It took a few minutes to get down and pack up my stand and I was sweating when I made it to my two-tree.  But it was worth it.  Once settled in, I instantly felt at peace.  I'm not sure if this was because I like the openness a bit more, or because I was away from all that heinous honeysuckle, or if the stand just has better feng shui (can deer stands have feng shui?  I say, "YES!").  This was supported by hearing something behind me just as I was finishing a snack and seeing four does go bounding toward me and off to the south.  It seemed like the universe was briefly aligned.

But that alignment was short-lived or I was imaging it.  Other than one more (maybe?) deer in the ravine, the rest of the day passed without seeing anything.  It was still a great hunting day - if a bit (a lot) slow.

________________

Monday came as a vacation day from work and I was once again headed to Indiana.  It was a bit warmer, but felt colder since there was a stiff breeze.  I got set up in the stand and once again waited for daylight.  I was wearing my windproof fleece - so I wasn't cold, but it wasn't like the first two days.

I was hopeful as it got light and kept a vigilant watch.  With the wind, it was hard to hear anything.  The most interesting thing I saw was a cute little raccoon working its way to the south.  It was young and struggled to climb a large tree, only to give up and work its way back down.  Trash panda...

By around 10:30 I was clock watching.  The forecast was for a good chance of PM rain and lots of rain on Tuesday.  I wasn't seeing enough deer to justify sitting in blowing rain.  I called it a morning.