New Year's Eve Hunt 2005
12/31/2005Darren Shue and I have instituted a bit of a tradition in the last 3 years of going on a season ending New Year's Eve hunt. We also seem to try different areas each time. Kind of a hopeful way to view the close of one year and the beginning of another. Darren lives about 7 hours away from me in Pennsylvania now but is usually nearby around the Holidays visiting family. Our first year we went to the Hoosier National Forest and spent a few hours wandering around looking for a stupid squirrel of a blind, deaf deer that couldn't smell. We got a couple shots at squirrels but only saw the white flags of wise deer.
In 2004, we had the good fortune of finishing our season with the Little Delta Bow. Here's that story.
This year we are spending the day going from the Muscatatuck River bottom flats in the Muscatatuck NWR near Seymour, Indiana all the way to the knobs of the Jackson-Washington State Forest near Brownstown, Indiana. A nearly 500 foot elevation change resulted. Now that may not sound like much to someone who lives with some terrain but to Indian flatlanders, it's something.
We met at the Waffle House in Seymour. Darren treated me to breakfast. We spent an hour or so working up our courage and caffeine levels and then ventured to the river bottoms. The refuge hosts an archery quota hunt earlier in the season and then a muzzleloader hunt a little later. The deer are plentiful but by this time have been chased for a while. We started out by meeting a couple nice compounders who actually thought our wooden bows were cool. We arranged not to step on each other and headed our separate ways. Darren and I had a game plan in mind to start together and then separate and hunt what looked like a couple nice funnels and then hook back up towards the river. Fresh sign was fairly scarce in the first areas we ventured through. We split up and stillhunted our way for a while. After an hour or so, we talked on the radio and pretty much reported the same thing. Little fresh sign and no deer other than a dead buck who had been skullplated by someone who hopefully found him dead and took the opportunity to get some calcium. The terrain was predictably flat and wide open. Not the thick bedding area I hoped for.
I got a passthrouth on a stump at about 35 yards. My best shot of the day.
Finally, after a half mile of that, I got to the funnel area I was aiming for and found a nice creek bottom that was perfectly suited to stillhunting. Sign grew more abundant and the rolling terrain with thicker undergrowth allowed more pockets for bedding and less conspicuous spying for me.
The sun poked its head over the trees about the same time.
Lots of rubs. The one in the center is about 8" and clearly gets rubbed year after year. I found a lot of this type stuff.
Lots of fresh tracks and droppings were obvious but it is all apparently nocturnal because the only deer I found was dearly departed. Apparently the victim of a high spine shot that allowed a bit of running and made tracking imperative. That, or they just didn't look because she was out in the open in the bottom. I spotted her from 100 yards away.
Darren hit me on the radio and he had hooked up with another trad guy hunting with a Black Widow. They stump shot their way back to the trucks as I made my way through some fields and another bottom that showed equally impressive sign. We got together at the trucks and I met the widdershooter. He was great guy from Scottsburg who really seemed to enjoy meeting us. He liked the stumpshooting the best I think and especially Darren's gift of a flu-flu arrow.
Darren and I rested a bit and then drove the 15 miles to the state forest. Man, talk about steep! It was fantastic ground.
We got on top of one knob. It's about 950 feet. Very cool view.
Here's one side.
Here's the other. I launched an arrow off the side as my shot into 2006 since there was no way I was staying up after getting 3 hours of sleep last night :)
Looking pensively back to the past... ..and forward to the future.
I got another passthrough, this time on a sapling, 5 feet in front of the target. Darren got one on the Mountain Dew can that some thoughtful person didn't want to carry off the knob.
We separated and I headed down while Darren sidehilled back to the ridge road that led down to the parking area.
I found a box turtle shell (for the second year in a row) and decided to get some strike plate material.
I like to start by cutting along the seems between the scales. Then use the knife to pull the scales off.
The ones in the center are the coolest I think. A mohawk, if you will.
What we're after.
Looks vaguely familiar. Hmm, I wonder?
My head from above - hehehe!
We had a great and tiring hunt. About 11 hours of nearly constant motion over several miles and some surprising elevation changes. I watched as Darren moved down the road towards the car. He bumped a flock of turkeys all the way down the hill. At least 40 of them and 20 or so flew all around me and roosted within 50 yards until Darren bumped them again. We had a great time. Thanks for sharing it with us!