Thanks for being patient.
Cast of Characters: :lol:
Pat Allen (my host)
Tim Steadman (Pat's friend)
Nick Steadman (Tim's son)
Derek (don't remember his last name)(Nick's Friend)
Steve Stabler (NOT a CO. There's also a CO named Steve. My mistake.
)
Me
I arrived in Rockville Indiana at around 10:30 and watched the Veteran's Day ceremony while waiting on Pat Allen. I was supposed to meet him at noon but I was fairly early. Well When he showed we shook hands and I followed him to our campsite at Raccoon Lake. He had everything set up for my arrival.
Our luxury accomodations. Anytime it's cold I consider heat a luxury. :lol: This was taken after hunting a few days so it's a little messy.
After I got my gear put away we went to Morton, Indiana to get a few things. Unknown to me 3 conpirators pitched in for a doe tag for me. Thanks Tom, JJ, and Chuck. I would have gone home empty handed if it wasn't for you guys. Anyway after getting a few things we headed to our hunting area where we set a couple stands. After that we headed back and prepared our gear for morning. Pat and I helped Tim prepare supper. We had deer loin chops soaked in marinade (which I suspect was liquid smoke and brown sugar) and wrapped in bacon. Tim actually cooked, as Pat and I did the bacon wrapping. We also had cole slaw and maccaroni salad with our tasty meat. After dinner I took a quick shower and hit the sack.
We had planned to get up very early but our alarm failed to go off and we lost a half hour. However we still made the woods when we wanted too so it worked out anyway. The initial plan was to hunt escape routes as the property we were hunting was surrounded by groups of hunters and there was only 6 of us. Normally the hunters around scare everything around into the property. I was hunting a hill top a couple ridges southwest of Pat. He missed a nice buck early since he had waited to make sure it was the one he wanted. Tim and Derek shot does and Derek's had the front leg blown off at the knee (probably by a slug gun) recently which was why he took it. I saw the buck Pat missed but never got a good shot. It trotted from left to right at a 45 degree angling away. I didn't feel right about the shot so I didn't fire. I also saw 2 bunches of turkeys.
Pics from stand 1.
We pulled out for a lunch of cold meat sandwiches, cheese sticks, and tasty cheesecake bars. Tim, Nick, and Derek broke their camp down since after their afternoon hunt they were quitting for the weekend. That afternoon Pat put me in another stand but I didn't feel comfortable with it so I hunted the one I had that morning. It was very windy that afternoon. I could feel the tree moving underneath me. I never saw anything else Saturday. That night Pat, Steve, and I ate at Crossroads (cafe) after we cleaned up. We prepared for our hunt Sunday and crashed for the night. That night was WINDY!
It was still really windy Sunday morning so we slept in a few hours till it calmed down somewhat. He took me back to the "corn crib" stand I hunted the rest of the hunt. The wind was awful and I never saw any deer but I did amuse myself by watching a chipmunk running around. Steve called it quits at 11:00. When we were going back in after lunch (same lunch as Saturday) Pat offered to stick me in another stand and I told him I had a good feeling about that stand. Sunday afternoon was as uneventful as the morning. I still amused myself by watching the chipmunk. I also questioned my feeling about the stand. After another dinner at Crossroads we hit the sack again.
Monday morning we got up at 4:00 and I decided to go back to the same stand. At 8:40 I saw a couple deer moving through the trees. I hoped they'd veer towards me but it didn't look like they were. A few minutes later I saw them coming towards me. I upped my magnification from 2 to 7 and watched the lead doe through the scope. Finally the lead doe was in a "hole" and I fired.
The dark shape in my red crosshairs is the doe. I ranged her at 84 yds after the shot. From that picture it looks like a tangle of limbs. Here is a better one.
See the doe?
Entrance hole side. The exit was about twice as big. I used Winchester Platinum tips with 100 gr of triple seven (80 gr. by weight).
An arial photo of the area. Pat marked it out for me. The northern boundary is the creek. The yellow line is how you get in and the red cross the area I shot the deer. Doesn't look that bad does it?
Tis is a topo of the area. Yellow line and red crosshairs are the same things as in the photo. The blue line is roughly how I had to get into the stand. Actually I think I had to go farther left on the map. It was a LOT of up and down travel. There's a ridge called heart attack ridge to the north of where I was hunting. There was a big one I had to go up that Pat joked that if there was a heart attack ridge did they call this one stroke? :lol: It was a really rough climb. After seeing his data from Sunday (GPS tracking) I think we went about 12 miles all three days total.
I still feel like I could fall asleep. I'm still pretty tired. :bored:
Cast of Characters: :lol:
Pat Allen (my host)
Tim Steadman (Pat's friend)
Nick Steadman (Tim's son)
Derek (don't remember his last name)(Nick's Friend)
Steve Stabler (NOT a CO. There's also a CO named Steve. My mistake.
)Me
I arrived in Rockville Indiana at around 10:30 and watched the Veteran's Day ceremony while waiting on Pat Allen. I was supposed to meet him at noon but I was fairly early. Well When he showed we shook hands and I followed him to our campsite at Raccoon Lake. He had everything set up for my arrival.
Our luxury accomodations. Anytime it's cold I consider heat a luxury. :lol: This was taken after hunting a few days so it's a little messy.
After I got my gear put away we went to Morton, Indiana to get a few things. Unknown to me 3 conpirators pitched in for a doe tag for me. Thanks Tom, JJ, and Chuck. I would have gone home empty handed if it wasn't for you guys. Anyway after getting a few things we headed to our hunting area where we set a couple stands. After that we headed back and prepared our gear for morning. Pat and I helped Tim prepare supper. We had deer loin chops soaked in marinade (which I suspect was liquid smoke and brown sugar) and wrapped in bacon. Tim actually cooked, as Pat and I did the bacon wrapping. We also had cole slaw and maccaroni salad with our tasty meat. After dinner I took a quick shower and hit the sack.
We had planned to get up very early but our alarm failed to go off and we lost a half hour. However we still made the woods when we wanted too so it worked out anyway. The initial plan was to hunt escape routes as the property we were hunting was surrounded by groups of hunters and there was only 6 of us. Normally the hunters around scare everything around into the property. I was hunting a hill top a couple ridges southwest of Pat. He missed a nice buck early since he had waited to make sure it was the one he wanted. Tim and Derek shot does and Derek's had the front leg blown off at the knee (probably by a slug gun) recently which was why he took it. I saw the buck Pat missed but never got a good shot. It trotted from left to right at a 45 degree angling away. I didn't feel right about the shot so I didn't fire. I also saw 2 bunches of turkeys.
Pics from stand 1.
We pulled out for a lunch of cold meat sandwiches, cheese sticks, and tasty cheesecake bars. Tim, Nick, and Derek broke their camp down since after their afternoon hunt they were quitting for the weekend. That afternoon Pat put me in another stand but I didn't feel comfortable with it so I hunted the one I had that morning. It was very windy that afternoon. I could feel the tree moving underneath me. I never saw anything else Saturday. That night Pat, Steve, and I ate at Crossroads (cafe) after we cleaned up. We prepared for our hunt Sunday and crashed for the night. That night was WINDY!
It was still really windy Sunday morning so we slept in a few hours till it calmed down somewhat. He took me back to the "corn crib" stand I hunted the rest of the hunt. The wind was awful and I never saw any deer but I did amuse myself by watching a chipmunk running around. Steve called it quits at 11:00. When we were going back in after lunch (same lunch as Saturday) Pat offered to stick me in another stand and I told him I had a good feeling about that stand. Sunday afternoon was as uneventful as the morning. I still amused myself by watching the chipmunk. I also questioned my feeling about the stand. After another dinner at Crossroads we hit the sack again.
Monday morning we got up at 4:00 and I decided to go back to the same stand. At 8:40 I saw a couple deer moving through the trees. I hoped they'd veer towards me but it didn't look like they were. A few minutes later I saw them coming towards me. I upped my magnification from 2 to 7 and watched the lead doe through the scope. Finally the lead doe was in a "hole" and I fired.
The dark shape in my red crosshairs is the doe. I ranged her at 84 yds after the shot. From that picture it looks like a tangle of limbs. Here is a better one.
See the doe?
Entrance hole side. The exit was about twice as big. I used Winchester Platinum tips with 100 gr of triple seven (80 gr. by weight).
An arial photo of the area. Pat marked it out for me. The northern boundary is the creek. The yellow line is how you get in and the red cross the area I shot the deer. Doesn't look that bad does it?
Tis is a topo of the area. Yellow line and red crosshairs are the same things as in the photo. The blue line is roughly how I had to get into the stand. Actually I think I had to go farther left on the map. It was a LOT of up and down travel. There's a ridge called heart attack ridge to the north of where I was hunting. There was a big one I had to go up that Pat joked that if there was a heart attack ridge did they call this one stroke? :lol: It was a really rough climb. After seeing his data from Sunday (GPS tracking) I think we went about 12 miles all three days total.
I still feel like I could fall asleep. I'm still pretty tired. :bored:
