Forest Rats....

[thumper]

http://www.gadling.com/2010/10/04/five-states-where-you-re-most-likely-to-hit-a-deer-this-fall?ncid=webmail

It's getting to be that time

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Best of luck to all the VRCC hunters....Kill'em All 

[CajunRider]

Going gun sightin-in real soon!!!    

[NITRO]

I'll be doing my duty next month!

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

I'm surprised Indiana isn't higher on the list. I've sure been ridin' through lots of "deer jelly" on my way to work in the mornings.

I'll try to keep a few of them out of trouble by putting em safely in my freezer. I love bowhunting. But, most of them get to my table with the help of a firearm.

Bowhunting is like a challenging trail ride where you don't get far but work hard at it and have a ball.

Firearms season is more like puttin' the hammer down, and pinning ur ears back on the superslab. Not as picturesque, but joining the pumpkin army puts venison in the freezer a little faster and easier. 

[grizs50]

If I want a freezer full of deer it's no problem I just drive to town and pick them up along the way!

[alph]

It was so funny when I first met my, then to be in-laws.  I went to my wifes house, then girlfriend, and as we walked into the kitchen there’s my mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother and sister in laws, cutting up a freshly killed deer!!  On the kitchen table!!  It was sooo cool seeing its head hanging over the edge with it’s tongue hanging out!!  Here I was, the cool city slicker from Chicago, dressed in my black leathers, watching a deer get butchered on a kitchen table!!  My to be mother in law hands me a zip loc baggie and says “here Albert, squeeze out all the air and seal this, you come at the right time!”  I could handle that, but I could never handle gutting out a deer, or rabbit, squirrel, any other thing I’ve killed……

Kill ‘em all!!

[Jabba]

I'd rather gut a deer than a rabbit. 

I rarely gut shoot a deer.  You shoot rabbits with shotguns... so they a lot more often gat some damage to the guts...

Bow hunting for me... is an exercize in figuring out how many ways... I can screw it up.  I have fun... but I ALWAYS seem to have a HUMAN error.  Bow failure.  SOMETHING.  The stories I could tell about those would have Frye rolling.

I am a muzzleloader hunter.  Almost all the time.  I have averaged a little over 3 deer a year for the last 15.  I am trying fellas. 

Jabba 

[czuch]

Thin that herd. God made em outta meat for us to enjoy.
I dont do it cause it isnt the end-o-the world yet and I dont really care for the taste.
Other than that, Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

I'd rather gut a deer than a rabbit. 

I rarely gut shoot a deer.  You shoot rabbits with shotguns... so they a lot more often gat some damage to the guts...

Bow hunting for me... is an exercize in figuring out how many ways... I can screw it up.  I have fun... but I ALWAYS seem to have a HUMAN error.  Bow failure.  SOMETHING.  The stories I could tell about those would have Frye rolling.

I am a muzzleloader hunter.  Almost all the time.  I have averaged a little over 3 deer a year for the last 15.  I am trying fellas. 

Jabba 

Believe me, my own mistakes keep me rolling. One year I had waited for the wind to be just right to hunt a buck whose sheds I had found in the spring.

So here I was, close to Sugar Creek waiting on this buck and I notice a small child in a bright vest standing about 150 yards away in tall weeds at the top of the creek bank. I'm totally puzzled about how a small child could have even got back there without me seeing him come in. Then the kid gets taller and pulls it's pants up and I realize it's a lady kayaker peeing in the weeds. I'm struggling not to laugh out loud, I put my bow on the ground and just sit there giggling to myself. After she walked down out of sight I looked back around just in time to realize the buck has walked by on the trail I was watching and is now out of range heading towards the creek.

I left my bow on the ground and just sat there thinking how ridiculous this situation is and snickering at my own screw-up now. Then the buck evidently realizes someone is down at the creek and runs straight back at me at full speed. I can't pick up my bow without him seeing me so I sit tight. As he leaves the field and enters the woods just 15' from me I grab my bow which already had an arrow nocked and draw it while there is some brush between us. He stops with his body behind some brush and his head and right eye there in front of me. His whiskers are gray and he is breathing in great gulps much as I would have been, my bow is drawn but I have no shot. Finally after I am shaking like a leaf with the strain of holding my bow he steps forward into the clear. But it was too late, I was shaking too bad to risk the shot and I couldn't hold the bow any longer. I raised it up and sent the arrow way over his back so I didn't risk wounding him and he hauled a$$. I never saw him again and didn't find his sheds the following spring either.

[Varmintmist]

Muzzle loader season starts the 16th so all the single shot high power guys will be out along with the guys like me shooting the real thing. The end of the week is the little kid and old folks doe season, 2 kids, 2 tags, any luck we should put up one by the end of the week. Then the first day of rifle, 1st Mon after Thanksgiving. First week is buck only, they kids ought to be able to put up one, over 16 are antler restricted to a min of 4 pts to a side. First Sat opens up doe and buck and that is usually the day I cut deer all night. After that is over, the best season comes in after Christmas, FLINTLOCK.

We intend to do our part.
Canned venison in a crock pot, add veggies and cook for a few hours, pepper to taste. I think dumplings would make it better, but the dumpling maker says its good as is.

[Jabba]

I was still hunting a ridge once... when I crested the hill, I had 3 or 4 does sort of scatter... one ran in a big loop and crossed about 5' from me and STOPPED broadside @ 5'!! Looking the other way.  I drew and my arrow popped off the nock... spooking her off.  Shitcrapsonofbeachtruckasspoop.  I reknock the arrow... a suddenly another nice doe runs up and stops in the other does footprints!  I have another chance!  I draw... the arrow pops off the string, and she runs off.  Damn it again!!

Then I see the buck... about 75 yards away, that the does were looking at.  Nice buck... I never got a shot.

Now I have the time to figure out my mistakes.  I was still hunting (sneaking slowly thru the woods for you non-hunters) and was holding the arrow on the rest with my index finger.  When I drew I forgot to let go.  Then had the problem, an another chance... but I STILL was holding the arrow on.  And did it 2x in the spn of 20 seconds!

My whole bow hunting career is like that.  One F-up after another.

Luckily... I am good with a smokepole.

Jabba

[Big Rig]

Jabba,

sounds like you and I have the same luck...for me, bow hunting is like fishing without line! 

In jersey, you do not need a license for a bow...well not that I am aware of...I think mine fell in a lake!

[Jack]

They have gotten so bad in Arkansas that several towns have asked for special in-town bow permits to kill deer.  I rarely take a ride that I don't see a few or several.  I think the limit has been raised to 5 in the southern half of the state.

[Jabba]

You can kill like 300 plus in Indiana.

There is a ONE buck rule.  But you're allowed does on a per county basis, some counties having limits of 8 does.

Essentially, unlimited.

Jabba

[Quicksilver]

Jabba I share your pain, I bought a 30 30 winchester with a scope, was hunting for the first time. I found I couldn't see well with the scope, too far away from it. That night I took off the mount and reversed it so the scope was closer to my eye. I could see much better. The next morning a nice buck followed a doe out within 10 yards of me. I aim and pull the trigger, click, I jack in another shell, fire again, click. I look at the hammer and see it's being held back by the edge of the scope mount. Now that was dissapointing.

[Jabba]

Dude.  You GOT to shoot a gun after you TOUCH the scope.  You can't mount a scope and just go hunting.

Well, I guess you CAN... but you AIN'T gonna hit anything.

Jabba

[Quicksilver]

I have learned a bit since then.