Autumn Pictures




A Small Eight-Pointer Moves Across the River Crossing.



A Procession of Does in Step on the Old Logging Road.

Strategies for Hunting the Hoosier National Forest!





 

 

Five Steps for Hunting the Hoosier National Forest

I slowly paddled the old canoe down the misty darkness of the small muddy river.  Submerged logs drew the camouflage brute like a moth to a flame, and by the time I bumped my way to the shallow rapids where my stand waited, the forested river bottom was aglow in morning light.  I was arriving late, but I had high hopes for the morning hunt – it was mid November and the rut was swinging into high gear.

During two previous hunts here I had spent ten hours on stand, and in that time I saw over twenty bucks.  Sure some of the deer may have been the same ones, but nonetheless a wide assortment of racks had strolled by.  I passed up numerous shots on decent two year old bucks, and though I was tempted to shoot, my trail camera had given me reason to be patient. 

I had several photos of bucks that looked to be three years old or better.  Their racks were tall, wide, and heavy, and I really wanted to get a shot at a big thirteen pointer with an extra main beam that had stepped in front of the camera. 

Both hunts gave me the chance to see battling bucks yards in front of me.  The clashing and crashing sounds of the fights attracted crows, coyotes, and of course other bucks.  Each fight provided great excitement and a learning experience as well. 

On my first hunt, during early October, the river bottom was grown over with a large patch of wood nettle.  Deer beds were scattered throughout the patch, and the deer were devouring the plants.  With a little research, including some reading from an old A.R. Harding book, I learned that nettle is high in protein and minerals as well as vitamins A and C.  “Who needs to spend valuable time and money planting an early season food plot,” I thought, “especially when Mother Nature provides the deer such a nutritious, delicious food source for free?”

On my second hunt the pre-rut was kicking in and even before I settled into my stand bucks began strolling past.  I saw seven bucks cross over the shallow water, or work the scrape line along the river bottom trail.  As the evening settled in, five bucks moved in to the crossing and mulled about -- as if they were waiting for a doe to move through the area.

A half-hour before legal shooting time ended a big ten-pointer sauntered in and chased off three of the small bucks.  A little five pointer who wasn’t intimidated, lowered his rack and went at him, but the big ten thrashed him good as me and a nice eight-pointer watched from the sidelines.  Though the big ten hung around my stand until shooting time ended he refused to give me the right angle for a good clean shot. 

Now, on this November hunt, the tall nettle plants were brown and faded, but the scrape line along the river trail was still active.  Most of the trees were bare of leaves, and I was glad that I had chosen to place my stand in a maple tree growing next to a young branching beech tree.  Beeches typically hold a good amount of leaves deep into the winter and now those leaves helped to break my outline.

By now you may be thinking that I am fortunate enough to have access to private property with limited hunting pressure.  But actually this spot is a high pressured piece of the Hoosier National Forest.  There is easy public access to the west and east, and some of the hunter’s use their ATV’s to get into the area.  Yes, this is a little frustrating, but if you’re going to hunt public land in Indiana you better get used to a noisy machine sometimes moving past or near you – it’s just something that is going to happen.

For twenty-five years I have hunted the Hoosier National Forest and for the last nine years I have lived within its’ boundary.  Every year is a learning experience and most of the time I learn things I have forgotten from years past, but here’s a few pointers that might help you out when hunting the Hoosier National.

1.      Hunt the Middle of the Week

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days of the week to hunt public property.  These days usually have low hunter pressure and if you’re lucky you may be the only hunter in the woods.  Mondays may lack the crowd but the deer haven’t recovered from the weekend pressure and they don’t seem to move as much.  When Friday rolls around there is increased traffic on the county roads.  The sound of wheels on gravel travels for miles and the noise of closing car doors put’s the deer on alert.  They realize it’s time to lay low.  On the weekends many hunters shine at night trying to see what kind of deer are out there, and more and more hunters move into the woods on their scouting trips.  All of these things affect daytime movement of deer.  From my own experience hunting, and commuting on a daily basis through the Hoosier National, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the days I typically see the most deer during shooting hours.

2.      Hunt in the thick stuff

These are public land bucks and the big ones aren’t stupid.  They know they’re hunted.  I hunt where I think the bucks feel secure enough to move some during daylight.  Sure it’s hard to shoot in heavy cover, and sometimes a buck gets close enough to touch without giving me a shot.  But, I do know that eventually a buck will walk where I need him to be.  If you can find a big thicket, an overgrown field, a recently logged parcel of timber, anyplace where it’s tough to move about and where most hunters won’t hunt -- you’re in the right spot.

3.      Practice Scent Control

My days in the woods are dictated way too strictly for me to plan to hunt only when the wind is perfect.  When I get a chance to hunt – I hunt.  If I were to wait for the perfect wind I would only get to hunt a couple of days a year.  I adjust for this by taking great care to insure that I am as scent free as possible.  Before each hunt every piece of clothing I wear is washed in scent free soap and stored in a plastic bag with either a cedar bough or a witch hazel stem. I also shower with scent free soap before going to the woods.  A bottle of cover scent goes with me on each hunt and I spray myself down every hour or so.  Sure I still get busted, but I’ve had way too many close encounters with an imperfect wind to think these steps don’t help my hunt. 

4.      Sneak in the Backdoor

I try to use water as much as I can.  Whether I float in or wade in to a hunting spot, I know I’m going in a way most hunters don’t.  Look over any maps of the Hoosier National and you will find lakes, rivers, streams, and small drainages that offer ways in to select hunting spots with a stealth like approach.  If I park in a pull off where other hunters frequent, I try to get to my spot with a route that takes me around high traffic areas.  Most of the time these techniques require more time, more work, and less sleep, but sometimes this pays off.  I am able to slip in and out of the woods while making minimum disturbance to my hunting area.

5.      Use Topographic Maps

Buy them at the Forest Service Offices in Bedford or Tell City and you will be assured they are updated with the most recent purchases of Federal Land.  If you have an old map, take it in and they will update the map for you.  If you don’t know how to read them – learn.  They are without a doubt the best tool you can have in your kit when it comes to hunting the Hoosier National.  Find those hidden shelf’s, saddles, and out of the way pinch points as far from the road as you can.  These are the spots those big bucks are going to take a chance at during daylight trying to find a receptive doe, or hide out in when the pressure gets heavy.

Conclusion
If you aren’t lucky enough to own your own piece of hunting paradise and have to hunt with the masses on the Hoosier National just remember there are probably more bucks there than you realize. Plus, don’t give up on a piece of land you like based on one or two seasons of bad experience.  These public land tracts are always evolving.  Some years there may be a crowd and some years you may be the only person hunting within  several hundred acres:  Hunters buy their own land; move to different locations; have to work; quit hunting, and everything else that happens to us year to year.  Don’t give up on a spot.  Cold spots turn hot and hot spots turn cold.  Go with the flow.

     Oh yeah.  On that last bow hunt of the season that big thirteen-pointer decide to pay me a visit.  He snuck out of a big thicket across the river and slowly waded toward me.  His careful, cautious, calculating, approach told me he knew how to survive on public land. 

     Unfortunately in my rush to get to the stand I forgot to leave my paddle in the canoe.  Halfway to the stand I realized I was still carrying it.  Instead of taking the thing back to the canoe I foolishly stashed it in a patch of tall river grass.  The big thirteen-pointer walked straight to the grass like he was pulled there on a string.  The big buck stuck his nose down, did an about face and retraced his steps back into the thicket.  One thing is for sure – those older public land bucks don’t let you make a mistake!

Patoka River



The Patoka River is classified as a state navigable waterway for 146 miles of it's corridor, and beginning at that point where the river flows under Highway 37 in Orange County to where it empties into the Wabash River it is a navigable body of water open to public use.  That doesn't mean the entire river bottom is open to the public, most of this land falls under private domain and is off limits without granted permission.  But, for the public land water way hunter willing to put forth a little effort, the river provides access to a number of state and federally controlled lands along its' winding path.

Beginning in Orange County the river flows along several remote sections of Hoosier National Forest before it widens out into the Patoka Lake Reservoir.  The Patoka Lake Corridor is controlled by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and this area provides over 17,000 acres of huntable public land.  Last year, during the fall hunting season, the Corps of Engineers held the lake at a low level and the open shoreline would have made a perfect path for a stalking hunting to move slowly along and hunt the wooded hillsides.  This was something I planned to do, but never got around to.  This year not as much of the shore is exposed, but there is still enough for a hunter to work the wooded edge.  Along several sections of the property the Indiana DNR plants crops and grasses, and I have seen an above average number of deer this year in the areas I regularly drive through. 



Moving downriver from Patoka Lake the river winds through several other sections of state and federal properties.  Parts of Pike State Forest (3,089 acres) border the river bottom and the river flows through several sections of the Sugar Ridge Fish and Wildlife Area (8,109 acres). But, possibly the hidden jewel among all of these is the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge (5,828 acres).  This is a place where I have wanted to hunt and explore since it was dedicated, but am yet to do so.

A Nice Patoka River Ten Pointer on a River Bottom Trail!

Deer numbers have been strong for the past several years in this region of Southern Indiana.  Last year the antlered harvest was up in several counties the Patoka River flows through.  Hunters killed 797 bucks in Orange County, 771 in Crawford County, 698 in Dubois County, and 696 in Pike County.  All of these counties increased their antlered harvest from the year before and if the amount of deer I'm seeing in Southern Indiana this year is any indication of the coming deer season, I'm willing to bet the kill ratio increases again this hunting season.

If you're tired of hunting the crowded roadways of Indiana's public lands get yourself a cheap canoe and discover for yourself just how good these out of the way public lands can be.

The Hillside Thicket!

 



If you have been following this blog you are probably familiar with "The Hillside Thicket."  Several years ago Kevin pulled a nice Hoosier National nine-pointer out of the place and it has become a go to spot for us ever since.  When the hunting gets tough and we want to see some deer -- this is the spot we go.

 

Last year, however, the place just didn't work out for us.  Throughout the months of October, November, and December someone would move into the thicket and sit a spell.  Upon return to the camp the conversation would go something like this:

"Man the place looks smokin' hot -- the deer trails crisscrossing across the flat look like deer highways, and there are fresh scrapes and rubs scattered out in front of the stand, and the deer droppings are so thick I can smell em' from twenty feet up, and . . ."

"Well, how many deer did ya' see?"

"I had a fat fox squirrel climb down the cedar tree and nearly sit on my head, then two coyotes worked up out of the bottom and I could've shot either one, but I just knew a buck was going to work down off the hill so I didn't shoot."

"Well, come on now -- out with it -- how many deer did ya' see?

"I can't believe it, but I didn't see a single deer, not even a doe!"

And that's the way it was all season for the hillside thicket.  Maybe it was a case of being in the right spot at the wrong time, or maybe the deer have caught on to us in that spot.  Maybe I went in one too many times with the trail cameras and deer being no fools they just aren't going to let us by with it.

So this year no cameras are going in and the place won't be disturbed until it's time to hunt and maybe this year there will a different story to tell about the hunts at "The Hillside Thicket."

The Unicorn Buck!

 

The Buck and the Full Moon

 

I have been in the woods off and on all month squirrel hunting and placing and checking trail cams.  The worry is over about the negative effects from the late season frosts and summer drought.  There is plenty of mast in the trees and on the ground.  White oaks, red oaks, chestnut oaks, black oaks and every other oak in between are dropping acorns. 

 

If you know where a good persimmon stand is and the trees hold their fruit for another couple of weeks you just may have a prime time location on your hands for the bow season opener.  Several evenings this week I have watched deer move under the persimmon tree in my back yard cleaning up the fruit that fell during the day.  Several days ago I watched a small four-pointer and a young gray fox chase each other around under the tree trying to get the fruit.  Finally, the buck grew tired of the games and chased the fox off into the woods.  After securing the persimmons the buck triumphantly strolled over to my little cherry tree and went to work on it with his antlers.

 

Rubs, scrapes, and licking posts are all popping up in the woods as the deer transition into the pre-rut.

 

If you're not taking the time to do a little squirrel hunting you're missing a prime opportunity to prep yourself for deer season.  This is a wonderful way to perfect your woods stealth again and tune your senses to the sights, sounds, and smells of the field.  Not to mention the benefit you get from pulling the trigger on actual game instead of a paper target.

Summertime Pictures!

Checking the Camera's!

Hoping for an Otter, but not yet!

Still Hoping!

A Small Buck at the Crossin'!





Placing Trail Camera's on Public Land

     When other hunters learn I place trail camera's on Indiana's heavily hunted public lands there is always one question asked: 

     "Aren't you afraid your cameras will be stolen?"

     "Of course!"  I always reply.  "Anytime I put a trail camera on public land I know I may never see it again."  Then I add:  "But, I have developed a strategy for placing trail cameras on public land that has allowed me to go theft free for the past six years."

     For the past six years I have placed an average of ten cameras on Indiana public land including State Forest Land, Hoosier National Forests, and Wildlife Refuges open to hunting, without a single stolen camera.

     I learned the hard way about placing cameras on public land.  The first year I put them out I had two cameras stolen.  The next year I bought locking cables for my cameras thinking this feature would keep them safe.  Then I had two more cameras stolen and I realized even a heavy lock and cable wasn't going to be enough to keep my cameras safe.  When those camera were stolen I decided I could stop using trail cameras all together or I could change the way I placed my cameras.
    
     Fortunately, I chose to carefully evaluate the way I placed my cameras and made a few simple adjustments -- I have not lost a single camera since.  Making these simple adjustments to the way I place my cameras  -- techniques any hunter can use -- has allowed me to become virtually worry free about trail camera theft.

     Here is my strategy for placing trail cameras on Indiana's public lands:

1. Use Cheap 35 mm Cameras:  I know these cameras are the dinosaurs of trail cameras these days, but here is my case for them:

A.  Unless you are made of money and can afford to lose hundreds of dollars, don't put an expensive camera on public land in Indiana.  There is always the chance a thief will find your camera.

B.  When loaded with 800 speed film these cameras take great pictures.  Somewhere along the line I have heard it takes a sixteen mega pixel digital image to match the image quality of film.  I don't know if it's true or not, but, I know five and six mega pixel images don't match the quality of images from my film cameras.  Buy film in bulk online for $.50 a roll or on sale at a Walgreens.  Even at $2.00 -- $3.00 per roll from Walgreens that's a lot of burnt film in a $20.00 -- $40.00 camera when compared to an expensive digital.

C.  Don't pay to develop the film.  Go to Sam's Club and pay $2.50 to have the film transferred to a disc and then download the images onto your computer.

D.  These cameras fit the old adage of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid.)  There are only a few things that can go wrong with them when compared to all the features of the modern digitals.  I use cameras fifteen years old and sometimes leave them out all season through rain, sleet, snow, and freezing temperatures.  They are like an old Timex watch.  They take a lickin' and still keep on tickin'.  I still get great pictures with them.  I just don't know how reliable these modern cameras are going to be in a few years with all their wonderful features.

E.  Take the hit and buy rechargeable batteries.  Trust me on this one!

F.  These cameras are relatively small, even when compared to the compact digitals and thus are harder for a thief to spot.

2. Camera Placement:  The greater the distance from the road the safer your camera will be.  (This is where you need to hunt anyway.)

A.  If you have to climb a steep hill, or trudge through water and sucking mud, or battle thorny briers and whipping saplings to place your camera -- not many hunters are going to follow.  (Warning:  If you place a camera by a creek or river or in an area prone to flooding, keep an eye on the weather.)  If heavy rains are in the forecast get your camera out.  Trust me on this one!

B.  Hang cameras in thick cover -- the thicker the cover the harder your camera will be to see.  Just make sure you are absolutely sure you know where your camera is.  Trust me on this one!
A small clearing on a well used deer trail in a dense thicket is a perfect spot to hang a camera.  Likewise, a perennial rub or scrape in the same terrain is a diamond in the rough.

C.  Place cameras away from the rising sun and position the motion sensor somewhere between a parallel and a perpendicular to the area you want to cover, but more close to a parallel.  Bright sunlight triggers the sensor and these cameras react like cold molasses.  The parallel position helps to compensate for the slow trigger speed. 

3. Make the Camera Invisible:  Okay that's impossible, but you can make it hard to see, and if it can't be seen it can't be stolen!

A.  Replace wide straps with parachute cord or thin nylon shoe strings.  Replacing the manufactures straps with parachute cord not only reduces visibility, but also creates unlimited potential for hanging cameras.  Carry plenty of cord because when it comes to hanging a trail camera you are limited only by your imagination -- big trees, little trees, brush, rocks, logs -- with a little ingenuity just about anything you find in nature can have a trail camera tied to it.

B.  Cover your camera in camouflage duct tape to match the surroundings.  Utilize the tree-bark and leafy patterns available.

C.  Make the camera visible from only one angle.  Use natural camouflage, but don't go overboard.  Don't pile brush up on the side to hide the camera and make things look unnatural.  Use just enough to break up the boxy outline of the camera box.

     Over the years I have found almost as much enjoyment of placing trail cameras as actually hunting.  They simply give me another excuse to be in the woods.  I don't use them for scouting or trying to pattern a buck -- I simply don't have time for that.  They do, however, give me greater insight into the habits of whitetail deer and they give me a glimpse of animal behavior I might not otherwise see.  Simply put my trail cameras give me an added enjoyment in wildlife observation.

     Without a doubt though my cameras show me that even on highly pressured pieces of Indiana's public land there are big bucks that would make any hunters heart skip a beat.

The Waiting Game Begins!

September, the longest month of the year for the Hoosier Bow Hunter, has finally arrived.  The October opening is just around the bend and the anticipation is beginning to boil.  I admit I haven't picked up my bow since January, but you can bet I will find the time this weekend between the remnant rainstorms of Hurricane Isaac to do some much needed target practice.

 

 

I have hardly taken the time to wet a line and suddenly I realize it's time to change gears.  Some morning soon will find me toting my old remington 870 over my shoulder chasing a few bushytails in one of my old haunts to check on the acorn mast.  I know not all has been lost with the drought -- my deck is covered with acorn cuttings from the big chestnut oak in my yard, so I suspect there are going to be some hotspots on some of the oak flats in the Hoosier National.



 

Trail camera's will begin to go out and hopefully soon enough to catch some of the bucks losing their velvet.  Those bloody racks with hanging velvet make for some interesting pictures.

 





 

I have seen a lot of deer this year while driving through parts of the Hoosier National and some of the areas that were slammed by blue tongue disease several years ago are making a comeback in a big way.  I've seen more deer in those areas this year than the last four years combined.  Quite a few of the deer have been bucks and some of them were true trophy's by my standards.





 

These are some of the photo's from late season last year so hopes are high that these bucks made it through the mild winter and heat stressed summer.

 



 

Only time will tell, but I'm hoping it will be a good year for the hunters of Indiana Whitetail News!

A Hunter in the Making!

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that today's youth can become passionate about hunting and fishing, or trapping.  Pay attention to any budding teenager equipped with electronic gear and you will notice that their available time is spent talking through the push of buttons.  In a sense it's as if they feel alive because they are electronically connected.

That's why, several weeks ago, Chand's call came as such a surprise.  July had just begun and Opening Day was three months away.  Thoughts of deer season were gnawing away in the back of my mind like a fox squirrel cutting on a hickory nut, but were not yet devouring my thinking like a starving coyote on a fresh gut pile.  (This typically happens when September rolls around.)

Chand's voice held an anticipating excitement that I had forgot existed.  In his hands he clutched his first hunting license, and as he informed me of all the legal requirements he was bound by and the game and limits he was allowed to take, my mind drifted back to August 15, 1984 and I was once again in the squirrel woods with my dad and brother for the first time.

Chand talked of the coming deer season with unmatched enthusiasm, and recalled events of past seasons with a clearness and clarity that left little doubt how important those few days in October and November are to him.

Then and there I decided this deer season would be dedicated to Chand.  For years now he has been a part of deer camp.  Patiently he has waited his turn, quietly listening to the stories -- his time in the woods limited to a noon-day squirrel hunt and the occasional deer drag.  But for Chand, this year is going to be different.

Battleship Rock

With the heat wave and drought punishing Southern Indiana it may be hard to think about deer season.  But, if you look close there are signs of autumns approach.  For starters, the summer solstice has come and gone and the evening sun will be disappearing sooner and sooner.  Several weeks ago I noticed some of the lower leaves of the buckeye trees losing their color.  In my region these trees are always the first to leaf out in the springtime and the first to lose their leaves, too.  Of course now with this heat they are just wilting away and dying.  Yesterday, I saw squirrel cuttings underneath a walnut tree, though the nuts are not yet ripe.  Tuesday night will be the buck moon.  October is slowly rolling in.

I don't know how this drought is going to affect the deer.  Several years ago when this happened an EHD outbreak decimated some of the areas I hunt (including the area where these pictures were taken,) and those places have not even recovered -- let's hope the disease doesn't hit them this year, too.

The late spring frost hit my area three times this year and the white oak mast and persimmon crop were hit hard.  To make this even worse it seems this heat is cooking some of the nuts on the trees.  Yesterday I walked under a pignut hickory tree.  Scattered on the ground below it were dried, brown, heat schorched nuts.

These pictures were taken at an area I call Battleship Rock.  Every year I scout this piece of Hoosier National during the pre-season and post-season, though I have never gone in with a bow or gun. Some years there is big buck sign, some years there isn't. The flat is woodland edge habitat. There is a good stand of matures oaks on the level, but when the hill begins to climb a dense pine thicket takes over. A well used deer trail runs the edge between the pines and oaks. Every year there are scattered scrapes and rubs along its' length.

The shelf these deer are walking drops off into a steep ravine that even a noisy machine can't climb.  For me the place fullfills all the requirements for most places I hunt on public land: it's a tough climb in and in the event of a sucessful hunt -- it's a tough drag out.  As a matter of fact this may be one of those places that can really test the bonds of a hunting camp.Who knows, maybe I will never hunt this place, the years are beginning to add up, and this spot might be a young mans hunt.

But, just in case I feel a little froggy this autumn, the steep ravine offers a well concealed approach and there are plenty of tall, straight trees along the shelf for my old, trusty, loggy bayou climber.  

It All Begins Again!

When the season of great anticipation began, with its hopes of possibility that the big buck from from the year before was still out there sauntering through my hunting grounds,

and an early autumn picture showed indeed he still was, only now much bigger, with an immense thick chest and blocked head with graying muzzle,

and I knew this aging buck living on public land was a cagey, crafty old fellow, because for many seasons he had figured out what it took to survive on pressured land, and I spent the season wondering where he was hiding, trying in earnest to find him, sacrificing time and money to be where I thought he might be, calling in sick to work, jeopardizing job and relationship,

sitting on stand for long hours waiting for that one chance, listening to the echoing booms of the hunter over on the next ridge and the defiant report in return from the hunter across the big woods, wondering if somewhere the monarch had fallen, hoping against all odds he had somehow made it through.  And the fleeting months passed without one chance sighting of him, then on a late January day on my winter trapline a scrape popped up where one wasn't the day before, then another, and a trail camera went out and I hoped that just maybe it was him,

and when the picture came in it wasn't the best, but by all accounts it could be, and after all this was said and done it's then I realized -- it all begins again.

Hunting Season is over -- Time for a Trapline!

Unless you are lucky enough to have hunting grounds in the states urban zones the deer season is now over.  And if you are one of those lucky hunters the season is open until the end of January.



I ended the year with a hunt on the last day of the season.  Despite the gusting winds (sometimes over thirty miles per hour) I saw deer.  I hunkered down in a patch of briers watching over a river bottom trail.  As I carelessly ate a granola bar a doe walked up on me offering a clear shot at fifteen yards, unfortunately my bow was on the ground in front of me, and she didn't stick around long enough for me to pick it up.  I saw five other does that day, but they stayed just out of range.

When these pictures were taken most deer hunters had either tagged out or given up on the season.  But, it's pictures like these that give me that little bit of encouragement to keep hunting, and shows me bucks are still exhibiting rut like behavior late into the season.

For the past week I have ran a small trapline covering parts of the Hoosier National Forest.  Believe it or not the secondary rut is still in swing, or at least there are bucks still trying to find receptive does.  Monday, January 09, and again on Wednesday, January 11, I found freshly opened scrapes.

This is a great time to be in the field scouting for next year, too.  With all the vegetation gone the woods are an open book just waiting to be read.  All the sign from this fall is there to decipher -- rub lines, scrape lines, bedding areas, trails -- are all just waiting to be found.  Now is a perfect time to learn more about your hunting area or a new area you would like to hunt next year without worrying about pressuring deer on your hunting grounds.

Some bucks will have begun to drop their antlers, too, though I suppose prime shed hunting is still months away.  Several years ago, in late December, my brother walked my trapline with me.  He watched me walk right past two sheds from a big ten-pointer and then he casually strolled over and picked them up.  They are now his rattling antlers.

This week I have also picked up several cameras I put out after the end of muzzleloader season, so I am anxious to have the film developed to see what may be roaming my hunting grounds next year.

Pictures are still coming in of the bucks in these pictures.  Somebody is going to have a long wait until October rolls around again.