Southern Indiana Hunt (recap)

[Billy]

Okay, guys and gals. Here it goes.
 Being that I am first home,I'll start the story.
I don't have everyone's name and apologize if I get one wrong or leave you out.
 Friday about noon, Brent (brother/law) and I arrived at Knob Lake Campground. We found three guys already set up and getting comfy with the place.
 Two from New Jersey and one from Pennsylvania!!
They'll be along to tell their stories.
 Chatted for awhile; Catfishon, Dennis and son, Aaron and one other post surgey trad guy stopped to visit, chatted and John Scifres came in about 1. Nighthawk joined us sometime after dark.
 Set up our tents amongst laughter and stories. John, Brent and I got changed and went out for an evening of scoutin/hunting, and oh yea dodging rain showers.
 Brent and climbed out of the campground to look around and found a scrape 80 yds from our tent!
Lots of other sign and well worn trails but, only brown legs seen thru the brush.
 Saturday dawned with off and on showers, til mid afternoon. Temps were comfortably chilly all day. Brent and I went up to the top of the ridge above camp. While John and Nighthawk (Joe) went off to see other things.
 Afternoon found Joe, Brent, and I back up over the ridge. Right at last light I had something blow at me that just flat sounded BIG!
 But, we did come back to find Catfishon and others grinning over his buck..

 

his story: I'll let him tell it.

 Couple poor pics of some of the "gang"

 

 

 Brent and I will definitely be back for next years gathering.  

[indianalongbowshooter]

Nice deer!

[sgrogg]

Nice deer!!  Glad you all had a good time.

[Billy]

It was a great time, too short though.
 I did forget guys like 702plmo, and kenratt stopped in today. As well as our German visitor,Saturday. I missed his name ,but he was wearing buckskin pants, a self made wool shirt, buckskin quiver, and an osage self bow.
 And of course Nighthawk carried "Hope" into camp with him. That was a treat. What a shooter!!
Also, a fella named Darren, from Pittsburgh, that I did not get to meet came in around 2a.m. Sunday.

[Minuteman]

Heres the news I was looking for!
 Did he shoot that deer on public ground?
 Did anyone kill anything there on the state property?

[Billy]

Catfishon can tell his own story.
 I had sightings and others were having close calls as well. Some are still out there hunting.
 Being a first year trad only hunter, I'm calling 20 yds between me and bucky, a success.
 I was there to learn and meet new folks and friends,SUCCESS!
 I will be back next year.

[adeeden]

Sounds like a great time, I was hoping to go but something came up and I wasn't able to! Great buck John, And I can't wait to hear the story!

[Curtiss Cardinal]

I can hardly type I'm so busy eating my heart out. I should have done whatever it took to get down there.

[joe skipp]

Sounds like you fellas had a great hunt...its cool when a bunch of experienced bowhunters get together for a hunt and share in the experiences. Great hunt....

[John Nail]

Dang! you guys didn't let Dennis bring "Killer" did ya? That dog probably killed the deer! He's vicious!
Seriously, John (Catfish on) is a certified bowshootin' fool. Boy could kill a 40 yard deer--and rumour has it, he carries a pre-trained bow....

[catfishon]

heres what happend, i got on stand kind of late
(or so i thought). i was hunting a rub line and saw that the buck had made his rounds since i had left earlier that day. i got on stand around 5:00 and about 15 min. later saw a doe in front of me about 40 yd out .i gave a couple short grunts but she just kept going ,i was disapointed but still happy that i got to see  one.just befor i was going to sit back down i looked around and saw him headed for the rub line 20yd away , but he offerd no shot.after working the rubs he headed almost right at me. i knew it was my only shot so i picked a spot at the base of his neck between both legs and let go.i watched as my woodsman found its mark 12 yds from me. what a feeling! thought i was going to fall out of my tree! i just kept thinking for the next 30min or so i should have waited for a better shot. still not beliving what had happend,and wondering if my arrow really hit where i was looking.when i got down and went to where he stood and half my arrow was, i knew he was mine. wasn't hard to track him and if the leaves had been off i would have seen him fall not more than 60 yds away. and to top it off he ran out of the thick cover and fell dead right in the farming lane that ran around a corn field. i drove right to him.... lol!!!  thats my story, and i hope all of you find your trophies this year. whether it be a big old buck or a small young doe. be safe and have fun ...john

[John Nail]

John, I stand corrected. I see you shot him with your selfbow. well done!

[catfishon]

john, i pretty much hung up my bighorn since i made this osage bow. it's 68# @ 27 and 64"ntn.

[BigRonHuntAlot]

WOW, Nice Un. Congrats on ya'lls hunt.      

[Billy]

ttt

[John Scifres]

I'm back.  I'll post all the pics here later but here's one more of Catfish's buck.  It shows the unique mass on him.  He is a beautiful deer.
 

And here's my buck.
 

A Ribbie 190 from 5 yards from a treestand did the job quickly.  Had it not center-punched that rib, we might have had a bloodtrail     Turned out not to need one as I heard him crash...er tumble down into a Washington County hole.  The drag was brutal.  Thank God for strong friends like Darren.
 
 

[Eastern fisher]

Did that "monster of a dog" help out with the hunt?  Congrats.  Awesome story and awesome pic.  Dave from Nova Scotia

[slayer1]

Thats one heck of a Buck! Sounds like you boys had a good time.

[burnt]

weekends hunt was great. Good people and plenty of deer.  They just didn't seem to walk infront of me. Planning on doing some scouting this winter so I'll be better prepared next year.  Saw some beautiful bows and learned a thing or two about my favorite passtime(building bows).

Burnt

[John Scifres]

I got to the campground around 1:00 Friday and quickly found Dennis Evans and his nephew Aaron with Brent (burnt) and Billy and Jim, a friend of Dennis' gathered around the camp of a couple Jersey boys, Pete and ?, and one PA guy, Fred.  We got our own sites picked out right below the shelterhouse and got to jabbering.  Denis even built a fire for us.  

However, I needed to find a place to hunt and set off for a small plot of land I have access to that is nearby.  I got my stand set up over a scrape line on a trail on this ridgetop property that fell steeply into the ravine adjacent to it.

I hunted that evening and didn't see anything but had high hopes for later in the weekend.  I returned to camp and we sat up with everyone for a while.  It wasn't long before Joe Doyle, Minutemen, came in with his pop-up and we all got to jabberin' again.  Around Midnight we decide to get to bed     Dawn was gonna come early.  Unfortunately, I wasn't too excited to get up and hunt so we all kind of slept in.

Joe and I got out late in the morning for some scouting and found a neat little spot behind the archery range.  We also found a cool little statue on what I found out later was a piece of private land.

     

The land is owned by a friend of Darren's who we visited later.  This memorial is to the former property owner who was an infaous coon hunter and outdoorsman in the area.  He isn't buried there by the way