This was my first year being drawn for this. I had heard good things and had some pretty high hopes. It turned out to absolutely suck. I won't bother putting in again ever. I had a lot of questions once I was drawn and couldn't find a ton of info on how the whole thing worked so I'm posting a little AAR of sorts for those who are interested in it or looking for more info. This is my personal experience only. Maybe some of you loved it. That's great.
I got drawn with 2 buddies so we headed down there. Park opens for hunters at 0500. We got there each day about about 0445. I was curious how many other hunters would be in there with us so that was my first question when I checked in. The official told me that 600 people were drawn for the hunt. I was shocked by that number. I can't imagine being in a park, even the size of Brown Co with 600 hunters.
Turns out nowhere near that number showed up. At least from my observation. I saw what I estimated to be about 100 or so hunters each day.
After check-in, you park your car in the long line of pick-ups (and the one car) and wait for the green flag to come down. At 0450, it's "Gentlemen, start your engines!" 0500 DNR cuts everyone loose and it. is. on. My buddies and I were laughing at how ridiculous it was to go speeding through the dark in a race to get to a particular spot. One car literally tried to cut me off. One suggestion for an improvement next year is to have someone sing Back Home Again in Indiana right before we take off. You know, Hoosier tradition and all.
Eventually we found a pull-off that didn't look too populated and went in and set up. Never did see a deer. Although plenty of hunters walked past my stand-LOL.
Monday was windy and raining all day which wasn't much fun sitting in a stand but that's deer hunting sometimes. I didn't mind--had my trusty Stormy Kromer on. I didn't expect to see much deer with the wind. Didn't end up seeing anything but 8 turkeys and about 15 hunters from my stand. Turns out someone shot a turkey left it there and DNR was all up in arms trying to catch the culprit. Don't know how that shook out.
Tuesday was a repeat of Monday except there seemed to be a few more vehicles lined up in the starting grid. No rain. Not as much wind. The report I was given on Tues am said that 8 deer were checked in on Monday. Rumor going around the line was that there were still 5 deer left in the park, which made us all anxious to get out there and try our hand at harvesting such an enormous bounty. We all wished each other good luck on bagging one of the 5. Green flag came down and we were off again in the race into the darkness. The truck in front of me was squealing tires. I thought it was pointless to drive so fast but hey, if you ain't first, you're last, so I got a little sideways in one or two of the turns myself.
I got up in my stand about 0530. Since the hunting sucked so bad on Monday, I did a little scouting in the afternoon and came up with what I thought was a better place for Tues. Other hunters must have had the same idea I had because after I was up in my stand, hunter after hunter came walking toward me. I shined a flashlight just to let them know I was there. I honestly didn't mind if anyone set up next to me as I felt it was unlikely any deer would be within miles of all of this noise but I just wanted them to know where I was in case they had a problem setting up so close to someone else.
Eventually it got so bad, I just sat in the tree with my headlamp on so the line forming would see where I was. At one point, I thought if it got much more dense with hunters, we could at least pass stuff to each other from our treestands without ever having to get down. I think if we had 5 more show up in my area, we could have incorporated as a small town. (I couldn't help but chuckle at the guys dousing themselves with scent blocker. As if spraying some chemical would magically make up for the racket of cars driving around the roads and the army of hunters marching through the woods clanging climbing stands.)
Didn't see a single deer on Tues and judging from the very rare gun shot I heard, I wouldn't be surprised if around the same number of deer were taken on Tues as on Monday. A special shoutout to the guy who fired 5 rounds in 2 seconds: Impressive.
Around noon, I had had enough of the ridiculousness and decided I'd just go home. Just to be on the safe side, I yelled, "Cease Fire! Going down range!" I got down and walked out, giving a brief "Good luck" to each hunter I passed.
It was a great experience. I mean, after all, I didn't get shot. And I got to be out in nature seeing all the creatures--on Tuesday, I saw two squirrels AND a woodpecker. It was awesome.
I'm debating putting in for the draw next year for the sole purpose of walking stand to stand selling jerky, coffee and soft drinks. I think an enterprising guy could make a decent chunk of change doing that.
Good luck and be safe out there!
I got drawn with 2 buddies so we headed down there. Park opens for hunters at 0500. We got there each day about about 0445. I was curious how many other hunters would be in there with us so that was my first question when I checked in. The official told me that 600 people were drawn for the hunt. I was shocked by that number. I can't imagine being in a park, even the size of Brown Co with 600 hunters.
Turns out nowhere near that number showed up. At least from my observation. I saw what I estimated to be about 100 or so hunters each day.
After check-in, you park your car in the long line of pick-ups (and the one car) and wait for the green flag to come down. At 0450, it's "Gentlemen, start your engines!" 0500 DNR cuts everyone loose and it. is. on. My buddies and I were laughing at how ridiculous it was to go speeding through the dark in a race to get to a particular spot. One car literally tried to cut me off. One suggestion for an improvement next year is to have someone sing Back Home Again in Indiana right before we take off. You know, Hoosier tradition and all.
Eventually we found a pull-off that didn't look too populated and went in and set up. Never did see a deer. Although plenty of hunters walked past my stand-LOL.
Monday was windy and raining all day which wasn't much fun sitting in a stand but that's deer hunting sometimes. I didn't mind--had my trusty Stormy Kromer on. I didn't expect to see much deer with the wind. Didn't end up seeing anything but 8 turkeys and about 15 hunters from my stand. Turns out someone shot a turkey left it there and DNR was all up in arms trying to catch the culprit. Don't know how that shook out.
Tuesday was a repeat of Monday except there seemed to be a few more vehicles lined up in the starting grid. No rain. Not as much wind. The report I was given on Tues am said that 8 deer were checked in on Monday. Rumor going around the line was that there were still 5 deer left in the park, which made us all anxious to get out there and try our hand at harvesting such an enormous bounty. We all wished each other good luck on bagging one of the 5. Green flag came down and we were off again in the race into the darkness. The truck in front of me was squealing tires. I thought it was pointless to drive so fast but hey, if you ain't first, you're last, so I got a little sideways in one or two of the turns myself.
I got up in my stand about 0530. Since the hunting sucked so bad on Monday, I did a little scouting in the afternoon and came up with what I thought was a better place for Tues. Other hunters must have had the same idea I had because after I was up in my stand, hunter after hunter came walking toward me. I shined a flashlight just to let them know I was there. I honestly didn't mind if anyone set up next to me as I felt it was unlikely any deer would be within miles of all of this noise but I just wanted them to know where I was in case they had a problem setting up so close to someone else.
Eventually it got so bad, I just sat in the tree with my headlamp on so the line forming would see where I was. At one point, I thought if it got much more dense with hunters, we could at least pass stuff to each other from our treestands without ever having to get down. I think if we had 5 more show up in my area, we could have incorporated as a small town. (I couldn't help but chuckle at the guys dousing themselves with scent blocker. As if spraying some chemical would magically make up for the racket of cars driving around the roads and the army of hunters marching through the woods clanging climbing stands.)
Didn't see a single deer on Tues and judging from the very rare gun shot I heard, I wouldn't be surprised if around the same number of deer were taken on Tues as on Monday. A special shoutout to the guy who fired 5 rounds in 2 seconds: Impressive.
Around noon, I had had enough of the ridiculousness and decided I'd just go home. Just to be on the safe side, I yelled, "Cease Fire! Going down range!" I got down and walked out, giving a brief "Good luck" to each hunter I passed.
It was a great experience. I mean, after all, I didn't get shot. And I got to be out in nature seeing all the creatures--on Tuesday, I saw two squirrels AND a woodpecker. It was awesome.
I'm debating putting in for the draw next year for the sole purpose of walking stand to stand selling jerky, coffee and soft drinks. I think an enterprising guy could make a decent chunk of change doing that.
Good luck and be safe out there!
