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By Bob Fratzke, with Glenn Helgeland
A flyover isn’t cheap, but the birds-eye view and some aerial photographs can save you scouting time and energy and make your on-the-ground efforts more efficient.
A flyover isn’t cheap, but the birds-eye view and some aerial photographs can save you scouting time and energy and make your on-the-ground efforts more efficient.
Summer is an important time to scout for deer.
Whitetails have different habits or patterns ñ in the spring, summer, once the season begins, within the season, and right after the season. Continual scouting is a lot of work, but it's worth it. You will learn what's in the area. That does a lot for your confidence, and should help your shooting opportunities.
You will find with continual scouting you will change your habits. You will find yourself continually looking at food sources, weather and cover and telling yourself that deer will do this or that, or won't do it, and then you'll go check. The whole thing gets to be a passion more than a game.
In early summer, everything is green, fully leafed and growing. Crops are up and, fortunately, the corn isn't too high yet. This is the time you want to begin evaluating deer in the area you plan to hunt. Evaluate them from a distance and cover as much territory as you can. Don't mess around in their habitat.
Crop rotation and growth are important. Crop rotation will change from year to year, and it will have a definite effect on deer and their movement patterns. You need to take note of various crop locations if you're going to hunt there the first week or so of season, because the deer will still be coming to those fields to feed.
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By Louie Stout
Area Deer Harvest Shows Decline
There is no doubt about it; fewer Hoosier deer were killed in northern Indiana during last fall’s hunt than the year before.
Indiana DNR statistics bear that out.
The 2016 fall harvest stats, based on hunter reports of deer killed, show a slightly diminishing harvest from 2015 to 2016 in St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko LaPorte and Marshall counties.
Each county was different. In St. Joseph, 57 fewer were killed - 47 fewer does and 10 fewer bucks. Other county breakdowns, with does/bucks in parenthesis, are: Elkhart, -14 (-71/+57); LaPorte -4 (+66/-70); Marshall -92 (-113/+21); and Kosciusko (-41 (-87/+56).
Statewide, the harvest was down 4 percent overall with the buck harvest up 1 percent while the antlerless deer harvest dropped 8 percent.
Despite the drop, the statewide buck harvest ranks fifth all-time while the antlerless harvest ranks 14th.
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p>By Louie Stout
The Jones family killed these two quality bucks from same spot over 24-hour period.
The Jones family killed these two quality bucks from same spot over 24-hour period.
Deer season may be over, but the stories keep coming, like the one shared with me last week by a LaPorte County hunter.
While several Hoosiers lamented they didn’t see many bucks last fall, that wasn’t the case for Dave Jones.
He and his 78-year-old father, Gene, hunt an 88-acre parcel in southern LaPorte County. It’s kind of an island of habitat surrounded by farm fields. It generally attracts a few deer but not many quality bucks.
Until this year.
Gene, who is retired, hunted there throughout the bow season. Dave, an attorney, works a lot so his hunting time was limited to opening day of gun season.
“Dad saw some deer during bow season but nothing like what we encounter in one weekend,” explained Dave.
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By Louie Stout
Stats Show Indiana Produces More Trophy Bucks
Does Indiana produce more trophy bucks than Michigan?
Sounds farfetched, I know. Michigan is supposed to be one of the country’s top deer hunting states and little ol’ Indiana, with its vast, fence-row to fence-row plowing seems hardly a deer hunting mecca.
But North Liberty deer scorer John Bogucki says Hoosierland kicks out more trophy bucks than our northern neighbor.
He should know. He is an official scorer for the Hoosier Record Buck Program, Commemorative Bucks of Michigan, Pope and Young, The Longhunter (muzzleloader record book) and Boone and Crockett.
In addition, Bogucki is the record keeper of the Hoosier record book and tracks all the stats of top deer harvested in the state over the years.
And while he doesn’t maintain the records for Michigan’s program, he is an official scorer and studies their record book annually. He knows what’s being killed north of the border.
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By Louie Stout
Chris Collins poses with the record book buck he shot in Marshall County.
Chris Collins poses with the record book buck he shot in Marshall County.
Chris Collins knew the giant buck he’d seen for a few years still lived somewhere on his farm near Lake Maxinkuckee.
“I found his shed antler last spring and saw him last summer in our bean field,” said the Marshall County real estate broker. “We saw him again on our trail cameras and my brother (Alan) and I were thrilled he was still around.”
The Collins brothers named the buck “Twin Towers” because of its large (29 inches) of brow tines to go along with massive main beams.
They manage their property for quality bucks and this one certainly exceeded the standards. If they were going to kill him, they knew their window of opportunity was closing.
“We’ve been specifically hunting this buck since mid-October,” said Collins. “We passed on several mature bucks because we knew this was the one we wanted.”