Indiana 10 point and an Indiana 9 point 2008-2009

by John
(Carroll County Indiana)

The first Indiana buck I shot was a 10 point buck. I was in White County on my way home and saw a group of deer standing in a field. I stopped and asked the owner if I could hunt. He informed me that his mother owned the property and didn't let anyone hunt there. I told him thanks for his time and left my business card with him a week before the end of the muzzleloader season 2008. The owner of the property where I saw those deer in the field, called me and said their furnace was not working. I owning a heating and air company and went out and fixed their furnace. While there I made mention that there were a lot of deer in the fields everyday on my way home. The owner replied "you really want to hunt there don't you "? I replied yes and the owner told me I could go back there for the remainder of the season. All week long all I could think about was hunting there but couldn't get time away from my customers long enough to get in there and scout an area for my stand. Well the weekend came and I was still not getting calls that Saturday so I was starting to believe that it was destiny for me not to hunt there. Well the next morning I told my wife I was going to go out to this new place. At 4:30 in the morning I went into the woods blind and set up my climber, got up half way in this tree and realized that there was a fork in the tree. Only 10 feet off the ground all I could think is this is the worst spot ever and I had no flash light with me to figure out another spot quickly so I stuck it out in that tree and right before first light I could hear some

rustling around in the woods, then I hear that famous last sound before you know your hunt is over. Two deer behind me winded me and started snorting. I thought this was the worst ever. Sitting there a little longer I considered just climbing down and calling it a season to forget then I started seeing deer in the field in front of me. I counted at least 20 or more then I saw three good size bucks. My spirits were lifted but the deer never got close enough for my muzzleloader to make a clean shot, so after an hour of watching deer outside my comfort zone for shooting, 250 yards or more, I started to think this was torture then out of the corner of my eye there he was, not the biggest buck but not another day of going home empty handed to wife saying "you'de rather sit in the cold for nothing then stay in bed with me where its warm". Obviously she will never understand why they call it hunting and not KILLING. So as I looked at this deer I realized he is the biggest deer I have ever been within shooting range of, about 115 yards, so I took the shot. The deer ran so hard that he hit a leaning tree and did a full 360 around it, fell to the ground and didn't move. Ah you know that sigh of relief that you don't have to go looking for a wounded animal. I could see him laying there in the snow fifty yards away from my stand. I climbed down out of my tree and carefully walked over to the deer. As I got closer I could tell he was bigger than I first realized. I loaded him up and drove up to the property owners house and thanked him. To his amazement I actually got a deer but not just a deer a nice buck .