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Post by sculver7 on Jan 28, 2021 16:12:08 GMT -5
Deer hunting never stops for me. HAHA! This coming October, a buddy and I are planning on going down to the middle-southern part of the state for a 3 day archery hunt. I was looking for places that allow tent camping way off the beaten path. We are planning to hike in a long ways before we set up camp. Being that I am from the very northern part of the state and have not visited much of these areas for hunting, it would be much appreiated if anyone had some suggestions of where to go. I have already looked at Hoosier National Forest as well as Morgan-Monroe State Forest. I know there were some issues with EHD down there in the not so recent past as well. Mainly just wanting to get in deep on a property away from people. Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on places to check out. It will be October 21-24.
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Post by steiny on Jan 28, 2021 16:18:51 GMT -5
Lots of public ground, wild and wooly country and big deer in Greene and Sullivan counties. Plenty of campgrounds, and fishing holes too.
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Post by jman46151 on Jan 28, 2021 16:28:24 GMT -5
Dispersed camping is allowed throughout most of the HNF. I don't have any specific spots to tell you to go to though. There's not too many places very far from a road in Indiana. Dispersed Camping
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Post by beermaker on Jan 28, 2021 17:35:57 GMT -5
That's borderline too early around here for me. The afternoon temperatures could easily be 70+, or in the 40's. There will still be abundant foliage.
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Post by scrub-buster on Jan 28, 2021 18:45:27 GMT -5
Plan the hunt for at least 1 week later if possible. Things start heating up around Halloween-first week of November.
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Post by duff on Jan 28, 2021 22:11:33 GMT -5
If you hunt weekdays it will be a lot of areas to hunt with little interruptions.
If you are set on hiking a bit I would get on X and look for the biggest block of land. Most have a parking spot or 2 but if you get a big chunk and hike a mile in that will eliminate about 77.4 to 83.6% of the other hunters.
Or camp in a campground and jump around to spots
Hnf. Greene Sullivan Martin state forest Yellow wood Morgan-monroe
Plenty to offer
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Post by Russ Koon on Jan 28, 2021 23:25:00 GMT -5
Another way to escape the crowds is to use a canoe to access areas well away from the parking lots. I've done that several times in HNF and a few times on Monroe Reservoir property.
As mentioned above, the weekdays are best even when accessing a good hunting area by boat. The traffic from other bowhunters isn't usually as much a problem as the horsemen and hikers enjoying a pleasant fall day or an overnight camp in the milder weather and fall colors, especially around the reservoir areas.
One problem that caught me unexpectedly on a trip to Salt Creek upstream from the reservoir one time was the amount of leaves that had fallen over the five or six days since my previous scouting trip. Came back to camp and hunt the following weekend and the creek was so choked with leaves that I couldn't paddle through it! I launched and struggled through a couple hundred yards of it, hoping it would be thinner downstream, but after that distance and finding it to look the same as far as I could see after going around a couple bends, I was pretty much worn out and struggled to get back to the truck. If you can imagine trying to paddle on a creek of molasses, that's about as close as I could describe that day. I don't recall the date, but I think it was a couple weeks later than your target date, maybe around the end of October. I know our Fall Foliage Festival targets the time for best foliage viewing, and it is usually the second weekend in Oct. Aside from that time, I enjoyed about every other aspect of my fall float hunts...capacity to carry a few more comfort items for a more comfortable camp, nice quiet movement, and the water is always at the bottom of the hill and the haul out to the truck is flat all the way.
I've used the canoe to hunt on Lake Monroe a few times as well, and it has some of the same assets, but tends to have more campers on the shoreline, especially in pretty weather. Some of the smaller public waters are also good possibilities, but I've only experienced a few of them, and I think the camping would be in designated areas only around most of them.
I did hunt and canoe camp in the Greene-Sullivan SF some years back, and it was mostly open to primitive camping back then, but not sure if that is still the case there. When I did it, you could walk to everyplace in there, but accessing some of them was a lot easier by canoe.
I've wanted to try the area around Patoka Lake for a long time, and have still never got around to it.
I've always enjoyed getting well away from the other hunters and campers, too. But I have found through the years that most of the deer are going to stay pretty close walking distance to their food sources, and in farm country, that means crop fields above all else. You do sacrifice some quantity of deer when you get more distance from the fields, but the experience of having a large area of deep woods to yourself makes up for the lack of high deer numbers.
Good luck and come back and let us know how it works out.
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Post by Ahawkeye on Jan 30, 2021 7:07:35 GMT -5
My advice to you is to prep your clothes with permethrin. Anywhere in the southern 1/3 to 1/4 of the state will have a very healthy tick population. I love camping but dispersed camping before first frost does not sound like a winner to me unless it's a bit colder and later than the dates you mentioned. Be very prepared for mother nature's version of the devil's spawn. I HATE those things!
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Post by duff on Jan 31, 2021 18:53:00 GMT -5
I have pulled a tick off of me after sitting in a tree on a day below freezing. Dang dirtbags don't hardly take any time off
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Post by sculver7 on Feb 1, 2021 14:09:22 GMT -5
Thanks for all the responses. As for the dates I'm looking a dealing with bugs, heat, etc., I am well aware of temperature and bug issues as we have the same issues up here around that time of year. We will deal accordingly. This is really the only time slot that will work for us and we will make the most of it. I did call down to a park ranger and discussed my plan with her. She told me to consider Hickory Ridge Horse Camp as she said there are fewer people that use this property than a lot of the others. I don't know if anyone has experience with this property and can verify if she is correct or not. Thanks again for the information and if anyone has any other tips or info, I am all ears.
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Feb 1, 2021 14:46:19 GMT -5
Hickory Ridge is popular with horse riders, as you may have figured. There aren't nearly as many hikers that use that area compared with closer to the lake, the wilderness area is especially crowded. Really though, I would expect to see very few bow hunters in October just about anywhere on the forest.
I usually only deer hunt public in Indiana a handful of times per year. I enjoy getting the kids out fairly frequently though to flip rocks, look for sheds, etc.
Another idea is to look at the small scattered parcels, most of which are further south. There are often higher deer densities on the small pieces surrounded by private, but may not yield the same experience you're looking for.
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Post by mstr2175 on Feb 1, 2021 15:04:32 GMT -5
Hmm. That seems a little off. My guess is it’s more around 77.256677 to 84.27465% If you hunt weekdays it will be a lot of areas to hunt with little interruptions. If you are set on hiking a bit I would get on X and look for the biggest block of land. Most have a parking spot or 2 but if you get a big chunk and hike a mile in that will eliminate about 77.4 to 83.6% of the other hunters. Or camp in a campground and jump around to spots Hnf. Greene Sullivan Martin state forest Yellow wood Morgan-monroe Plenty to offer
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Post by duff on Feb 1, 2021 16:20:42 GMT -5
Hmm. That seems a little off. My guess is it’s more around 77.256677 to 84.27465% If you hunt weekdays it will be a lot of areas to hunt with little interruptions. If you are set on hiking a bit I would get on X and look for the biggest block of land. Most have a parking spot or 2 but if you get a big chunk and hike a mile in that will eliminate about 77.4 to 83.6% of the other hunters. Or camp in a campground and jump around to spots Hnf. Greene Sullivan Martin state forest Yellow wood Morgan-monroe Plenty to offer I need to see your source of data mr. Fake News. Hickory Ridge is decent. Hunted it a few times. No other deer hunters but did have some squirrel hunters bumping around. I would take LawCoHunter's advice and look for other spots away from Monroe Co. Just lots more people and destinations for nonhunters. But plenty of land to get off a trail. Watch out for the rattlesnakes! We found some in a dispersed camp 5 years ago. 2 in a hollow log and one out in the open. Plus 2 small copperhead in that same log. Freaky is an understatement.
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Post by sculver7 on Feb 2, 2021 14:46:05 GMT -5
Alright, so you guys are saying that it would probably best to stay away from Monroe county. Does anyone have experience with Martin State Forest or Greene-Sullivan State Forest? Wanting to try to get away from people as much as possible for camping and hunting but also give ourselves a good opportunity at harvesting a deer or two even if they are just does.
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Post by bullseye69 on Feb 2, 2021 19:52:25 GMT -5
Lots of public ground, wild and wooly country and big deer in Greene and Sullivan counties. Plenty of campgrounds, and fishing holes too. I was gonna say Green-sullivan. Great place to fish for sure. I love camping and fishing on lake Wampler.
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Post by bartiks on Feb 3, 2021 22:55:07 GMT -5
Duff, Those percentages are fairly precise, were those some numbers just fluttering thru the air or did you choose some numbers that would make the story more believable?
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Post by duff on Feb 4, 2021 5:18:12 GMT -5
Duff, Those percentages are fairly precise, were those some numbers just fluttering thru the air or did you choose some numbers that would make the story more believable? Don't worry about my percentages. But just to make you happy.... my old roommate's cousin's brother's ex-brother in law was getting a hair cut next to a very important individual from the dnr. He heard the guy talking on his phone. Confirmed there may be black panthers too. You didn't hear that from me though. At least that is what my old roommate told me. He is an elected official now, we all know they don't make stuff up.
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Post by greghopper on Feb 4, 2021 5:25:42 GMT -5
Duff, Those percentages are fairly precise, were those some numbers just fluttering thru the air or did you choose some numbers that would make the story more believable? Don't worry about my percentages. But just to make you happy.... my old roommate's cousin's brother's ex-brother in law was getting a hair cut next to a very important individual from the dnr. He heard the guy talking on his phone. Confirmed there may be black panthers too. You didn't hear that from me though. At least that is what my old roommate told me. He is an elected official now, we all know they don't make stuff up. If they weren’t golfing buddies then them rumors aren’t valid! 😊
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Post by jman46151 on Feb 4, 2021 17:27:07 GMT -5
Lots of public ground, wild and wooly country and big deer in Greene and Sullivan counties. Plenty of campgrounds, and fishing holes too. I was gonna say Green-sullivan. Great place to fish for sure. I love camping and fishing on lake Wampler. There's no dispersed camping there so he would be stuck in a campground if that matters. I tried it once and the CO didn't like it too well...
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Post by jman46151 on Feb 4, 2021 17:28:43 GMT -5
Thanks for all the responses. As for the dates I'm looking a dealing with bugs, heat, etc., I am well aware of temperature and bug issues as we have the same issues up here around that time of year. We will deal accordingly. This is really the only time slot that will work for us and we will make the most of it. I did call down to a park ranger and discussed my plan with her. She told me to consider Hickory Ridge Horse Camp as she said there are fewer people that use this property than a lot of the others. I don't know if anyone has experience with this property and can verify if she is correct or not. Thanks again for the information and if anyone has any other tips or info, I am all ears. I've not hunted the Hickory Ridge area but I have heard it is decent deer hunting. I've hunted a little bit NE of there and there will be other hunters but I have yet to bump into anyone while actually hunting.
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