OBeen doing a lot of scouting in muscatatuck refuge for my muzzleloader hunt coming up next weekend and just ain't seeing hardly any deer in there. Walked around for 7 hours in there yesterday and only seen 2 deer. Some days I don't see any deer there. Anyone having better luck than me finding deer in the refuge?? I'd love to hear any tips or stories of your hunt. I'd love to see pics of anyone's deer you got out there this year too

I have not scouted at MNWR this year but have always killed a deer there when I have gotten drawn for muzzleloader. Bow is tougher but always see deer. I am hunting there on 12-20. The west side is terrible. I always hunt in the southeast corner. I can mark up a few areas for you on a map.

plenty deer there....there has been open hunting there since oct1... the deer there aren't stupid!!!

I've only killed deer there with a bow. Never can get drew for the muzzleloader hunts hardly. And when I do it's always on the last 2 days of the draw hunts. I always try to wait for buck. Plan on sitting in tree next weekend from dawn til dusk or til I shoot a buck. I just know I won't get down til a buck is on the ground. For the past couple weeks I've trekked all over the refuge scouting. Ive seen 5 deer total. Covered bout all there is to cover. Have a feeling I'm goin to be in a tree for a very long time for nothin..

I'd appreciate that kstorch. Btw my hunt is Sunday the 22nd. Like I said I've never been drew for a muzzleloader hunt there except on the last weekend. What I would give to get a day on the first weekend for once.. guess I just have bad luck

Open hunting didn't start until Oct. 20th.... but there are plenty of deer in there.

I forgot about GOV. shut down this year....

Did it ever recover from couple yrs ago? CWD

How many hunters did you run into that were hunting?

I believe there are 50 hunters per day.

Haven't ran into anybody. Haven't heard but one shot either. Usually been seeing one to three trucks parked and that's it. Been scouting again today since 8 this morning. Haven't seen a single deer. Did find a gutpile and a dead turkey. Found a dead coyote here last Friday. Was here 7 hours that day and only seen 2 deer. Better than what I'm seein today..

Not been many people here. Nor has there been any deer

I've been scouting it a lot cuz I just don't wanna go on my hunt blindfolded. Had success on getting descent bucks on both my state park hunts this year and self filmed myself getting I descent 10 point on my normal buck tag. If I can get a descent buck on my muscatatuck hunt now I will have filled my normal buck tag, my early and late season state park buck tags, and my military refuge buck tag all with a descent buck. I can tell this muscatatuck buck is not goin be easy this year..

I've been scouting it a lot cuz I just don't wanna go on my hunt blindfolded. Had success on getting descent bucks on both my state park hunts this year and self filmed myself getting I descent 10 point on my normal buck tag. If I can get a descent buck on my muscatatuck hunt now I will have filled my normal buck tag, my early and late season state park buck tags, and my military refuge buck tag all with a descent buck. I can tell this muscatatuck buck is not goin be easy this year..

I know what your saying. I live very close to Refuge an am in there everyday pretty much Jan-Sept either driving through or running in there. I am off for 2 weeks for Christmas an I use to set in there all day everyday an by the end of the 2 weeks would of seen 150-200 deer. Then EHD hit an that December I set for 10 days 12 hours a day an saw 0. I hardly ever see a deer in there anymore.

Just finish my evening hunt in the refuge. 7 doe and a 120" or so 8pt that I thought was going down but he never presented me with a good shot. Lots of sign and a few scrapes that had been worked sometime today. Winds really swirled this evening.

I was in there again after work yesterday scouting. Seen a couple little does and a coyote. Been seein a lot of tracks just hardly no deer. Talked to a guy that had just got back to his truck and he said he hadn't seen anything. Talked to a co there on Tuesday and she said that between archery and muzzleloader they've only had a total of 49 deer checked in there this year. Not very many for a nearly 8000 acre refuge. I know there's a lot of deer there just think there all Layin low and not movin much in the daytime. Seems like u bout gotta step on them b4 they'll move. They are Prolly camping out mostly in the no hunting zone and restricted area too. I know that b4 the hunts of 2007 there I'd see all kinds of deer in that place. I'd see em by the herds. That disease must have really hurt them. Always see them on the draw hunts for bow in archery during October and November but they discontinued the archery draw hunts in there this year. Now it's open for archery starting Oct 20 til the muzzleloader hunts start. Then starts up again December 23rd. I think it's getting way too much hunting pressure this year

Btw I meant yesterday as in Tuesday morning.. and Tuesday as in Monday.. I work 3rd shift so I always got my days mixed up lol

I shined my headlights on a field in refuge this morning at 4:30 on way to gym an there were 15 in this field.

Was this a field on outside of refuge? I know the gates didn't open yesterday til around 6 30

It was refuge property but not through a gate.

I actually had a great hunt last night and deer were on their feet. Buck I saw was coming down the tree line. All of the doe I saw were in the brush fields and feeding on honeysuckle. I did have a guy walk in on me scouting about 4:30pm. Heard him coming a mile away with the top layer of snow being slightly frozen. He acted like he didn't know where to go as he walked down a lane turned walked back up toward me then turned and left. He never saw me or acted like he did if so.

I live just 200yds from the refuge and we've been seeing a dozen or so every night coming out into corn. Refuge woods butts right up to the field.

Perhaps right behind MidWay supply:)

The first shot doesn't even have to be fired before the deer are pressured. The first sign of human pressence is all it takes. either scouting for a upcoming hunt before season or hunting itself. The worst thing that can be done is leaving human scent in a mature bucks area. Even a mature doe is about as bad or worse then a mature buck on picking up that sign. You figure in all the others that are out scouting and that's probably adds up to a lot of pressure. I'd be laying low also if I was a deer plus you'd never catch me in the woods unless I had to get from point A to B to feed right now. Chances are that would happen after dark.

I run through the refuge every night until it froze over on the roads and my wife and I have seen a lot more deer this year. The refuge is going to get harder to hunt though as their focus is on waterfowl and endangered species of reptiles etc. If it was a cropfield it's growing into CRP or just brush. That brush is getting thick and nasty and some of those fields are pretty darn big. A deer can live in there and never be touched unless it gets kicked up now. I'd say give it another couple years and it'll you'll start seeing some pretty good bucks in there. I actually hope people keep thinking it's not worth the trip because of the EHD. Seems to be the case still for most.

They seem to be somewhat at ease in the heavy brush fields from my hunt last night as they moved. Would love another chance to hunt but looks like I'll have to wait until next year.

Midway? there's no deer over there. I'd focus on the east side

You wouldnt be interested in doing some races would you. I do the mud races any where from 5 to 15 miles with 20 to 30 obstacles.

I've actually looked into the races. I ran track and cross country in college plus my Wife did to. I started doing Triathlons many years ago to break up the years of just running. I'm also in the military (guard)and served in the USMC, those mud races seem to be right on track with what I like to do. Between taxidermy and running this machine shop it's keep my weekends tied down but I may set a goal on one this year. I've run the mini marathon in Indy several times.

Those Mud races could come in handy for my bowhunting skills. Nunchuck skills are out the door though!

Were did you run at. I played basketball in college. Running is not my strong thing. The Rugged Maniac I got 152 out of 6544 people Warrior Dash 52 out of 3600. Tough Mudder took me 2 1/2 hours. Spartan Race I was top 1 %. So I would be trying to keep up with you.

I ran for Vincennes....of all places. Took the first scholarship presented to me. I Remember driving home to eastern KY one day and passed through seymour. I said I'd never live in that messed up town with hwy50 lol. who knew I'd meet a girl from here and move here at that.

My mini times have been pretty good. Finished in top 100 out of 36,000 a couple years in a row. they just had a mud or spartan race in my home town last year. That was in Maysville KY. My brother did that one and I should have as I trained for it through the summer. Work got me again though and couldn't swing it.

The Trail Blazers?? We played them when I was in Jr college at Danville Jr. College. We won the National Championship in 91 an I got inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in IL that same year.
Thing I like about the mud race the obstacles help me as I can usually do well on them do that makes up for my poor running skills.

From Spartan Last April that water was COLD!

looks fun for sure. We ran up at Danville several times. That was 92/93' seems a million years ago though.

What was your wifes name. I grad. from Seymour in 89.

She ended up graduating from North in 92' Mindy(williamson) French

OK I thought she was a Seymour girl.