My son and I are first time hunters this year. We have tried Camp Atterbury 3 times in the past few weeks with no luck. Didn't even see any deer. We have been hunting area 13 of Atterbury. Maybe we just went out too early in the season. Anybody have suggestions as where
to hunt Atterbury? Any reports on how the weekend was at Atterbury? We plan on going out again Wednesday and Thursday, hopefully we will see something.

Also we took a drive around the Cordry/Sweetwater area yesterday. While driving we saw 2 buck and about 10 doe. Is there any public hunting land in the Cordry/Sweetwater area?

Any pointers, tips, suggestions etc... would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with Atterbury... all the best ground was taking back by the military...

As far as public ground you are going to have to drive to find some decent public hunting... If you are up to the drive I would suggest Brookville Reservoir...

Best advice I gould give you is to be persistent, put as much time in the woods as possible, learn from your observations, and don't buy in to all the hype and gadgets. Keep it simple.

A deers best defense is its nose, so play the wind smart, then just sit tight and observe. My observation is that most beginning hunters lack patience and move around way too much, doing themselves more harm than good.

Atterbury will be a tough place to learn due to hunting pressure at times, but there are lots of deer there.

Your hunting in my neck of the woods. There is no public hunting in Cordry/Sweetwater, but there is a ton of deer in there. I grew up in there and my parents still live down there. As far as Atterbury goes. There are still some good deer running around in there, but they get more pressure then before since they took back a big chunk of that land for the military.

I might be able to help....

PM sent....

I found a giant buck dead in atterbury FWA state side, 17 pointer.

they are there but not an easy place to hunt

I'd hunt Morgan-Monroe State Forest instead of Atterbury. It's about the same distance and bigger with less pressure, especially during the week. Good luck, stay downwind

All I can tell you is that you need to listen to all of these guys on here! They have great advice!

Hunt the wind and get in the woods as much as possible right now. The bucks are on their feet.

Originally Posted by traditionalarcher17:
+1 w/ agreed

Sadly I have not been able to hunt this week due to school sports, school in general, and outside of school activities. WILL definitely hit the woods this weekend with the diamond by bowtech.

Here are some tips I can give you:

-Hunt down wind from the direction deer are most likely to come from.
-Using a grunt call and rattling can be magical at this particular phase going on right now.
-Wear no-scent spray or any other kind of that stuff.
-Hunt some of your areas with most activity (rub line and/or scrape line) - bucks check those daily.
-set trail cameras up over scrapes or places near there or near your treestand.
-be silent unless YOU ARE using a call.
-Get into the woods earlier now because of time change.
-Enjoy the time you get to hunt and be safe (wear a safety harness! Gorilla brand is really nice in my opinion!

Agree w morgan monroe sf suggestion. Depending on where you are starting, maybe owen putnam sf could be a possibility. I think there's some Hoosier nf south of nashville but you're getting into some drive time. It's on the wrong end of the forest from me so don't know much about it. Public ground can be good but you'll eliminate much of it and concentrate on a few honey holes you discover. Cyberscouting w Google maps or other satelite imagery is a great way to pick some prospective areas along with a good state/federal forest land maps. Then scout in person and see what you think. Good luck and welcome to the group!