By TRESDON HAMILTON
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s Note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
So far, this year’s hunting season has been slow for the most part. Depending on where you hunt, you may find different-sized deer. In comparison, deer up in northern Indiana get as big as 200 pounds, but normally deer in Sheridan are smaller and only weigh around 100-150 pounds.
For the first weekend of hunting season, there is a youth weekend. Youth weekend is a time for people of the age 17 and below to get a chance to get a deer before everyone else can. It’s like a head start for the youth. When I went on youth season, there wasn’t much on the first day, and for being in October, it was actually quite cold compared to other years. On the second day of youth season, I shot a small doe around the size of 100 pounds and a yearling. Although it may seem small, the smaller deer are more tender and taste better than bigger deer. Later in the season, I shot a 200-pound doe. I also shot a decent eight-point buck.
Being the first deer shot of the season for our hunting group, we were proud. The group that I hunt with includes me, my dad, and my dad’s friends, Larry Eidson and Jason Stewart.
Starting off the next weekend was slow. Usually we would wake up at 5 a.m. and go to McDonald’s for our breakfast, but due to COVID changing fast food hours, we aren’t able to go and we decided to go to a gas station for our breakfast. This isn’t the worst because we can sleep for another half an hour. Another good part about going to the gas station is that there is good coffee that you can make yourself, so it’s always perfect.
Starting off the next week, we put out Larry’s deer blind for comfortable sitting. Usually we would use tree stands, but because we are spoiled this year, we decided to buy blinds for our private property. Most of the time we drive up north and hunt in Winamac, Ind., which is owned by the state for hunters to have a public place to hunt. During the week we hunt at Thorntown. We also have a blind ourselves and just put it up. It overlooks the whole property for a shot up to 500 yards.
Depending on where you hunt lets you use certain rounds for deer. A few common rounds for state-owned property is a .44, .45 and .357 caliber. For privately-owned ground you can use rounds as big as a .308 and 30-06. Rounds you can use for private ground are usually high-powered rifles, which is why you can only use them on private property. The rounds eligible for state ground must be a pistol bullet and nothing bigger.
In the end, deer hunting is a great way to bond with family and friends. It’s not that hard to get started; you just need a rifle and property. Although it may seem boring, it is actually very fun.