McCormick is enthusiastic about the dove youth hunt that will take place at Kankakee in 2007. “We’re planning a youth hunt primarily for kids who haven’t hunted before. We’ll have five spots with two kids per spot,” McCormick said.

He added that kids would need an adult mentor. Forms can be picked up at the property office, or you can request a form from the FWA’s personnel and they will mail it to you.

To help out the youth hunting, McCormick said someone has donated several boxes of 20-gauge shells for dove hunting. This is an extremely nice donation, and it will definitely help new hunters experience the fast-paced action, and the thrill of dove wing-shooting.

Remember that the early days of September can be extremely hot; therefore, hunters are encouraged to keep themselves and their four-legged hunting partners well hydrated.

For more information on dove hunting at Kankakee FWA, call (574) 896-3522.

OCTOBER
Deer At Jasper-Pulaski
Jasper-Pulaski FWA contains 8,062 acres and is located in Jasper and Pulaski counties. The agricultural fields that are close to Jasper Pulaski, along with the large wooded areas, and the lakes and swampy areas, are ideally suited to attract deer.

When you couple these habitat traits with the early archery season, when the deer at less wary, you have all the ingredients to bag a deer and put some venison on the table.

“This past year’s harvest,” said Jasper-Pulaski FWA property manager Jim Bergens “was higher than normal.” A total of 53 deer were harvested during the early archery season. Bergens said another 79 deer were taken during the firearms portion of the season, and an additional 44 were harvested in the late season (i.e., muzzleloader and later archery season). From these figures, it’s easy to tell that Jasper-Pulaski is posting good deer harvest numbers.

When asked where the hotspots are for deer, Bergens said, “They vary from year to year, but all of them have been hotspots.” When you look at a map of this FWA, it’s easy to see that the property does have plenty of potential hotspots for deer.

For example, on the north end of the property areas 4, 5 and 11, all have a terrain feature known as an inside corner. An inside corner is where a crop field and a wooded area come together and form a corner -- like the inside corner of a box. If you take a look at the Jasper-Pulaski FWA map online at www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/stuff, you’ll see exactly what I mean. Deer will naturally use inside corners as part of their travel routes.

Bergens said that areas 5, 15 and 11 are popular for deer hunting. He said that areas 2, 8, 9 and 10 on the south end of the property are also good for deer hunting.

One of the nice features about deer hunting on fish and wildlife areas like Jasper-Pulaski is that you can set up a tree stand before the season begins.

“Starting on Sept. 1, persons can put up tree stands,” Bergens said. “We usually see several of them out there on the first day you can put them up.”

However, Bergens did caution readers that once you leave a stand, you do run the risk of someone stealing it. To help alleviate this type of problem, Bergens recommends hunters use portable climbing tree stands, which can be packed in and out on the day of a hunt. This is a good recommendation, because there are several brands of portable climbing tree stands available that work well.

There is a state deer check-in station at Jasper-Pulaski. Bergens said that although hunters can check their deer in at other check-in stations, he hopes they’ll do it at Jasper Pulaski. “We like to see them,” he said.

For more information on Jasper Pulaski FWA, call (219) 843-4841.