Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
I am not a deer hunter.
I’m really not a hunter of anything, unless you count hunting for a good pizza or wings joint—which I admit is not the same thing but it’s the best I can do.
However, I am surrounded in my life with people who do hunt, and I, quite happily, live vicariously through their experiences.
I bring this up because the firearms portion of the 2026 hunting season begins Saturday morning.
To be clear, “hunting season” has been going on since October 1 for people who are handy with a bow and arrow.
And while the number of hunters who take to the woods with bow in hand is sizable, the 16 days of the firearms season are the most popular among hunters.
The woods of all 92 counties in our state will be saturated with men and women in camouflage and orange to sit inside a ground blind or in a tree stand waiting for the right deer to wander into view.
But the hunt started way before Saturday morning just before sunrise.
Again, I am relating this process to you because I am aware of it from what I know from the stories others tell.
Hunters start with the securing their license for the fall. A standard deer firearms license covers antlered deer only. To harvest antlerless deer (does) during the firearms season, you must use a multi-season antlerless license or a deer license bundle, which covers one antlered and two antlerless deer.
The single-method firearms license for an Indiana resident costs $39. The bundle for a Hoosier resident is $91.
Also required in Indiana is a hunter’s education course certificate.
Anyone born after December 31, 1986, has to take a class that teaches hunters how to safely handle their equipment, how to move around in the woods, the basics of hunting and shooting, hunting ethics and responsibility, and other things like how to get in and out of your tree stand and how to cross a fence.
Those classes are available online or in a classroom setting.
Obviously, a hunter has to have a gun, but not just any old gun will do.
To explain all of that would take three weeks of columns, so you’ll have to just trust me.
The hunter also has to have the right clothing and needs to have some sort of smelly stuff to keep the deer from smelling their natural scent.
Also, in late summer the hunter will be looking for a place to hunt.
Unlike a fisherman who puts their boat into any lake they choose and park it wherever they feel, hunters must request permission from landowners to hunt on their property. To not do that would be trespassing.
That can get complicated because sometimes the person who owns the land has leased it out to someone else to farm. The hunter has to find that out and make sure hunting there is cool with everyone involved.
Before they set out for the first time, they will make sure their gun is cleaned up and pointed at what they are aiming at, and take it somewhere and safely practice with it.
Also, at some point, they might put up some sort of trail camera to see what is roaming through their hunting zone.
Then opening day comes.
Again, bow and arrow hunters have been in the woods and doing work since the first of October.
Saturday morning, when it still dark, men and women will enter the woods and get set up for the day. Legal hours for hunting in Indiana are 30 minutes before official sunrise and 30 minutes after official sunset.
When a deer strolls into the right spot at the right time (or the wrong spot at the wrong time if you’re the deer), the hunter shoots his gun.
If the shot is on target, the deer will take off running as far as they can. The hunter will watch from their spot to see the direction they ran in for as long as they can. Then they will safely crawl down from their stand or exit their blind and go to the point at which the bullet hit the deer. They are looking for blood, and they will hope for a trail of blood to follow with their reward at the other end of the trail.
They are hoping that their deer is still on the land they have permission to hunt on, because they are technically not allowed to enter another property. That would also be trespassing. They can use a drone to find the animal, but they need permission from the landowner where the deer ends up in order to go get it.
Celebratory pictures will no doubt follow.
Then, the procedure known as “field dressing” the deer begins. This is the process of gutting the deer. I don’t think I need to say more.
Then the hunter puts a tag on the deer that comes with their license within 48 hours of finding it.
They can process the deer themselves or take to a processional butcher to turn it into summer sausage, deer burgers, deer steaks or whatever they choose.
If the head and antlers are good, the hunter will take it to a taxidermist to do that.
I am not a hunter, but I love the process and I am excited to see the pictures and hear the stories that go with them.
Be safe, be smart and happy hunting everyone!
