Bullseye,

Deer hunting here in IN is great. There are many oppurtunities on public hunting areas, but with that comes large numbers of hunters in many places. The key is to get in with a landowner to hunt public property which annually produce trophy whitetails.Leasing property to hunt isbeginning to grow and grow each year. Your problem will be that you will have to travel some distance to findprivate property to hunt due to the fact that it will be leased or already hunted being so close to Indy.

As far as muzzleloaders go the only restriction is that it has to be at least a .45 ca, (I think) scopes, sabots, pelletized powder are all legal.We also have a muzzleloader only season after the rut. All tags are over the counter for every season. There are certain state parks and millitary properties that have special draws and only allow a certain number of hunters on each day. You can find all that info in our DNR hunting regulation booklet published annually.

Archery season is the way to go. With an archery tag you can realistically hunt the entire season on that tag alone.Deer are obviously more predominant in the country/rural areas, but I have seen some dandies in what we call urban zones which are very close to populated areas. If you talk to enough people and knock on enough doors there are still plenty oflandowners that will allow you to hunt for free. Good luck and be sure tolet everyone know you are a Boilermaker fan and not a fan of that "other"team down south.