Well it's been quite a first year for me hunting in IL this year. For those of you that haven't read the thread about my first buck earlier this season, I moved to IL last fall after spending the last 20+ years hunting whitetails all over the Northeast part of the country. This is my first year hunting in the Midwest and I've gotta say now I'm hooked. I've had limited time to hunt this year with only 7 sits so far but I'm happy to say at this point I'm tagged out now with my second buck, a deer I'm calling Girth McGee. I'd love to say that I had a ton of history with this deer or that I had him patterned, but to be completely honest I really didn't. One of the guys that I share the lease with got a single picture of him mid-summer, and then no one saw him at all until just last weekend when I got another series of pics with him hitting one of my mock scrapes. I ultimately ended up killing him within 20 yards of that scrape and the most recent cam pics below. The stand was setup in a funnel pinch point that was right next to one of those bedding areas that was so blatantly obvious and close to the road that it just seemed like an overlooked spot that others wouldn't consider setting up on. I had gotten several good deer on camera in the area and had a great encounter earlier in the season in this stand so I decided to give it another sit today. Today after helping a friend look for a wounded deer in the morning, I got in the tree at around 11:30am with intentions of sitting until dark. It was a very slow and windy sit with only a lone doe sighted at around 3pm. At about 3:30 a second doe came trotting through obviously being harassed by something with her head down and tail cocked. I picked up the binoculars to glass the hill that funneled into my stand to see if I could spot what was chasing her. Sure enough, he was right behind her. He was coming straight towards me and all I could see was mass and a decent spread so I decided if I could get him stopped in a lane, I was going to try and take him. Luckily the doe turned and came through my main lanes broadside at about 35 yards and he came right behind her grunting the entire way. A quick series of mouth grunts from me got him stopped in my main lane at about 36ish yards, I split my 30 and 40 pins, and I sent one his way. The arrow flew true and he ran about 40 yards and tipped over within sight leaving me with a pretty bad case of the shakes and a season full of memories that I'll never forget. Another huge thanks to Todd and Justin for giving me a chance to experience some of IL's finest hunting on this lease. I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate being a part of this, it's truly been the season of a lifetime with me tagging my #1 and #2 personal best bucks!
Awesome dude. Super happy for you!! Yet another amazing example of a guy moving to a big buck state and magically becoming a better hunter and tagging his TWO biggest bucks ever in year one. I don't even know why guys try to argue about location anymore. Again bud.......way to get the job done!!!
Congrats great first season ! I know the feeling, I been hunting in the Midwest for the last 10 years...NY was and is never the same for me. I spent less time hunting NY this season then ever...and not sad to say I don't miss it.
