How has the season been for everybody in Northern Illinois? How have the deer been moving for everyone? Lots of corn surrounding the farms I hunt so the deer movement hasn't been great around me yet.
I'm in Elgin and jo Daviess county Illinois and it's been terribly slow. Only does and one button buck. It was 80 degrees today Sent from a piece of paper, tied to a rock.
Very slow for the most part. Trail cameras are telling me what little buck movement there is has been at night. I can't remember the last time I had a picture of a 3+ year old buck during daylight. Probably the first day or two of October. Hopefully once we get past this full moon and temps cool off a bit the action will start picking up.
I've started seeing new 3 y/o bucks on cam at night in the past week. My guess is we will need a significant cold front (hard frost) and 2-3 days with highs in the 40's to really get them moving. Nothing on the 10 day forecast for this quite yet.......
Yep. This has been one of the warmest Octobers that I can remember. Last year I killed my first buck on 10/18 and the low was 29 that morning. Last night's low was about 70 degrees.
I'm in Carroll County and I haven't seen a mature buck on stand yet this year. Getting a few pictures shortly after dusk but mostly 2 or 3 AM. I am with Justin on this one, full moon and warm temps is making things less than Ideal.
I hunt right in the border and kinda got screwed this year with the corn. The bordering farm cut his beans way early. The farm 2 parcels over is still full of standing corn. Haven't had a buck in camera yet.
On my little sliver of land I've seen some rubs, but not a lot of other deer sign - no droppings - but I did put a great shot on a coyote last week. Too many coyotes near my spot in Lake county.
Im in Ogle county and I have seen one 3 year old buck while in the stand this year. I've seen only a handful of does and fawns. Saw a couple of nice 1.5 yr old bucks 15 yards away that showed some great potential. Im hoping this weekend will change the pattern of the bucks. Wishful thinking. Theres still a lot of corn around my farms that I hunt.
At this rate the entire month will be dubbed the October lull for the entire state. Did hear, haven't read anything on it, that the youth shotgun season had a record harvest. Was definitely a good weekend for them weather wise
I know when I was in the stand a kid on the property next to me shot a trophy doe that would live up to the Todd Graf standard trophy doe criteria. Heard of a lot of shooting that weekend as well around me.
Killed a doe Saturday evening. Only the 4th deer I've seen from stand. Not one single buck seen while out hunting and no bucks over 2.5 yrs old on cam. Slowest Oct I've ever had or seen...
In previous years i would have had around 8-10 mature bucks on camera by now. This year I have one. I'm hoping they are in all the standing corn.
I have been tickling them. I've usually seen bucks sparring by now. I'm not aggressive, as its kind of communication. So far I've only seen one buck on hoof... A button
I'm not sure where you're at in Northern IL but I'm hunting in both Lake and McHenry Counties. About 50% of my sits I don't see any deer. So don't feel like you're the only one.
i'm hunting in Ogle, close to Lowden Miller. I've only been out once On the 2nd & didn't see anything which is very rare for this farm. I'm going out in the morning hopefully these cooler temps will have them moving.