My name is Stace and I have been bow hunting for 37 yearsand am now 52. I have a new lease thisyear, so I will be learning on the job how the deer move. There are some great bottlenecks on thelease. I will start hunting on these locations first. I live in Illinois so our hunting season starts nextweekend. I am ready, stands up, foodplots out and up. Trail cameras up, bow dialed in, everything scent free. This lease an outfitter had for 6 years before we got thelease. The outfitter took a 160 classbuck off this lease all 6 years. Ishould have a good opportunity to kill a BB. Good lucky to you all, and shoot straight!!
Welcome Bronson and Rut Junkie! Looking forward to sharing the season with you guys. Nice to see we have more guys in a "target rich" area:D Andy, the good news is they're only going to get bigger from here on out:D
Well Boys We get to start hunting on Sat. here in Illinois. I will be at the Bone Yarn on Fri. and Sat. we will be trying to wack and stack doe's. I can not wait to see what is on the trail cameras.
Good luck everyone. I'll be up a tree by 6am in the morning, knock on wood. Winds will hopefully be light from the North and the potential is there for a frost and maybe even some freeze warnings going out for the northwstern 1/3 of IL heading into Sunday morning. Couldn't ask for a better set up heading into the opener. I'm going to do my best to get some points on the board in the morning, unfortunately I probably won't see anything worth more than 50 until we get into the prerut/rut. It's one of those situations where it is what it is, but I see good bucks cruising every year so my hopes arent dashed by any means.
Opening morning didn't go as well as hoped. Moved to the other side of town this past Spring and didn't compensate for the added travel time so got into stand with about 20 minutes until legal time. Started off with these two fawns at 6:46am. These fawns were the most nervous fawns I have ever seen. I'm not sure if lack of wind had my scent pooling or if a coyote was near, but they would start to feed then hightail it into the cover about 15-20yds. They'd blow 3-5 times and work there way back out. They did that 3 times over about 30 minutes, and then this small spike came in and they all left together. After that it slowed down for a bit. Probably from the commotion stirred up by those fawns. About 8:20 this browless 6pt came out and fed for awhile. Laid the bow down and started filming with my phone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N40ruNgQ6iM&feature=youtube_gdata_player He fed off and I thought he was gone. 20 minutes after he left I caught movement down by a burr oak, him and a small spike were feeding on the acorns. Didn't think burr oak acorns were high on the list of delicacy, but they fed until about 9:30 before finally heading off. I climbed down at 10 and started clearing some small branches when another spike came out about 50yds away. We had a stare off and he finally ducked back in the woods and I was able to head to another stand and clear some lanes. Had open shots at a few of them, but was hoping for a little more meat than the fawns were holding. If I didn't have meat from last year still, I'd have taken one of them. I'll be back out in the morning, going to try the other stand.
Nothing this AM which is really odd considering the conditions seemed perfect. Not hunting this evening so I won't be out until Monday evening. Good luck to those of you out.
Endured the rain tonight for my first watch. Figured why not, cant shoot any bucks on my couch! Got out at 3:15ish and sat untill a little after 6. Saw five turkeys which was a surprise, two does with a fawn, and the back end of a decent sized deer. With my luck it was probally the buck of my dreams. Felt great to finally get out though!
Here are two pics of my second doe of the year. I am doing this from my phone so I don't know how it will turn out. Thanks
Here is the only pic I have of my first doe of the year. It was raining and I was in a hurry so I only have one and I'm not in the pic so, they may not count it.
I took a 7 point Sat. morning. I still need to measure and post the pictures. I took the buck at about 8:30am after some does were moving around me. Good to have some meat in the freezer. I'll find out the score shortly, won't be huge, but a good start.
Congrats to both of you! I failed to set a backup alarm, woke up at 3:30 and shut alarm off. Blinked and looked again and it was 4:15. Have a pretty good heat spell coming in for the next week or so, busy as heck at work so probably won't make it out for a few weeks. I do have a good stint of time off starting 11/9 thru 11/14. Full moon(rutting moon) is the 10th so hoping for some good activity then. Shotgun season is the following weekend so hopefully I can get something down before picking up the lead slinger.
Congrats, guys! Glad to see we're on board! I'll be out all this weekend starting Friday evening. Hope to at least put a doe down (passed on one Monday evening).
Heat is slated to turn down a bit Wednesday, I'll get out for sure on Friday. Saturday I have my grandma's 90th B'day to go to but may get out in he am. Sunday will be dependent on earlier results. If I get a shot at anything other than a young buck I'll be taking it. Gave a coworker a pack of last years backstraps and realized all my meat is pretty much burger. Hopefully the predictions of a cold and snowy winter hold true, I'm ready for the cold.
I might get out Thurs if it's not raining! Can't hunton the weekend since I'll be busy providing dental treatment to the fine men and women if the IL National Guard in Mount Vernon IL. Good luck to all you guys able to hunt this weekend!
Planning on hunting Fri, Sat, Sun. had a close one the other night with a nice buck but he caught my scent when the wind changed.
Good luck fellas, no updates here. I've been out quite a bit but mostly just bears and does. I've seen little to no signs of bucks so far. Quite a slow start but things should be picking up soon.
I have to work OT this weekend so won't be making it out. But starting next weekend I'll be out a lot more. Took Halloween weekend and the following off and then have my vacation from Nov 9-14th. Halloween weekend is starting to look like it will be a cold one, could see snow in parts of the Midwest.
Leaving in the morning for my annual W.KY. trip. Will be there til Saturday. Hoping to add at least 100 more points to our score.
