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Another year of Illinois adventures are in the books.... Gotta say this years adventure started back in March when Chad accompanied me out to Illinois to shed hunt... We have a farm that is broken into 2 pieces, one of which we never use... So while walking it in search of sheds, Chad showed an interest in possibly hunting it... So why not, maybe we can make a dream come true for him... Well we all know the outcome of his adventure with him harvesting a great buck... This started the ball rolling and I was extremely happy for him that our plan came together... What dreams and friendships are made of ...
First week of Nov. found me driving down to Tod's house in Pa. to start our journey... Our good friend Doug would be leaving Western Pa. several hours later and plans were to meet up with him somewhere near Columbus... So we met up and continued on with high hopes of harvesting a big whitetail... We arrived at our destination late Tues afternoon and first stop was a Casey's for some pizza... We then faced our first disappointment as the owner of Casey's told us they were out of pizza dough due to the fact that some Sasquatch wiped them out of pizza earlier in the week...
We were eager to check our cams we had put out earlier in Aug. but decided to stay out of the woods, and instead just pull the cards the next morning when we went in to hunt... Tod pulled his on the way in to his stand as he walks right past it and he usually gives the card a quick going over as hes sitting in the stand waiting for the sun to come up... At any rate he texts me that his camera had like 5000 pics on it... And what pics he did look at contained a lot of bucks, so his anticipation just went through the roof... Shortly after daylight he had a gorgeous buck at 5 yds that was pushing 145-150 inches... He never reached for the bow as we decided to only shoot something of booner caliber until we reviewed the cameras... Well you guessed it.... As it turned out to be a mistake hes still kicking himself for... Turns out that buck was the biggest he had on camera... And after that day he disappeared, so we think he got locked down with a doe... That day proved uneventful for all of us... Thurs colder weather moved in with predictions of snow late in the day... Another uneventful day... Friday morning we woke up to several inches of snow and the trees were covered... Another slow day with an occasional snow shower moving through... Around 4 Pm we were hit with a blizzard with white out conditions, I decided to call it quits and get down and head back to the truck to dry off and warm up... Enough is enough... So I get back to the truck and get a call from Doug... Right off the bat I knew he got it done by the emotions in his voice... He said that just after the blizzard started he saw this buck comming his way and about fell out of the tree in awe... Now since Doug has had a few deer with a good amount of ground shrinkage I'm not knowing what to think... At any rate hes now laying at Dougs feet... So we tell him to gut it and we'll be there in about an hour to help him get it out... Now the whole time leading up this years hunt we our preaching to Doug that he better shoot a deer better than 140 this year... So we finally arrive on the scene to see a beast laying next to his truck... Turns out he jumped right past 140 and ended up shooting a buck that taped out at 158.... Now Doug is the nicest guy you could ever hunt with... We were so happy for him.... Cold frigid temps in the lower teens (one morning it was 13) moved in along with snow for the rest of archery season and Tod and I ate our archery tags...
Friday started gun season and first light found Tod and I perched in our stands hoping that maybe,just maybe a big buck moved in... Shortly after 7 AM. I heard Tods inline bark and he had a wide (24 in. outside spread) 9 point on the ground that he has passed the last 3 years... He called me and said to come over and sit in his stand as the area was all tracked up... So over I went and settled in till dark and saw a few small bucks and numerous does... Next morning I went back to my original stand and saw about 15 deer till 10AM at which time the wind picked up, so I decided to go sit on the ground near Tods stand... Around 4 PM I saw a doe headed my way in the thick stuff, right behind her I saw antler tips moving and could see a big bodied deer through the saplings. She now is standing about 5 yds from me and is about to bust me, so I decided I'm going to take him... Now he was standing maybe 20 yds away with his shoulder exposed... In one motion I raised The CVA Acurra MR while cocking it and settled the crosshairs on him and touched the trigger... He spun around as if in-hit and took off... No way I missed at that distance.... So I waited awhile and went over to where he was standing and no hair or blood.... After a short search I found a good blood trail and found him in a 20 ft deep ditch... Tod came down to help me and it took everything we had to get him up out of that ditch... He was slightly over 200 lbs dressed but was only a mature 8 pointer... Oh well he'll make a lot of Slim Jims.... Doug ended up shooting a 9 point on Sun. So we ended up with 4 buck's.... Not our best year, but we sure made the best of the weather conditions and as always had a great time and created many fantastic memories....
Below our some pic's... First is Dougs deer, followed by Tod's deer then my 8 pointer is last....
First week of Nov. found me driving down to Tod's house in Pa. to start our journey... Our good friend Doug would be leaving Western Pa. several hours later and plans were to meet up with him somewhere near Columbus... So we met up and continued on with high hopes of harvesting a big whitetail... We arrived at our destination late Tues afternoon and first stop was a Casey's for some pizza... We then faced our first disappointment as the owner of Casey's told us they were out of pizza dough due to the fact that some Sasquatch wiped them out of pizza earlier in the week...
We were eager to check our cams we had put out earlier in Aug. but decided to stay out of the woods, and instead just pull the cards the next morning when we went in to hunt... Tod pulled his on the way in to his stand as he walks right past it and he usually gives the card a quick going over as hes sitting in the stand waiting for the sun to come up... At any rate he texts me that his camera had like 5000 pics on it... And what pics he did look at contained a lot of bucks, so his anticipation just went through the roof... Shortly after daylight he had a gorgeous buck at 5 yds that was pushing 145-150 inches... He never reached for the bow as we decided to only shoot something of booner caliber until we reviewed the cameras... Well you guessed it.... As it turned out to be a mistake hes still kicking himself for... Turns out that buck was the biggest he had on camera... And after that day he disappeared, so we think he got locked down with a doe... That day proved uneventful for all of us... Thurs colder weather moved in with predictions of snow late in the day... Another uneventful day... Friday morning we woke up to several inches of snow and the trees were covered... Another slow day with an occasional snow shower moving through... Around 4 Pm we were hit with a blizzard with white out conditions, I decided to call it quits and get down and head back to the truck to dry off and warm up... Enough is enough... So I get back to the truck and get a call from Doug... Right off the bat I knew he got it done by the emotions in his voice... He said that just after the blizzard started he saw this buck comming his way and about fell out of the tree in awe... Now since Doug has had a few deer with a good amount of ground shrinkage I'm not knowing what to think... At any rate hes now laying at Dougs feet... So we tell him to gut it and we'll be there in about an hour to help him get it out... Now the whole time leading up this years hunt we our preaching to Doug that he better shoot a deer better than 140 this year... So we finally arrive on the scene to see a beast laying next to his truck... Turns out he jumped right past 140 and ended up shooting a buck that taped out at 158.... Now Doug is the nicest guy you could ever hunt with... We were so happy for him.... Cold frigid temps in the lower teens (one morning it was 13) moved in along with snow for the rest of archery season and Tod and I ate our archery tags...
Friday started gun season and first light found Tod and I perched in our stands hoping that maybe,just maybe a big buck moved in... Shortly after 7 AM. I heard Tods inline bark and he had a wide (24 in. outside spread) 9 point on the ground that he has passed the last 3 years... He called me and said to come over and sit in his stand as the area was all tracked up... So over I went and settled in till dark and saw a few small bucks and numerous does... Next morning I went back to my original stand and saw about 15 deer till 10AM at which time the wind picked up, so I decided to go sit on the ground near Tods stand... Around 4 PM I saw a doe headed my way in the thick stuff, right behind her I saw antler tips moving and could see a big bodied deer through the saplings. She now is standing about 5 yds from me and is about to bust me, so I decided I'm going to take him... Now he was standing maybe 20 yds away with his shoulder exposed... In one motion I raised The CVA Acurra MR while cocking it and settled the crosshairs on him and touched the trigger... He spun around as if in-hit and took off... No way I missed at that distance.... So I waited awhile and went over to where he was standing and no hair or blood.... After a short search I found a good blood trail and found him in a 20 ft deep ditch... Tod came down to help me and it took everything we had to get him up out of that ditch... He was slightly over 200 lbs dressed but was only a mature 8 pointer... Oh well he'll make a lot of Slim Jims.... Doug ended up shooting a 9 point on Sun. So we ended up with 4 buck's.... Not our best year, but we sure made the best of the weather conditions and as always had a great time and created many fantastic memories....
Below our some pic's... First is Dougs deer, followed by Tod's deer then my 8 pointer is last....
