Illinois 2011 Bow Hunting Report #1

.
Illinois Bow Report 2011 - #1


Friday, Nov. 5,11

We took Gerry’s chariot to Illinois today. We overnight'd at his farm in South Illinois, just across the Kentucky line. We got up early and finished the last 5 hours of the trip and got in about 8:30 Saturday morning.

Saturday, Nov. 6, 11

Gerry (GG) and I arrived at the farm this morning. The temperature was in the 30’s and the high was 58. The wind was South 12-15mph with gusts to 21 and partly sunny.

Gerry had never hunted with us on this farm before so I needed to show him some of the stands he’d be hunting. We hiked in to the cow’s head stand and found a pile of fresh pawed scrapes and even a few acorns on the ground. We pushed up the hill to the grassy lane and jumped a doe and one hell of a buck! This thing was world class. I only got a fleeting glimpse as he bounded across the open lane but I saw enough to know he was a real monster. We also jumped (3) deer above the well stand and Gerry saw a buck on the top field.

That afternoon GG hunted the mud hole stand and saw (8) deer, (2) bucks and (6) does. One was a real nice 9pt with a sticker off his left G2 that came into 18yds but caught a whiff of Gerry, turned and headed up the hill without offering a good shot. Gerry thought he’d score in the 140’s

I hunted the Kill Zone stand which over looks a big bean field, a new cut over bottom and a CRP field. It’s a great observatory stand as I can see a total of over 1,500 yds of a variety of cover and crops. I saw a total of (13) deer, (3) were bucks and two were possible low end shooters. The largest was an 8pt that came off the neighbors hill to the east and moved down the old township road. The other was in the field with a doe near the green tree but it was to dark to ID him.

Big Illinois Buck Rub on Large Cedar!

Gerry and I saw two good bucks with a couple does in Ashwood’s field at dark. One was a definite shooter.
It was a pretty good first day. The bucks are still in the scraping phase,  everyone you see is fresh pawed.

Here's a few pictures from today:

The creek at Steve's Stand!

Accessing the a new stand from the creek!

I kind of expected this but it was still a little shock to see it. The farm was logged while we were gone

and I knew the cotton woods on this creek were going to get wiped out but it was still hard

to look at it after hunting the heavily wooded creek for the past 10 years. The only tree left

standing was the one with my stand! Talk about sticking out like a soar thumb!

Nice hardwood rub!

I started deploying trail cameras today so well see what kind of intel we can gather with them.

My gear for 2011:

This year I'm again hunting with a Mathews Switchback XT at 62 1/2#
Vapor Trail bow string
Easton Camo Hunter shafts, 2213, 4" AAE vanes
Muzzy 4 blade, 100gr broadheads
Trophy Taker rest
Limb Saver vibration dampers
Nikon Monarch 10x36 Binoculars, Crooked Horn Outfitters Bino System
Bushnell Range finder

API Bowhunter treestand (Only when I have to)

I have high hopes for the up coming next week. It's been two years since I've taken A big buck on the lease and I'm getting an itchy trigger finger, Illinois bucks beware!

More to come.

Larry