Illinois Bow Hunt Report - 10-12-13

I just got back from 10 days of non-stop Bow hunting on our lease in Illinois. I say HUNTING because that's about all it amounted to for me.....all hunting and precious little killing! We still had a good time but the deer sightings for me were... at an all time low. In 10 days of hunting I saw a total of 17 deer from a stand, pitiful! I did manage to stab a small 9pt but he managed to escape recovery....not a speck of blood to be found. That was on the next to the last morning and that afternoon I took a nice doe that was over 200lb. Of course, par for this hunt, she ran all the way down the side of the draw to the very bottom and piled up in a rock creek. At least I had water to wash my hand when I finished getting her quartered.

 

We arrived on Nov. 1st just after a 2 day rain event. Deer sign was really weak. We did find a couple fresh pawed scrapes and several fresh 3" rubs around the edge of a corn field. There was very little track sign and historical trails seemed to have almost no use.

We quickly realized we had several more problems to deal with. First, It was a wet spring and the crops were planted late. Our farmer had harvested all the soy beans but all the corn was still standing! big problem! The other issue was that the area had not had a freeze to that point, all the leaves were still on the trees and the green browse had not been killed back yet. Everything was green! There was even some acorns left. I believe the over abundance of food was one of the major factors for the lack of deer sightings.

The scraping activity appeared to be just getting underway as there were almost none to be found. To
give you an example, at that time last year our north CRP had no less than 39 scrapes around its perimeter, this year, ONE! Also, there were very few rubs around. We have a pine tree stand that is usually rubbed beyond belief with 4-10" diameter rubs.....this year TWO!

Over the next few days more and more scrapes began to appear and trail cameras set up on active scrapes captured some nice bucks.

By Nov. 8th all of the big buck disappeared and almost all the yearlings we saw were without does. A sure sign that active breeding was underway. We saw a decent number of small racked bucks out looking for does until the end of the hunt but no shooters.

Though the hunting was some of the toughest I have ever seen especially on this farm, it was not all bad......the trees were still in full color change mode when we arrived and is a sight to see. The weather was overall mild and comfortable with only two days dipping into the upper 20's. Also, we caught several really good bucks on trail camera including one main frame 10 that will gross somewhere between 160 and 170"!!!!

My hunting partner this trip, Rick Edwards earned himself several more demerits and I have discovered he is on no help in the kitchen.
demerit #1 = walking on the carpet with his rubber boots!
demerit #2 = Shooting another one of my bucks in the butt!
He did shoot a beautiful 10pt that should gross about 140"

 

We each shot (2) deer and passed a few others but it was no doubt some of the slowest hunting I have ever seen. I am hoping the lack of deer movement is a result of all of the food that was available. The other possible reason could be Blue Tongue! I found one dead doe and there has been reported cases in this county for two years running. We have 8 trail cameras running as we speak and other hunters that will be there all next week. I'll have a better handle on what is going on when we get back up there for the second firearm hunt.

I did find a huge hornet's nest that I brought home with us. On the ride home as we got further south and the temp's started to warm the hornets started to wake up. We had to fight a few that escaped into the cab with us. My huntin' partner Rick was not to excited about that.

My wife has referred to my hunting trips as a vacation.....Little does she know just how much work this is! Once were out of the stand in the morning it is non stop until it's time to get back in the tree. We worked on stands almost every day. We had to put new ladder stands together, haul them up to a quarter mile and get them up in a tree. We moved several old stands and worked on many others. There was deer to clean, capping to be done and a ton of other issues to handle.

 

Some how, Ricky always to managed to find a place to catch a few z's

Though the hunting was poor I know there are some big deer still around so I am still looking forward to getting back up there for the second shotgun season.
 

Here's some additional photo's from the trip.......

 Sun up at the new barn stand.

 

This young 8pt trailed tried to trail up the dead doe Rick had been dragging and did not want to leave! He came as close as 10yds, pretty incredible.

Here is are some of the trail camera photo's: