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Illinois 2017 Recap.......

Fletch

Senior Member
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Well once again I made the trip out to Illinois in search of that special buck.. This year was a little different as we had a new guy in camp and he lives near me so he drove. It was a nice change of pace to get picked up in my driveway for a change. Other years I've had to drive several hours to my best friends house in Pa. then continue on from there. So it was a plus to have company right from the start...

This year was a little different in that we went out to hang stands in Aug. So this year upon arrival we only had one stand to hang, mine... I also didn't like Nates (new guy) sticks he brought out in Aug. and insisted he get better ones. So we had to swap out his sticks. We arrived around 2 AM after driving straight through for 18 hours. After a few hours sleep we ran up to the farm Nate would hunt and swapped out his sticks. Then we ran down to the farm Tod and I hunt and hung my stand. I was some what disappointed in the fact that the community scrape that was being hit hard for the last two years wasn't even opened. Later when viewing my trail cam I hung in Aug. I really got depressed. Not a single shooter buck on cam. Add in the fact that the area I hunt which is a mix of crp and small trees, grew up into a jungle with a lot of leaves remaining, thus cutting down visibility. TOO late now to worry about finding another tree, lets see what happens. That morning Tod and Doug were on the road early and arrived at around 8 PM and Doug ran out back to check his cam he hung in Aug. (he hunts the main farm where we stay) . He was happy to see several nice bucks on his cam, one was a dandy which he immediately set his sights on. It had long brow tines and matching split G2's.. GORGEOUS BUCK... Things were looking good for him as this buck showed up several different days and and various times... He was excited...

The next morning had us all perched approx. 20ft up as the sun rose. It proved to be an uneventfull day as no deer hit the ground. Either the second or third day I get a call from Nate that he had a nice 9 on the ground and needed help getting him out to his truck and loaded. So I call it quits for the day and get down and make the hour + drive up to him to help him. I was greeted by a happy hunter and a nice heavy bodied 9 point.
Great we broke the ice and had one in our cooler. The next day or 2 it was back to being uneventfull sits. Then Doug SCORES..... Nope he didn't shoot the buck he had hoped for, but instead shot a 10 point that was a little smaller. Well a lot smaller.... LOL... But Doug is one of the nicest guys you would want to hunt with, and he was beaming from ear to ear and I was happy for him. As we hung him in the cooler we joked with him that you have to resist that temptation if you want a big buck. His reply was... Hey I'll get him with the gun come Friday.. So we are down to like 3 days remaining in our archery hunt and Tod and I both have tags to fill. So one of those mornings I get up and had a gut feeling to hunt close to camp on a ridge we call Heartbreak Ridge. It has gotten the name due to the fact that every year someone has an encounter with a giant there and the deer always comes out on top. So daybreak found me sitting in a ladder stand enjoying the surroundings wondering how Tod was doing an hour away. A little while later I caught movement on the ridge top a little over a hundred yards out and instantly SHOOTER registered in my brain. And hes working his way towards me. So he passed 30 yds below me and I stopped him and sent the Slick Trick on its way. A loud CRACK followed and the buck spun around and headed back the way he came. Shortly a loud crash followed and I knew he was down. So I gathered up my stuff and without even going to check out the buck I walked back to camp and got Doug to share with me the recovery. After all its all about the memories. It was a short tracking job as the buck only went around the hillside 50-75 yds. When walking up to him Doug says something like: YOU SHOT HIM!!! I said yeh.. NO SHIT.... Then I noticed the long brow tines and matching SPLIT G2's... This was the buck Doug had his sights on!!! To show what a great guy Doug is he wasn't the bit disappointed but instead was beyond happy for me.. I was hunting about a mile from where this buck spent most of his time over the last month or so and where Dougs stand was... Guess he decided to go for a stroll that morning and see how the ladies were over there... On Friday Tod filled his archery tag on a 10 pointer. So we went 4 for 4 with the bow.. Two being very nice bucks.

Friday started gun season and Lady Luck followed Tod and he shot a gorgeous 10 point. Another hunter from Texas shot our wide main frame 8. He had a 25 inch inside spread. Another husband/wife team filled their tags on Sunday with a 9 point and a 7 point.. My gun tag once again went unfilled, but that's ok as I always try and better my archery buck.. A lot of quality bucks remain for next year..

All in all it was a great season filled with many great memories with a great bunch of hunters... After all its the memories of the hunt that are etched in our minds forever that make this cake... Harvesting a deer only adds the icing...

Below are a few photos.... The first two are my deer followed by Tod's gorgeous 10 pt then Nates 9 then the wide 8.....

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