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Illinois Trip

2K views 7 replies 8 participants last post by  Seegul51 
#1 ·
Alright, after a much needed day of rest from hunting hard for 6 days in Illinois, here is the report. We (myself and three friends) left PNS early sat morning and arrived in Peoria, IL by mid day. Got our bearings and headed for the lodge. The guide was waiting on us to go scout a little, so we put it in gear and hauled the mail. And if you have never been to IL, if you haven't seen a corn field, you definately get an eye full traveling. The weather was great when we landed but quickly turned crappy for hunting up there during the week. Well we made it to camp and Buddy our guide was waiting on us. He took us to a couple of farms, showed us a couple places to start and then said here ya go. So, Andy and myself grabbed the binoculars and went to do a little scouting ourselves. And my gosh did we see deer. Probably saw 60+ deer with in 1 hr riding just down the roads and then in some of the corn fields. We went back to one of the farms we would be hunting and parked and watched. Saw a ton of deer in one corner and saw a pretty nice 8 pt 130+ inches down one finger. So we slipped out of there and went back to the camp to start the hunt the next day. Sunday morning was pretty uneventfull, both saw some does and small bucks. We went and hung a lock on where we had seen the 8 pt the day before and put another in the other end of the corn field and it was time to wack them and stack them. The guide had asked us to fill our doe tag early if we could, because he needed some does killed. I was much abliged to do so, I saw doe after doe after doe walk by me with a few small bucks mixed in and finally, picked one out. It was getting dark and no sign of any big boys creaping up that way, so I turned the video cam on, positioned it and let that Mathews and Montec jump on her! :clap It was awesome. The first one that I had shot on video tape. She ran about 40 yards and piled up. What was funny, was the other deer just kinda looked around. So, I waited till dark, went to where she went in the woods and there she was. But dang, this heffer is big. Long story short, she weighed 150lbs asa freaking doe! So, monday roled around and I was pumped, had a kill and it was time to buck hunt. Went back to the same stand that I shot the doe and it didn't bother these deer at all that one had been killed the day before. But I was sitting in my stand, and looked across the way and BAM a freaking shooter stepped out. Holy crap what some horns! I turned the video on, but he was walking to the scrape in front of me at a good clip and the only thing I could think about was slidding that montec right behind his front shoulder. Could have shot him at 35 yds, but he was steady walking, he got to 24 yds, right behind my branch that I left for cover, oh boy two more steps and it is over. And he stops, and looks back, and a freaking coyote pops up at the end of the field, and the buck flickers his tail, and trots on up to the corn field right through my shooting lane and stops up there about 100yds away and starts eating.:banghead And thatquick I went fromexcitement torock bottom. After calming my nerves I picked up the binos and looked the deer over really well. There was no counting points whenI first saw him, but he was a main frame 8 with splits about half way up his G2's definately a deer in the high 140's maybe150. His mass was good, and he probably weighed about 250lbs. Asthe week went on, the weather turned just really crappy. It shut the deer movement down. We went from seeing a bunch of deer to not many at all. We then switched farms to where one of the farmers had been seeing a 12 pt in his alfla field pretty regularly that he said was in the 170's. And we hunted that deer hard. Numerous scrape lines, multiple hookings and multiple deer, does and small bucks. We hunted it till the last day and never got a shot at that big boy. I did pass an 8 pt that was probably a 2 1/2 yr old, but I wouldnt have mounted him, so no need to shoot him. But he was grunting and running those does everywhere. I am for sure hooked on this trip hunting stuff. We will be back with this outfitter next year. Had a great time with the friends we were with and look forward to it next year. I am not you tube savy, but will try this week to upload that video and place it on here. Thanks for reading

wes
 
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