I got to go on my first out-of-state hunt to IL as you all well know and even though I did not fill my tag in no way do I feel like it was a wasted trip.
Sunday morning got up at 2am and finished up the last min packing and headed for IL. We got there somewhere around noonish or slightly after and met Jason, Muffin, JT, Glynn, and Larry at the Kozy Korner cafe. They showed us where we would be staying for the week and we met Mrs Worthington. I adore her. She is too cute!
After Jon, Muffin, and myself unloaded some of the car (basically so we could access the treestands in the trunk) we threw on some camo and followed the guys out to Wolf Creek. From the moment we stepped into the woods the deer sign was thick. We decided to set up not too far from the road just on the other side of the first creek. Nothing that evening but on Monday morning we had a fawn come within 20 yds broadside of us. She had made quite a racket crossing that creek and we hoped she was bigger. Jon wanted to kick me from the treestand for not "breaking the ice" with her but she really was very small. That morning we also seen a chocolate colored forky at about 30 yds and a small 6 point.
Thinking we were just too close to the road we pushed further back near the base of the first ridge. Jon had seen a buck there but it was too far away and it did not come down where we had hoped.
After sitting in that area a day and a half we decided to see if some land next to a field was available. We had seen a nice buck there on the evening before eating in the field. When we found out that it was we set up there on Wednesday morning. We had set up a ground blind (and not a good one) on an intersection coming off of the field. Shortly after daylight, as we set in a puddle of the rain that soaked us, we had a tall forky come in and stop at 18 yds. Jon had about jerked my coat off of me telling me he was coming but I didnt stop turning in time and it caught my movement. He stood and stared at us a few minutes. I had my eyes slit and kept looking behind him for the big boy. After knowing the lil buck had seen something and it just not moving, he decided to bail out the other direction. Wasnt going to shoot him anyways but it was cool to see him that close.
After that encounter we did a little scouting. We left to pull our stands from the other spot and hang them there. We had found a decent sized tree with a rub on it and a scrape line of about 8 scrapes all only about 4 ft apart. We sat up in a tree 40 yds from the field overlooking that line. We were only 19 yds from the trail that was so well used it looked like a cow path. Wednesday night we had seen about 14 deer total enter that field. It was raining so they stayed there instead of coming to where we were. Thursday morning, the rain finally stopping, at daylight, still too dark to see well, a deer came down the path but didnt stay long and I had no shot. That night I had seen the 8 point with a thick, but not wide, rack that we had seen in the field earlier that week. He had came just to the north of the scrapeline and then worked his way back north. 60 yds or so is as close as he came so no shot.
Friday morning we had basically decided anything goes. Say byebye if another fawn came in range. LOL It was about 8:30 or so and Jon and I were both starving. We had seen a few does but still in the field and nothing using the trail we had hoped. His stomach was growling and I was kinda teasing him that he was going to scare all the deer away. He used the grunt call to startle me and was pretending like his stomach was growling. We were both pretty much just dinking around on stand about to give up hope. As he turned to sit back on stand he said "there he is" and then he really seen him and said "OMG, Linet, Im not kidding, there he is!!" We watched the biggest buck I have ever seen in my life come across the road and around the corner of the field on the opposite side from us. He was at about 100 yds away when we first seen him. Jon grunts again...this time with focused attention and the buck looks our direction. Huge body. Huge palmetto style rack with what Jon guesstimated to be 20+ points. The buck beelines across the field and into the trees on the intersection that we had set up the first morning in this new spot. It was only about 60 yds away and that is where we lost him. We thought at any moment he would come crashing down that trail and that would be in the end of the story but he never reappeared. After an hour or two had passed Jon and I were finally able to breathe. LOL! We both knew that buck had made this whole trip worth it and we both decided at that moment that we would be returning for a date with him the next year.
Friday night...raining again...who would have guessed...and I catch movement off to the left. I lost it and find it again. I told Jon a deer (I wasnt sure what) was coming up the trail. It took her a while to finally be seen because she was VERY cautious about being the first one on the field. She takes a path off of the field only about 30 yds away but I had no shot. I had a small window of opportunity but it was highly unlikely I would make such a shot. She stopped there but the only shot I had was belly. Had she taken the path of this side of the tree I could have had her but thats how it goes. We waited til late so as not to spook her and then head towards the cabin. Larry calls just as we hit blacktop and said they were waiting for us.
Saturday morning it was do or die for this trip. It was rainy and the wind was blowing right through me. We stayed on stand until about 8:30 then threw in the towel. Jon went to taking down stands and I pushed further back to see what I was missing on down that path. I follow the trail through a thorn thicket and see a fresh scrape and a bedding area. After that clearing I went on through another thorn thicket and then head up a small base of the ridge. At the back corner of the field there is a mouth of a hollow filtering onto that field. the ridge goes up on both sides and its absolutely gorgeous in there. I sat for a little bit taking in everything.
In the meantime Jon is taking the stands to put in the car. A man stops and asked what all we had been seeing. Jon told him we had mostly seen does. This man said there were two big 8 points that he knew of that hung around that area and one that he described as "a science project" Jon didnt tell him we had an encounter with him only the morning before but was glad that the man had validated what we had seen.
Well I knew Jon was waiting so I went to find my trail back through the thorn thickets. I couldnt find it! Hmm.. I looked a little more and decided I was going to have to make my own trail back through. Yeeeeeeeeeah. That hurt. Dont do that unless ya have to! LOL I was high stepping to push down what I could with my foot. My jacket would snag on one and almost yank me back down. At one point I was almost completely engulfed by them and just knew they had come alive to eat me up and that was where I was going to die!!! Im jerking and hacking my way through there bow in the air and the plastic knob that pulls my hood tight on my jacket snags on something. I turn to the left to see what I had caught it on and see if I could get it loose and and it lets go. I swear I had been punched in the eye by an unknown person and thought I had lost that eye all together. Im crying now and finally just get mad and rip through there on a mission just to make it out alive!! I hear a whistle..but I was crying and didnt want to whistle back. I finally make it out of the thorns and hear the whistle again. I whistle back and finally see Jon waiting on me. He said "did you see anything?" I scoffed "NO! Am I bleeding?" He laughs and we journey back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the trip home.
So...thats basically the hunting side of this trip for those of you that wanted to know.
