singleshot1
Well-known member
Been a few years since I've taken a deer with archery gear here in Illinois. This year, like previous years I didn't have high expectations. I was spending quite a bit of time helping friends set up blinds, treestands and trail cameras in hopes of helping them fill their tags. With most of our preparation work done, one of my friends asked if i wanted to hunt his property this past weekend as we were seeing several nice bucks showing up.
Well it just happened that I didn't have anything on the calendar and took him up on the offer. Wouldn't you know it, it just happens to be one of the warmest weekends on record in November for northern Illinois. Oh well, it will make for nice weather to sit in a tree I thought to myself. The rut is just starting to kick off here and Saturday had steady movement all day with a couple nice deer seen but no shot opportunities.
After a long day Saturday I contemplated sleeping in Sunday but was convinced to give it another try by my buddy. I arrive early Sunday morning and we are in the stands by 5am. While sitting in the dark we can here chasing going on in the corn behind us and in the woods between the two of us. By 6:15am I can see deer running all around me. Around 6:55am I can hear corn getting run over by what sounds like a bulldozer, when I glance over my shoulder I see this tank stepping out of the last row of corn, cornstalks sticking everywhere out of his rack, so bad i'm unable to really tell how big he is. After a couple steps the stalks are starting to fall off and my heart is now in my throat. What felt like 20 minutes was probably only 15 seconds, he presented a 15 yard broadside shot and the rest was history, he went 50 yards and I was able to watch him pile up, I look at the time and it's only 7am. What a morning. 20" inside spread with 12 scoreable points.
Still in awe of him and how quick it all happened.
Well it just happened that I didn't have anything on the calendar and took him up on the offer. Wouldn't you know it, it just happens to be one of the warmest weekends on record in November for northern Illinois. Oh well, it will make for nice weather to sit in a tree I thought to myself. The rut is just starting to kick off here and Saturday had steady movement all day with a couple nice deer seen but no shot opportunities.
After a long day Saturday I contemplated sleeping in Sunday but was convinced to give it another try by my buddy. I arrive early Sunday morning and we are in the stands by 5am. While sitting in the dark we can here chasing going on in the corn behind us and in the woods between the two of us. By 6:15am I can see deer running all around me. Around 6:55am I can hear corn getting run over by what sounds like a bulldozer, when I glance over my shoulder I see this tank stepping out of the last row of corn, cornstalks sticking everywhere out of his rack, so bad i'm unable to really tell how big he is. After a couple steps the stalks are starting to fall off and my heart is now in my throat. What felt like 20 minutes was probably only 15 seconds, he presented a 15 yard broadside shot and the rest was history, he went 50 yards and I was able to watch him pile up, I look at the time and it's only 7am. What a morning. 20" inside spread with 12 scoreable points.
Still in awe of him and how quick it all happened.
Congrats!
