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Game: Northeastern Whitetail Outfitter: www.Xtreme-Hunts.com 5am and I’m leaving my Missouri farm headed to Pike County Illinois for the opening day of Illinois gun season. I would be hunting the same farm that I had hunted last year with no success. In fact after six full days of hunting the biggest buck I had seen was a basket 8 pointer. This year there had been two shooter bucks seen on the farm. Hopefully my luck would be better, that is if I didn’t use it all up shooting a 14 pointer on my Missouri farm earlier in the week. I was running a little late, it was already legal shooting time as I made my way across a cut corn field headed to a ladder stand in the timber. As I got to the opening in the fence I was met by a fork horn buck. Maybe he was a good sign that this year would be different. I got settled in my stand. The wind was perfect. I was looking into the intersection of several brushy draws. Only 15 minutes had passed when I spotted my first buck, a 130 class 8 pointer. He was on the move and made his way through the brush and out of sight before he could tempt me. Soon after I heard some brush breaking. I grabbed my binoculars and tried to see what was making the noise. Soon I saw three does with a small buck chasing them. A couple minutes later I spotted two more small bucks. I watched them for a few minutes before they vanished into the brush. Next I caught a quick glimpse of a buck as he disappeared into a deep brushy cut off to my left. He looked like he had a taller than normal massive rack, but I didn’t get a good enough look to count points. Did he exit the cut a few hundred yards away where it met the field? Next I saw a small 6 pointer go into the same cut. A few minutes went by and I decided to do some rattling. The little buck came charging out of the cut and headed right toward my stand, but the other buck was nowhere to be seen. About a half hour later, I spotted the big 8 pointer heading for the same cut. I put my binoculars on him. Was he big enough to shoot? Not on opening morning. Then I caught a glimpse of the big buck as he ran the 8 pointer out of the cut. He disappeared as fast as he had appeared. I waited 15 minutes and started to rattle, grunt and bleat. Nothing! Earlier in the week when I was hunting in Missouri I hunted more aggressively than normal with good results. Maybe I should do the same here. If the big buck wouldn’t come to me, maybe I should go to him. A couple seconds later I was on my way down the ladder stand. I checked the wind and started to very slowly make my way to the top of the cut. Fortunately there were a lot of leaves still on the brush and I was able to stay out of sight as I weaved my way through the tall shrubs. As I got to the edge of the cut the cover opened up and I could see much better. I had just started to scan the area and there he was, a massive racked buck staring right at me about 50 yards away. I couldn’t tell you how many points he had but based on his mass I decided he was a shooter. As I started to raise my gun he took off. I shot as he started to turn. He sped up and I took another running shot at about 100 yards. Another 20 yards and he would be out of the woods and crossing the field, but he stopped. I was just about to squeeze another shot off when I saw him stagger and fall. Wow, Last year I shot my Illinois buck in the last 20 minutes of the second season. This year it was only a couple hours into the season. I guess it all averages out. As I made my way to the buck I wondered just how big he was. I knew he had a nice frame with much better than average mass. I was pleased to see that he had 12 points. He had an 8 point frame with a kicker on his right G2 and 3 on his left G2. Certainly not close to my biggest buck, but I was happy with him. It’s been a great week, a beautiful 14 pointer on my Missouri farm Tuesday and a massive 12 pointer in Illinois on Friday. |
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