Illinois Hunting Journal 2012

[4khorn]

Made it out for a sit this afternoon. I saw an 8 pt around 5:30 but he didn't get any closer that 75 yards. Still a fun encounter. I can't wait for some of the leaves to come off of the tree. Its hard to see much of anything right now.

[4khorn]

What happened to everyone on these forums? I was looking back at previous year's journals and there are a lot of names that I have not heard from in awhile. I'll admit that I did not check in much during the summer, and I imagine that is the case for a lot of others as well. But I would have thought everyone would start showing back up as the season neared. Perhaps some just had had enough with the spam issues. Too bad because from what I see it seems to be better now. Hopefully we get some more folks contributing soon. Your stories and reports often keep me upbeat and compell me to keep going. I feel like I can relate to most of you because you are just average joe's, trying to balance work, families, and life. If you are lucky you can find a little time to sneak away and find some solitude in the deer woods. I hope some of you were able to do so over the weekend. Please share your experiences if you did! I plan on hunting tomorrow and Tuesday evenings. The wind will finally be good for my best stand. Looking forward to it!

[bobow]

I was able to get out a few hours Saturday AM and didn't see anything. I went out again Saturday PM and did end up seeing 2 does and a buck shortly before sunset.

Beings I hunt a small 14 acre area and most of the corn is still intact that was encouraging. I wish I had more time to get out.

[buckwild]

Hi all - made it out on friday and saturday. Took my nephew with. Last year was his first year gun hunting, and this is his first time bow hunting.

We saw a doe and fawn first thing friday, but they saw us first. He heard his first snort (repeatedly)! It was funny because we had just been talking about how it was inevitable that we would hear snorting eventually. Didn't see anything in a different spot friday afternoon. We kicked up a couple deer Sat a.m. getting set up in another area.

On sat. evening we decided to go to yet another area. It is a good set up, but there was a tree stand about 50 yards down wind (wind was NW) of where we wanted to hunt, and facing the other direction. He was facing away from the bedding area facing down wind. I figured he was going to hunt it in the a.m. with a different wind. We are south of a bedding area and the spot is on a ridge that gets good evening use. Ive seen deer regularly in the past at this spot. We were set up for about an hour and our ladder stand guy shows up. I honestly would not have hunted there if I though he might have been using that spot in the evening. I don't thing he ever saw us. We sure heard him. he was not even trying to be quiet when he left. I can only imagine what it sounded like setting that stand up. Needless to say - we didn't see any deer.

Oh well. Didn't see as much sign (I like lots of fresh droppings) as i hoped in any of the spots we went. What is up with all the acorns? It will be challenging trying to pinpoint where the deer will be with so many acorns. I know they love em. We saw decent tracks in the oaks, but very little sign near an unpicked corn field.

[stu27]

Hoping to get out for my first sit Wednesday. Anyone had any luck at all so far?

[4khorn]

I made it out this afternoon. Saw a little buck just inside the woods as I walked along the edge to my stand. After about 2 hours on stand he showed up in my area. I decided to let him walk. I hope I don't regret it later. He was the only deer that I saw this evening.

[buckwild]

Rained out tomorrow. Oh well. I plan on bringing my 6 year old daughter out for the first time on sunday after church for an evening sit. Probably poke around the woods for a while and then set a pop up blind next to a pond. The hope is the water will bring in critters to keep her interested. We are both super excieted!

Good luck all...

[4khorn]

My hunt on Thursday evening was uneventful. I made it out to my stand, got settled in, reached in my pocket for my phone and realized I had left it in the truck. I didn't like the idea of hunting without a way of getting ahold of someone if something were to happen so I got down and went back to get it. I only lost 25 minutes or so of hunting time so I was still a bit optimistic. The optimism faded with daylight as the hunt ended without seeing any deer. Maybe next time.

[Deebz]

I've been out twice so far... I've been super busy with school stuff this year. Our Fall Play is coming up, so a lot of my saturday mornings are devoted to directing the kids.

My first sit I didn't see anything. The wife learned a valuable lesson that morning. She had climbed down to answer the call of nature and left her crossbow in the stand... As she was re-cinching her safety harness to climb back up she looks up and sees a "big buck" out in the field in front of her.... I had to laugh because she thinks if she'd had her bow she could have gotten a shot. He stopped broadside and looked all pretty for her for a few minutes.

The next evening we sat in a ground blind together near where she shot her deer off the ground last year. It's in a narrow strip of timber with a cut bean field in front and a creek behind. She spotted a deer about 5:30, which turned out to be a buck with an exceptionally tall and wide rack for being a 2 yr old 6 pt. We watched him cross the creek and work around behind us, but never got into range for a shot with the bow.

We were hoping to get some stand time in this weekend, but this storm system looks like it might be just a little too much to handle. I wouldn't mind sitting in the blind, but the mile walk in to it would really suck in the pouring down rain...

[kellory]

At least you're getting out. My daughter got run over by the other team in soccer, (on a team she shouldn't have been on in the first place) and has a torn ACL as a result.
All of my hunting time and money now has another use. But, my kids must come first.
Hopefully, I'll get out later in the season. Good luck and hunt well.