Illinois Hunting Journal 2011

[4khorn]

Good luck everyone! Planning to get out for an afternoon hunt on opening day. This early in the season football has the edge on Sundays tho. Go Bears!!! Oh, and I'm not sure if any of you are Cub fans, let along baseball fans, but I am truly sick to my stomach that the Cards have made the playoffs. The Cubbies had their chance to keep em out and blew it. So disappointing...

[kribbz]

Come on now, don't hate on my Cardinals. Can't we keep it cordial in the 2011 journal. If 100 years is long enough you can come cheer for the boys in Red....


Looks like Saturday and Sunday is going to be a great day! Temps today were close to 80 but it's supposed to drop like a rock tomorrow night!!! October is here!!!

[bobow]

Looks like Saturday and Sunday is going to be a great day! Temps today were close to 80 but it's supposed to drop like a rock tomorrow night!!! October is here!!!

But only for a day or two. You must be in the southern part of the state. Next week up north I see mid 70s back again which is not unusual.

I see for our area the average high for today is 70 and average low is 46. Getting down near frost conditions will hopefully get them moving a little during the early AM & PM this weekend.

I'll be honest, in my little area I have not seen much activity at all. I am in an area where CWD has been found and they still do the sharpshooting during the winter to eliminate a lot of deer. I got on to the DNR website and was looking at the report and it was scary the numbers they eliminated.

I have in the last couple of days before the rain saw that some corn is starting to come out. I am hoping the weather allows for an early harvest. It is tough to see much activity with all the crops still in but still, not much movement. I remain optimistic.

[kribbz]

yeah I am 30 miles east of St Louis. Sorry to hear about the CWD. I have not seen much activity on my cameras either.

[4khorn]

Made it out for an opening day evening hunt. Things were pretty slow and I was starting to think it would be a shutout when a doe made its way into the cut corn about 20 mins before dark. She was joined a few minutes later by another doe and fawn. The first doe eventually circled around my set up and got downwind and went on alert. She trotted back the way she came and took the other deer with her. I really believe less and less in all of the scent control garbage. I washed my scentblocker suit and other clothes with scent killer, sprayed them down with scent spray, washed up with scent free soap, applied the scent free deodorant, sprayed down again before heading in, and still I got winded. Other times I have half a**ed it and not had any problems. Just doesn't quite add up. Oh well, guess thats hunting. Hope everyone else had a good opener !!

[Woods Walker]

Minimize your scent and hunt the wind. Peroid. And you don't need high $$$ "magic feathers" either. Just soap and common sense.

[bobow]

Saturday morning nothing was going on at least with the deer. Everything else was active.

This morning (Sunday) about 0615 three coyotes came through about 150 MPH. Sounded like a herd of elephants. They must have been chasing a rabbit but apparently they didn't get it. They were wandering around my blind for 25 minutes within 5 yards at times but would not hold still for a shot.

About an hour later I had a nice doe come in within 30 yards but didn't offer a shot. That was encouraging since I don't see much & I thought the scent of the coyotes might be a problem but apparently it didn't seem to bother her.

Last year I saw turkeys in the hunt area for the first time. This year, coyotes for the first time. Maybe a moose is next?

[kellory]

Good luck with that. But at least you got some excitement. I haven't been out yet Too many other things to do) I spent all of Saturday passing out books and blankets to the homeless, but I'll get there. Best of luck gentlemen.

[kribbz]

Went out Saturday and didn't see anything. I had 2 other guys with me. One saw 2 small bucks and a group of 4 does. He missed on one of the does trying to shoot though some brush. The second guy was a youngster. He shot one of the little bucks for his first ever with a bow and it was pretty cool to share that moment with him. Overall the weather was BEAUTIFUL!

Sunday night was great too. I got into the stand at 2:30 and saw rabbits, racoons and squirrels all over! I was hunting a little funnel between two ridges on a rub line. Had a forkhorn come in early and stick around for ever. Then a doe came in and hung around right under my stand for about 15 minutes and I couldn't get a shot because the buck was following her. She got into a lane a 26 yards and I let one go. She ducked the string a touch and hit her high dropping her right there. After that I had 2 deer on the ridge spook (never saw those guys). at about 6:00 two more bucks came through but I didn't see how big they were behind some brush and never gave me a good look. Finished the night with a doe right at dark. So all in all I saw 7 and it was one of the most exiting hunts I can remember!

I AM SO EXCITED TO BE BACK IN THE WOODS!

[bobow]

I AM SO EXCITED TO BE BACK IN THE WOODS!

Congrats! It is good to have meat in the freezer. Now if I could only......