Back farm-ogle county

[jonny5buck]

Before i became interested in bow hunting i was brought up hunting rabbits ,Pheasent,and quail& doves.Over the years i have noticed that a lot of the same habitat is always a plus for almost all wildlife.If pheasent and quail thrive it's telling me its some good ground....The back farm..as we called it ...was pheasent heaven..i shot my first rooster at 15 with an old H&R 20 gauge single shot that had to have the hammer pulled back to shoot.

My dad and uncle hunted it for deer .but i was not interested....birds was my obsession..and the quail that almost always got the upper hand were in large numbers beside the woodcock and pheasent.

We no longer hunt that chunk of property and havent in a long long time...my dad says it was some of the best deer ground he has hunted..and he has hunted a lot.. he had ground in wisconsin/finley county.....and hunted in Iola...and prime land down here ...illinois river bottom ....The back farm had a large strip of pines ...........that smell always reminded me of wisconsin.... lake Alice....and of course as kids who could forget Paul Bunyons??

This land also had the gnarliest thickest stuff that almost all the shot deer made it to.....and expired in the briars and willow thickets....the cornfields and indian grass where also an indication of the diversity of this land...it had everything...even a small pond hidden in a small forrest thicket,with cedar trees.
Even though it was a long time ago,i cant help wondering what it looks like now...it was sold .....im not sure if the state owns it and it is a Park now .....or if it is private...i do know it is some of my best hunting memories as a youngster...i can almost smell those pines and hear the crows that called it home....good times..

[Woods Walker]

Uh....it wasn't on Henry Road southwest of Oregon just west of Ridge Road was it?

I hunt a 500 acre place right by there.

[jonny5buck]

Franklin Grove ..i believe...WW -it was along time ago...i do remember the county line road from Lee to Ogle...was the route there...it was half gravel half paved ...otherwise i would have to drive it again to say exactly where it is.[8|]

[Wanderer]

Jonny5buck,
Would that memory be Lake Alice near Tomahawk, WI? The flowage that was created when they dammed the river then went out on the ice and cut down the trees flush with the ice leaving "stumps" in 40 feet of water? I fished that in a Wisconsin State Mr Bass Tournament many years ago and bounced off a few of those stumps.

[buckwild]

That is awesome that you guys are so close. I hunt public land in Ogle (mostly Lowden Miller). I have hunted franklin grove during shotgun season a few years ago. Good luck boys!