I was excited to get an invitation to hunt on Booner Creek Farms in West Central Illinois to hunt one of the upcoming firearms seasons. I drew a tag in Schuyler County which traditionally has been a shotgun or muzzleloader season, but for 2023 for the first time ever Illinois was going to allow single-shot centerfire straight-wall cartridges to be used. For this hunt I would be using a Henry Single Shot chambered in .360 with a Bushnell scope. Ammunition of choice was Federal Buckhammer which used the tried-and-true Power-Shok bullet. I was excited to see what the combination would do.
Across the Midwest, states that traditionally only had a shotgun or muzzleloader season have been adapting to the straight-wall centerfire cartridges. Many of these states have been traditionally a shotgun slug or muzzleloader-only state. I know what a lot of you are thinking: Why change? Generally, the average slug gun is accurate out to 100 yards. However, deer accuracy distance is very dependent on the particular shotgun and ammo. Some special shotgun and ammo combinations may be accurate as far as 200 yards, but I think the volume of hunters using such a combination is not great.
With muzzleloaders, the velocity of the bullet is typically lower than that of a centerfire and therefore the bullet drops faster. This slower velocity reduces the average range to about 100 yards. Once again there are a lot of variables such as powder volume, type of powder and size of the bullet, and gun choices. Granted there are muzzleloaders that can shoot much farther, but some of these are at a premium price.
I personally chose the Henry because of its simple design, and it was the first to produce a single shot chambered in .360. Better yet, it came at an affordable price. I topped the Henry with a Bushnell scope. At the range, the Henry .360 was a dream to shoot — very little recoil and extremely accurate. I know a single shot scares a lot of people, but seriously, how many times do you actually need a follow-up shot? And if need be, you can quickly open the receiver and drop another cartridge into the chamber.
I arrived in camp the afternoon before the hunt was to start. I was greeted by Justin Roach, owner of Booner Creek Hunt Club. Justin gave me access to his HuntStand app that had every treestand, ground blind and food plot clearly identified on an aerial map. Booner Creek Hunt Club uses an extremely low-impact hunting style. Rather than driving cars, ATVs or walking to the stand sites, we would be using the QuietKat ebikes. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous on the first trip to the stand in the dark, but that quickly went away when I realized the trails to each stand were well-manicured and I could literally drive right up to the stand. Best part was I could actually wear all of my warm weather clothing on the way in without sweating or stinking up the area.
Day 1
The morning of day one we hunted close to one of the bedding areas hoping to catch a buck moving from feed to bed. It was a slow morning until a buck went through the bedding area. Soon antlerless deer were running everywhere, and we heard a loud grunt and caught a glimpse of antler, but he was gone. We went back to camp and ate lunch and then headed back out to a standing bean field. We couldn’t have been in the blind five minutes when deer started to pour out into the field and continued to do so all night. By the time it got dark we had seen seven bucks, but none of them were older than 3. Rather than by antler size, Booner Creek manages by age class with goals of harvesting 4-year-olds or better.
Day 2
Normally I wake up very positive and ready to hit the woods, but all night long you could hear rain pounding on the roof of the lodge. I knew right away that the deer were not going to move but you’re there to hunt, so hunt we did. The only good thing that I can say about the morning hunt is we stayed comfortable and dry in a nice Redneck blind. We did manage to see a handful of antlerless deer even in the poor hunting conditions and with the weather giving us a little better hunting conditions for that evening, I was excited to see what it would bring. I was hunting over a freshly picked cornfield, and to say the night was magical would be an understatement. The deer were on their feet, and by day’s end we saw nine or 10 bucks. Now normally Booner Creek Hunt Club allows their members to shoot a 4-year-old buck but puts a few of them at that age on the do-not-shoot list. Of course, the only buck we saw that day that hit the age requirement was on the do-not-shoot list. They had named him Muley, and he was a beautiful mainframe 8 with deep forked G2s. He was easily a 150-inch deer this year, but next year he could blow up to be a true giant.
Day 3
Once again, we woke up to a low-pressure system. With the other two mornings both being somewhat slow, I had made up my mind that I was going to take an antlerless deer should the opportunity arise. The woods were extremely quiet, but that all changed at 7:30 when a small group of antlerless deer headed my way. I planned on shooting the first mature deer that stepped into the field, but prior to getting that far, they all stopped to stare at the trail in front of them. You see, I completely missed the stand that morning by 15 yards and rather than turn the bike around I just dropped it down on the edge of the woods. Turns out I had blocked the exact trail these deer wanted to take. The entire group spooked and scattered in different directions but quickly settled back down. One of the larger deer stopped and gave me a perfect broadside shot. She whirled at the impact but only made it 30 yards and toppled. What turned into a slow morning now was a great morning. Little did I know it had just begun.
I texted Justin and we agreed to meet at the lodge at 10:00 a.m. I really didn’t expect to see another deer but about an hour later I heard rustling to my left, and by the time I pinpointed the sound a buck popped out of the tall grass less than 30 yards away heading right to the stand. I picked up my binocs and aged him, and quickly determined he was 4 by the size of his body and head. Rather than walk in front of me, he turned to his right and went behind a wall of brush which gave me a chance to grab my gun and get ready. The buck stood in the brush for what seemed like an eternity but finally continued forward. He was headed to a big opening when he suddenly froze. He stood there for a few minutes, then turned around and angled behind my stand and was going to give me a 20-yard shot.

I quickly settled the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. The buck lunged straight forward and out of instinct I quickly had another round chambered and brought the gun up for a second shot, but the buck tumbled down before I could even get him back in the scope. He also expired after a short dash. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Two deer down in less than an hour on a morning that I didn’t expect to see much. I texted Justin that I just shot a 4-year-old, and he said he would be on his way.
As Justin was biking over to me I found myself replaying the hunt. The .360 Buckhammer had put him down in less than 50 yards, and the doe within 40. I wish I could say that I was the first hunter to kill a buck with the Henry .360 Single Shot, but on the first day of the season three hunters in camp were fortunate to shoot great bucks as well. On top of that the Henry .360 Single Shot had those deer down and out very quickly making for short track jobs. As for me, I became a believer in ebikes in the whitetail woods. There is no doubt in my mind had I walked down that same trail my buck would have behaved differently. In fact, many of the deer would have, but with Booner Creek Hunt Club’s low-impact approach you would have sworn I was the first hunter there this season, but in fact I was one of the last.
The Best Part
The hunt was slated for the entire four-day second Illinois firearms season, but with tagging out early my plan was to get the deer boned out and leave early the next morning as the remaining five hunters in camp headed out. I’ll have to admit, I kind of felt bad for them. The weather was raining yet again with a chance of it changing over to snow, but that was all going to change for the afternoon hunt. Temps were going to drop somewhat and a high-pressure system moving in meant deer were going to be on their feet and moving. Success came quickly with Tom from Henry Repeating Arms taking a buck that was literally bedded right next to his treestand. By night’s end just one of those five hunters still had a tag remaining. The group chat from that last 30 minutes of the hunt was epic. It started with a big buck down text, followed by another hunter seconding it, followed by a third and with just minutes left in the season a fourth harvest was added to the chat. I couldn’t be happier for all my new friends. For the week, we had went eight out of nine on quality bucks as well as several of us harvesting a bonus doe. Performance Outdoors did not disappoint, but neither did the new .360 Buckhammer single-shot rifle from Henry. Almost all the harvests were one-shot harvests with short blood trails, with many of us fortunate enough to watch the animal fall. I must admit it’s time to add a new Henry rifle into the closet chambered in Federal’s .360 Buckhammer!
Watch Brad’s hunt on “Modern Hunter“ below.