Congrats to sjsfire....that's a nice looking doe.
I hunt Stephenson Co. in Northern Ill and I took this small buck yesterday morning around 8:40am. I was not able to hunt during the 1st ML season.....the landowner had tags to fill from the shotgun season, so I had to wait my turn.
This was my 1st day out with the MLand I was not going to be able to hunt the entireweekend. With Christmas around the corner, my wife and daughtermade plans for me, so I knew I didn't have a lot of time to huntand I was hoping to take a nice doe. It was a cold morning......I had2 degrees on the thermometer before I left the house. About an hour after daylight, I caught aglimpse of 3 deer running thru the pines 150+ yds. out and it made me feel better seeing some deer. About ahalf hour later thisbuck stepped outin a shooting lane in front ofthe ground blindthat I was sitting in. He was standing there feedingbetween some pine tress@ 100yds.justlong enough for me to get a good shot off. He had his head down the entire time, so I didn't know I was shooting at a buck. I followed the short blood trail and I could tell by the way the blood was splattered over the snow that I had a good lung hit. I found him piled under a pine tree about 25yds. from where I shot himand this is when I found out that I had shot a buck.
We have enough snow on the ground thatdragging him out was pretty easy, but getting my Jeep the rest of the way was another story in itself, but I made it.
I hunted the rest of Friday without seeing another deer. I still hope to make it out one more time, to fill my "doe only" tag.
As you can see from the picture, I was shooting a T/C Omega. My load was 110grs. of BH-209 and a 250gr. Barnes TMZ.
I'll post another picture of the entrance and exit wound inside the chest cavity.
IL ML season this weekend
