First off, thank you all for sharing your personal frustrations. It makes me feel less sorry for myself. There were many questions and I will try to answer as many as I can in one post.........

I hunt on Illinois Public Land. It is described as 5000 acres of "Scrub Timber and Wetlands." In other words, a fancy name for a swamp! There is a few acres of good forest with great trees for a climber. However, this is the area that gets the most populated. I have had people slop their way under me just about every time this year.

This property is 1.5 hours away, so ant hunting is a serious time commitment. I always hunt all day to get the most of my investment in time. There are other public lands closer, but population (hunters) is a huge problem and they are very restrictive about hunting times and locations, etc. This is the best bang for the "buck" if you will.

After my last time out, where the doe walked behind me up wind, I was on my way back when I discovered a fresh scrape. There are allot of mock scrapes out there from the other hunters, but this one had the tell-tale broken limb and smelled awful! It's right at the edge of a shallow creek and from what I can gather, this is the shallowest part and also a natural funnel. There are no decent trees to put a stand in within 100 yards. I poled around for a while and made myself a two nice natural ground blinds by utilizing dead falls and some trimming. One on either side to play the wind.

I was prepared to hunt that scrape all day and all I needed was my pack chair. I over slept and by the time I got there too late. I entered the woods and there were people lined up on the creek. I can see them moving around, drinking starbucks coffee and even herd them talking 100 yards away. I had to improvise and get away from the crowd.

I moved deeper in the woods where I found another good looking scrape. I hunted that for a while, but another hunter moved in about an hour after sunrise, banged around his tree stand, then started messing around with Velcro for 15 minutes. Whatever he was doing, I have no idea. I figured this spot was a bust, so I went exploring.

The area where the bucks were and where my whole story took place is open grassland / prairie. There are some shrubs that are about 6' tall and a handful of solitary oaks, but they are not suitable for a climber. Maybe a good strap on that can adjust to crooked trees. A ground blind might work, or it might stick out like a sore thumb. I also find it hard to shoot in there unless I have all the windows wide open and no screens. I was wearing my "Wetlands" camo that I use for goose hunting to blend in with the tall grass and sitting on a low-boy pack chair. My head was still a good 12" lower than the grass.

I would definitely shoot a doe. I like the meat and I have a tag for one. I also believe in proper management. I would let a yearling and a small buck go, but does are fair game for me. In this particular area, there were very few does. It seemed like the meeting ground for all of the bucks. I wasn't targeting bucks, I just got lucky enough to find them. Every buck I saw yesterday had at least 8 points. They were all wide, lots of mass, but not very tall tines. Must be the genetics in the area. I didn't see any small bucks.

Also, callingand rattling did very little. I able to stop that one buck, but other than that, they all seemed indifferent to calling. I guess every other hunter is doing the same so they probably have it all figured out.

Other than that, it WAS a great experience stalking that buck and getting away with everything that I did. I can't believe how noisy I was and still got that close. Had I not been walking upright, I probably could have walked right up on him!

Thanks again on sharing all of your experiences. The truth is, after I woke up this morning, I felt a little better about it. May father in law, who has a nicely decorated (with his trophies) basement told me that he has never been that close to a buck, let alone even care to attempt it. But sitting there all day, day after day, and not even SEEING anything is disheartening. I start thinking about the wife nagging about my hunting. Now I have to go home and tell her that I have not SEEN any deer again. She uses that as her ammo to protest my next outing. Then I start thinking about the half finished basement, 18 boxes of Pergo in the garage that is supposed to be laid down in the living room. The house needs painting. I need to winterize the bike. The cars need oil changes, The dryer needs a new belt, the weather stripping is falling off the back door. Also, this was the last weekend before firearm season and the rut so I figured this was my last chance. After those guys go through there blasting everything in sight, the deer will get REAL spooky.

I’m going to stick with it, but I think I might take a break for a while and go out thanksgiving weekend. Do some of the crap around the house and sleep in next weekend for a change. I have my big South Dakota muzzle loader trip all set up for December. That hunt always produces and I might get one archery tag just for fun.