Happy anniversary to you & your wife. My wife conned me into marrying her on Oct. 1st which is opening day of Illinois bow season. But thus far its worked to my advantage. We've made it a tradition to spend that day afield together every year.

Hey Honey, I took time off of work for our anniversary and the kids' Birthdays! Go ahead and sleep in...I'll just get a couple hours in the stand since I'm home anyways. :rolleye0011:

Went out this morning with the rifle and took an average buck. Might score around 125, i got a little too antsy. But it is back to rut hunting with a bow tomarrow, i would rather hunt with a bow anyway.

Congrats Marty! Way to go. Now tell us the story & show us the pics. 8)

Nice job sd! Lets hear the story.

What a disappointing afternoon sit. Went out about 2:30 and decided with the wind to try a different piece of the property that I've only walked on twice this year. So no disruption of that area that I know of. Found an evergreen tree, cut out an area on the ground, put the decoy out in the winter wheat and got settled in. Didn't see anything til about 6 o clock. Does started coming in the field acting real suspicious of the decoy. Then it all broke loose. Guessing 100 rounds of gunfire, screaming and hollering, 4 wheelers tearing around to the east of me. All the deer just took off on dead sprints. What the heck????? Put 2 and 2 together and realized that Nebraska must have won and the neighbors had 1 hell of a party. Driving out I seen I was correct. Alot of people out there. What a waste of an opportunity!!!

Ok heres the story, i pulled up to the end of the dirt road about an 1 hour before shooting light, another pickup pulls up and parks behind me about 5 minutes later. A 12 year old hunter and one of his dads buddies steps out. I guess this boy is the nephew of the landowner. There is two half sections to hunt in this particular spot, since he was an excited young man with antlers glowing in his eyes i told them they could have first pick and i would go the opposite way. As luck would have it they went right where i wanted to go. They only sat there about an hour and then walked back to the pickup and left. He got 2 shots off but i didnt see them drag anything back to the pickup so i slowly made my way to where they were. this spot is on the corner of the pasture and borders a unharvested sunflower field. i got to the fenceline that runs along a creek and has scattered timber and brome grass around it leading to the sunflower field where i seen tons of deer walk into several different mornings. At about 11:00 i heard a buck rubbing trees down in the creek bottom. At 11:30 i turned to see this buck coming out of the bottom, following the fencline to the sunflowers. I seen him about the time he seen me so i knew i didnt have much time. I seen he was fairly wide and looked good so i swung the 7mm rem. mag around, put the crosshairs on his heart and let the thunder roll. The buck sky rocketed in the air and hopped the fence and bit the dust about 20 yards later. After i walked up to him i noticed some severe ground shrinkage. I am still very proud of him but i need to learn to stop and observe a little bit more and not get so trigger happy.

Very nice Marty! Cool picture too. Youre one deer killin mofo.

went out with the bow this evening, the weatherman lied to me about the wind but i didnt spook any deer anyway. I did see one buck chasing a doe on top of the draw i was in. it was actually kinda fun to watch. He was trotting around with his nose to the ground and grunting with every step like he was tuff ****. He was a "decent buck" kinda like the one i got with the rifle, but i still wish big hoss would have showed up and proved who was king of the creek lol.

I got back from Ohio last night. I still haven't had any luck out there yet. My father took this buck on Friday evening. It scores 150 5/8", 10 point. It's his biggest buck to date. It was a hard quartering away shot. He hit the liver going in and broke the off shoulder. The Muzzy never came out.
He said he's never shot a deer that shot blood out of it instantly. He ran about 40 yards and piled up.

Thats a good buck. Tell your dad congrats!

Greetings! Ok, back in good ole Wisconsin. Started off the 5 day rut hunt this afternoon actually. Got settled in after lunch and almost immediately had action. Heard a deer just a blowing out across the creeek and picked cornfield. Major ruckus goin on in the corn field on the neighbors property across the road maybe 500 yds away. All of a sudden something starts blowing on the ridge above my stand and crashing around. Never came down. Broke out the binocs and watch 2 bruisers go at it for 15 mins. Another buck came in to watch as well. All of this was right off that road in the woodline. Does were running circles in the trees, kind of chaotic to say the least. Well the bad news is the neighbor came in on the 4-wheeler to move the beef cattle down to the east end of the picked cornfield. Upon that happening, 4-6 deer busted loose up above me maybe some 60 yds away and up to the ridge top they went. So much for the afternoon hunt. Good news is cattle are moved way out of the way and I have through Friday to close the deal. Cool again tonight with rain/snow ending early in the morning. Hoping that 2 hrs after the storm blows through gets the deer moving again. Time will tell.... looking forward to a solid day sit tomorrow, planning on hitting it at 10 am or so....

Scott, that is an awesome buck your pops took.

Jesse, good luck to ya out there. Stay warm.

Well fellas, some good news & bad news. The bad news first, Team Buck U, the Defending Champs have entered their second buck of the season & have taken the lead with a score of 361 6/8. Theyre also reporting a third buck, but its yet to be entered. The good news, theyre only 8 points ahead of us for the time being & the rut is just heating up.

Those that havent taken a doe yet, its imperative that you harvest a doe before seasons end. It could make all the difference in our final score. As for the rest of us, the rut is coming on strong, so get your gear & head to the deer woods. Good luck yall!

Yes Boys! You heard him right! Buck U is on a roll!

Yea, yea...we aint scurred Clay. You might ought to enjoy being the champs for now, cause it aint gonna last buddy. :happy0001:

Stayed warm but didnt get dry... rain moved out late and sun never came out. Fog rolled in and that was that..... No one saw anything tonight. Good news is there is always tomorrow. Sun late morning so we will try it again. Just no movement in the drizzle and fog, go figure....

Same here Jesse. Spent the day in the rain but I saw plenty of deer. Didnt see either of our monsters but its just getting going here. Theyll slip up. I did pass on a frothing psycho rutting young 8 running the woods looking for a victim to destroy. He kept running the trail in front of my stand begging me to shoot him. lol Maybe next year.

Thanks guys, Dad is pretty proud of it. We are leaving tomorrow evening to head back out to Ohio. I will be in stand Friday morning. We have some trail cam pics of a 9 point that's on my hit list. He's a 130+ buck. I have to get it done this weekend. I usually don't take a doe until after I take a buck. I will make sure I get one before season is over. Good Luck this weekend guys. The rut should be in full swing.
Scott

Hey guys Great to see we are doing well on the score sheet I hit a Doe about a week ago and clipped a limb and hit in front of her shoulder. Never found her, Since then we had the dang hurricane and didn't see hardly any deer during that. This week i went out and had some bucks moving and had 3 does come in but they had buck fawns with them so i passed on them. But i'm going to try and put a doe on the board asap. and also i'm seeing a Great buck on camera. Prob, in the 180" range so i hope i can close the deal on that pig..
Well keep up the good work and Congrats to the guys who have got there kills.

Ive been afield the last 3 days & am seeing a good number of daytime bucks. Most havent been worth shooting but I did see both of our hitlist bucks & a few bucks that we've never seen on the property. The two big boys werent behaving as if they were rutting yet, but the young bucks are in full swing. Wont be back out till the weekend, but come Saturday Ill be in the deer woods 3 days straight again. Happy hunting yall!

Welcome back Chad! Its good to see ya. Sorry to hear about the doe, but **** happens. Glad your seeing deer though. Good luck taking that 180. He'll make a fine addition to our scorecard. 8) Anyways, dont be a stranger man, stick around for the fun.

Hunted Sunday night and all day Monday. Does bleating everywhere around me. They have definatly come in to estrous! Oddly I'm only seeing immature bucks following.

Hoping to see some more scores from my team here! Get out and hunt fellas!!!
Dropped this girl Sunday night.

Great job Jason!

I'm looking at the 5 day extended weather forecast for here in central Illinois, planning a long 4 days afield starting tomorrow. Its going to be in the high 60's both Saturday & Sunday & then dropping hard Monday & Tuesday to highs in the upper 30's, with lows in the mid 20's. They're also predicting heavy rain Sunday night through Monday mid-day.
Sunday evening before the rain & Monday evening after the rain should be awesome, & the predicted cold snap should show some amazing rut behavior.

I think I'm going to invest in a treestand umbrella so I can more comfortably hunt Monday morning. If its going to be raining & in the 20's that morning I expect the deer will be moving pretty good. Plus Ill be afield more throughout the winter instead of staying home due to inclement weather. Anyone here own a treestand umbrella? If so, what do ya think of it & what do you recommend?

Greetings friends!!! Great news FINALLY!!! Jesse is bringing something to the party, I cashed in on a nice buck!!! Should create some breathing room from Buck U... Pix coming shortly.... I will get some measurements too. Just got home, sorry!!!!

Here is a deer cam pic of the one I got...

congrats jesse, looks like a great buck in the trail cam pic, cant wait to see the score and hear the story!!!!!

Awesome Jesse, congratulations man!!!

I concur, tell us all about it..

So Marty, you hunting this weekend?

Very nice Jesse! Can't wait to see the glory pic! I'll be hanging the bow up for this weekend for rifle season. But if I get 1 tomorrow then next weekend the bow will be back in hand. Good luck to everyone!

Here is the picture I am using for the entry... just crunching the numbers right now, too excited to stay on track lol sorry! Definitely biggest to date for me. I could blow smoke and say how my skills and reading set this up but this was probably 95% luck, right place at right time without question. I'm thinking he actually just got whipped by another buck because there was a good ruckus up on the hill as I was going in to my stand. Same thing happened yesterday with a buck trotting by at no more than 15 yds from me as I was walking through the woods. He was totally oblivious to my presence as he was harassing a doe. Of course he was nothing like the one today. I was ready this time. He actually bedded down after coming from up on that hill somewhere and I took a 26-27 yd shot and that was it. He died right there on the bottom 10 ft from the gate! I couldnt believe it! The whole while, well maybe 10 mins after all this, something was crashing around up on the hill still and then finally whatever it was went over the top to the other valley heading towards the public land. I know we got a huge storm headed this way this weekend so maybe that had the deer moving today, who knows. I know monday is gonna be a high of only 30 degrees by me so I figured the deer would be running hard by then again. Gun season kicks off here in WI next saturday already too. Definitely cant complain about not having any pressure on me going into that. Best part is we still got at least 4 decent shooters running around here. Man oh man if we could get them to make it through till next season.... yikes!

Man Jesse, thats a damn fine buck & a great picture too. That inside spread is something else. Now its time to get that hoss to the taxidermist. 8)

Just got back from there! Had to hurry, gonna be nearly 70 here tomorrow... We are gonna be in the 160 class here I think! inside spread was a touch under 20!

Good grief yall are growing some monsters. If youre thinking that your buck was the one getting his ass kicked, Id like to see the stud doing the kicking. 8)

My thoughts exactly.

160s you say, so he's gonna be the biggest entry to date. Congratulations again man!

And Suck on that Team Buck U....lol

Your grin shows it all. Very Nice!!

yeah, Richland county is on the up and up here in WI regarding big bucks. I would have loved to have seen what he was up there fighting with. The easy winter last year had to have helped with the bucks this year. You guys have see some of the pictures I have been getting and I have NEVER had pictures like I have this year. Not sure what the deal is but no complaints whatsoever! I am just happy as hell to be able to get something to help us out ya know? The season wasnt going smooth for me I know that much. Always something going wrong it seemed. Then I gotta worry about showing all the pictures and then not cashing in on something..... I guess it all worked out after all...

Holy crap for real????