You are not bursting my bubble in any way.I am sure you understand what I was saying.Had you spent that same time and effort in my surrounding area you would have not likely seen one Pope and Young qualifier much less killed two.
I congratulate you on your success and I absolutely know your success came with much hard work.
I will say again,you can't kill what is not there.For me in my home area which constitutes about 30 miles in all directions,I have to balance my business committments,my family committments and my love of hunting.So I have chosen given those considerations to do my hunting locally,because I can make it fit without short changing my other responsibilities.(I am in no way suggesting that you are short changing any thing)
The single most key ingredient in killing big deer is to have them exist in reasonable numbers in the area or area's that you hunt.There are countless examples in the B&C record book and the P&Y record books of where the highest percentage of big deer are being taken.You can count on one hand the P&Y qualifiers from Ulster County New York,with no B&C qualifiers ever.I would be very surprised if Central Illinois didn't have hundreds of qualifiers.Suffice to say all of our opportunities at killing big deer are different.