3 Trips to the midwest. 2 were in Illinois and the third was in Missouri. Here is the jist of what happened. In Illinois, it was a small operation run by a young man and his family on their 1,600 acre beef farm. Great deer, great land, over hunted stands. The 2 occassions that we visited were the last week he took hunters in for the year. Usually the second week of November. There was 3 of us that went each time. All of us had the same observations. The deer were very well versed in the stands and their locations by the time we arrived to hunt. The accomodations were with the family. I.E. any cooking and other scents from the home mixed with our gear as we did not have any other options on where we could put it.

In Missouri, another young man being funded by his father started up a hunting operation. 8,000 acres under lease and not a clue as to whether or not the stands were in good locations or not. It was soon obvious that he had some acerage that was better than others. This was kept for "certain" hunters. The most notable were two hunters from Drury Outdoors and several of his corporate sponsers. While these gentleman would come in and say that they passed on a couple of 130's each day, the rest of us struggled to just see a couple of does. I did have an opportunity at a 140+ 10 point that I have no one but myself to blame though.

Bottom line is that outfitters provide a much requested service. For those of us that don't have the access to prime whitetails such as those in the midwest what other options are there? My plans are for going to Iowa next fall. My hunting partners and I applied for and received a preference point this year. Hopefully next year we can have another great experience together in the deer woods.