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DRT for the Illinois opener found me in my stand early this morning and the deer were moving around 7:30...wind was swirling and a very large doe got away. She was 45 yards away and there was no way I was shooting in this wind...so I backed out...but not before I took care of that pesky squirrel. I have been practing this year to take care of those squirrells and at 20 yards I nailed a large fox squirrel, but it had the last laugh...he took off with my arrow and judo point. So the BSD means big squirrel dead.

Later this evening I went to chouteau island and found a quite place to set up and around 3:30 I had a 3 point buck come to me. I wasn't going to take him but looking thru the binos he had been gut shot. He was walking rather slow, but still not down for the count. I ranged him at 45 yards and then shot. The arrow took out one of his lungs and liver. He ran by me...I was two feet up a tree...Yes that's right...two feet is all I placed my stand. Just high enough to see about the weeds. He ran by me and I'm glad there was a tree by me as he sprayed my pack with blood. He ran about another 40 yards and was down for the count 2 minutes later.

I'm glad that I took him out...I didn't want to kill a young buck like that as I was going to try and get a nice 8 pointer later this year, but I still have one more buck tag that I can use. When I gutted him the arrow that was used to gut shoot him was a three blade broadhead but it tore apart his intestines. Poop and food all in the body cavity. So I got rid of the inner straps and now he is in my basement fridge. Feels good to get one down on opening day...even though this was a mercy killing.

Looking forward to the rest of the year. Sorry, no pictures as it was 80+ degrees and I had to work fast.

Paul[/align]