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Was able to reach a goal this year taking two good bucks on public land with my IL tags this year, regardless this 2nd was with muzzleloader. Bummer as I could have easily taken with my bow. First buck was archery though.
Looked this guy over real good before shooting. Liked the mass, beam lengh and spread, regardless of short tines. I think he's pretty unique looking. Just 8 points but none broken, which was a problem where I was!
Was an interesting Saturday morning. Got lost in the woods running out to my stand late. Saw nothing until 9 AM when an old timer walked 30 yards in front of me, climbed over a fence, and set up to hunt off the ground 70 yards from me. Hmmmmm. No matter, this is Illinois during the rut, right? At 10 AM a doe wanders under my stand and I stupidly look back, see no buck, so pull out my camera to take some pics of her for my g/f. Dumb! No need to tell me. Anyway the doe wanders in front of me, catches my scent, and nervously jumps away to my left. Well I peeked back and saw antlers turn and run away. He was hidden in the timber about 50 yards back. Bummer. At 10:30 AM I have another buck come in, jump the fence and walk under me. This was a former 10 pointer who is now a 5 pointer! Yikes! Right G2, G3, G4, Left G3, G4 all broken off to below 1". His remaining left G2 was 11-12" long! Wow. Would have been a nice one.
At 11 AM I turn and see another doe coming in from the same direction as the first, with the same buck following. I waited and they came right in, buck grunting. Hunt over. Pretty cool to get a 2nd chance on a blown setup like that. Gotta love the rut.
The evening before I passed on a beautiful former 10 pointer (probably) with his entire right side broken off. Heard a big fight that evening as well. Beaten each other up around me. Glad the one I found had enough mass to survive! Haha. He is scarred up pretty bad though.

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