RE: What an opening day in Illinois....
If my memory is serving me correctly, the first time I saw that bigger buck last year was on opening day too. I was in this same stand and he came out in what was then a cut corn field 50 yards out and never offered a shot. I saw him probably 3 or 4 more times during bow season then once during shotgun season.
Pretty cool to see him grow 10-15 inches within a years time.