RE: They are not behind every tree
kicken a very good thread IMO.
This year is my 10th year bowhunting and 9th year shotgun hunting. All of them have been spent in Illinois. While I am not denying the fact that Illinois is a trophy area, it is by no means a "gaurantee" to kill a giant. In those 10 years of bowhunting I have had cracks at some P&Y's and 1 B&C. Meanwhile, if you go take a look at my mounts in the basement you will see ZERO record book deer. They are in the area, but seeing them, getting them in range, and then making a good shot is a whole different thing.
My family owns 365 acres in Jersey County, which is considered to be in the trophy area. We have taken some big deer off this land with a shotgun while the deer are running wild. My cousin killed one that went around 205 and my uncle killed one in the low 170's. There are also a few 130's-160's thrown in there, but that is during the shotgun seasons, and over the course of MANY MANY MANY years of being hunted (30 years or so). We have NEVER killed a P&Y buck off our land. I had the chance to this year, but I blew it and so far have been unable to recover the buck.
So yes, big deer do live here, and yes many of them are killed throughout the state, but not by a loooooonnnnngggg shot is it easy hunting. Some mega managed lands are going to have outstanding hunting, and this is often the types of land that you see on T.V. and the types that out of staters go to when they travel to our state.
If there is a big buck hiding behind every tree in our state, then I must be blind.