Did I do this to myself???

Today was the first day of the second shotgun season here in IL. In runs from today through Sunday. As some of you may know I haven't gun hunted since I moved to IL 4 years ago. I usually take it easy the 7 days that gun season is in, and rest up for the late season. Well....today my soon to be father-in-law calls me and ask me if I want to go out with him and sit on stand. Well, I accept his invite, since I have nothing better to do I figure I may as well go sit in one of my stands and do a little field watching just to see what I can see. Keep in mind, I have no gun permit and basically came along to keep him company on the radio and do a little late season scouting. Like most of you guys, I can sit in the outdoors without a weapon and still enjoy myself.

We arrive and I decide to climb up into one of my stands that I have hunted numerous times this year. I have seen some pretty nice bucks out of this stand but nothing huge has came into range while I had my bow in hand. Wouldn't you know it. About 4:30 I see a huge bodied deer coming up the fence line I'm on. I quickly notice he isn't a buck that I have seen before. He closes the distance and at 22 yards is standing perfectly broadsided. I liked to crap my pants. This dude was a stud! Main frame 11 point with lots of stickers. I'm talking 170"+. I can't believe it. He never new I was there. I'm sick. It almost made me wish I had a shotgun permit!!!! Not really!!But by god!!! He was huge. I had a feeling before I went out that something like this would happen. I just hope he shows back up during the late season. This will definitely give my lazy ass a reason to get up out of bed on those cold December mornings. Sorry for the long post, just had to vent.

I thought about sittng in the stand saturday but I know something like that would happen! Then you might see a grown man cryAlthough it would be cool to see one that big.

I think the gods like to throw stuff like that at us once and awhile so they can get a good laugh Maby you will tag him in the late season, good luck, sounds like a beast!!

Murphy's law applies to bow hunting too! Now that you've seen him, betcha spend sunrise to sunset looking for him during the late season!

Your not allowed to BowHunt during gun season? I would of took my bow in a heartbeat.

Many states do not allow bow hunting during gun seasons. In Iowa you don't have to wear blaze orange during bow season, but you sure do during shotgun season, so they close bow down during this time. What doesn't make sense is you can bow hunt w/o orange during muzzle loading season.

No!!! In IL you are not allowed to bowhunt during gun season. I hate that rule. I don't really understand it. As long as I wear my orange I should be allowed to bow hunt IMO.

You didn't even have a camera? Great experience regardless right? I bet you wouldn't have missed the opportunity anyway.

Last year after being tagged out I hunted along with Kurt (Q2) here, well he tags out on film....so we decide to go out with just video cameras....you guessed it, saw some the biggest bucks all season and many in range.

Rob, to be honest, I had a camera in my backpack, butI didn't have it out for some reason. I thought about itwhen he was walking in butit was too late. Didn't want him to bust me.

Ya shoulda got a gun permit and blown his heart out ....