i hunted this morning and seen 5 deer and a decent buck about a 120 but let him walk hoping to kill one of the bigger deer i have on my trail cam. This evening i only seen one deer and it was a small doe so i passed on her. Everyone i talked to that hunted today said it was slow and hardly seen deer.

damn it! why is it that every body other than me always has a good opening day. also we are going out in the morning in a ground blind if it rains. i mean i got an oats food plot, i have deer trails every where.... now its the season and there are no damn deer.

Went out last night and saw nothing. I just got cold and wet.....going out later today so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

boogied home after work yesterday and was able to score this doe. I was in the stand about an hour and 5 minutes. Good way to start out... this is my 1st opening day deer in IL.

Congrats on your first opening day deer.

Nice shot placement!

I went out Friday morning thinking it would be a perfect morning after the rain last night. Well I didn't see a thing. Planning on going out again on Sunday.

well i still havent seen a damn thing at all!!! but it was actually nice to be in the stand today. but seeing as it was a full moon last night i would guess they did their feeding last night.

i did find a rub on another property only trouble is i found out that the property line was 100 yards away from where i was so... good news is i didnt get arrested, bad news is i need to totally scout a differnt spot.

in truth i havent seen any deer movement at all.

The trail cam doesn't lie. Early last week had deer pics in the morning around 8:00am, as the moon got brighter they went nocturnal with the pics going from 7:00pm on the 30th to midnight on the 1st. Still plenty of season left, no need to hit the panic button...

well im just ticked off because it was an awesome morning and now deer.

well i have contact, i have huntin footage still now kills but i am starting to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeKWpskGP8

is anybody seeing any sign.

by the way... i know i could totally be screwing myself but i was told this...

you know how where there is white noise on the radio it stops bothering you after awhile... because it becomes part of your inviroment...
well i may be totally crazy but i have been pissing in the same spot right infront of my stand.... and i am finding bucks scraping in it alittle... and by leaving my scent in the woods i become part of the enviroment and i havent been a threat to the deer yet my scent may become part of their every day live and they might not care. now it sounds crazy but just crazy enough to work. but i do have deer on film now. and i am hoping that where there are does their will be bucks.

Opening day and the next I saw no deer in the am but my trail cam had deer in my food plot at 1p and 3p...Full moon had really early movement/mid-day movement...

Tex...Im just wondering if you busted deer out of the field the night before and seen deer re-appear in that same field on your youtube vid.....why arent you hunting the edge of that field? Im not a scientist, but I'd move to where im seeing the most deer?

no good trees on the line with the field.

Ya, that'd do it. Is a ground blind in option there?

I went out tonight after the misty rain blew out, windy as heck, but I figured they may move after the rain stopped and popped a young Doe at 4 yards away, she ran 40 and fell over. That first deer you see up close looks like a giant...LOL Maybe the smallest deer Ive ever shoot...oh well good eating.

I didnt go out tonight i was just too beat from work and had other stuff i needed to do. but i will be out again later this week. we may set a ground blind out. but if there is a rut this year that funnle should be insane because i know there are does that bed in it behind my stand.

I saw 13 deer on my Saturday evening hunt.
4 bucks, 1 of them was a nice 8-pointer.

I did take a doe at 7 yards.
Extreme quartering away shot (man that is a lethal shot!)

We had to drag her more than 1/4 of a mile since the beans are still up. Didn't get her hanging until 11PM.

I ended up not hunting the morning or evening on Sunday.
We went home early.

I donated her to the Illinois Sportsman Against Hunger Program.
Dropped her off in Sterling on the way home.

Can't wait for the next hunt.

alright its 2 am... and i really should be asleep but i think im going to hall my ass out of the rack tomarrow and get into the woods again. but my spot is much better in the evening... anybody seeing any sign of rut yet? or even prerut?

i know from all the does in my spot that have been avoiding me that when the rut starts if it ever comes because you all know it sucked last year, that the the bucks will be chacing those does right past me inside the treeline. or at least i hope.

Well had 3 does come in on me last night. Decided i was going to shoot the biggest doe. Had her coming in for a perfect shot and then a squireel jumped trees and broke a big dead limb out and she was spooked after that and looking around and was being cautious. She got to 20 and gave me a perfect broadside shot but she was still spooked. She dropped her head and i drew back and she mustve caught a little movement. I settled in on her and when i clicked the release she ducked bigger than any deer ive ever seen. Gave her a haircut and that was it. Pretty disappointing but it happens

Just a reminder, if you plan on hunting this weekend, you must wear blaze orange.
Bummer, I was planning on going, but not so sure now.

The first 4 days of archery brought a new record harvest.
6250 compared to 5059 last year.

Stupid question but why do you have to wear orange this weekend?:confused0024:

Youth Shotgun season...

Big harvest numbers for the first 4 days!

http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/...pens_wet_wild/

Just wanted to share my story with you guys. I hunt in Stark county which is in the middle of the state near Peoria. Went out opening weekend. Friday, saturday, and Sunday. The only things I saw were moving in the middle of the timber. I did however shoot a doe at about 7:30 on saturday morning. Other than that doe the only things I saw were small bucks. I will be heading out tonight and the rest of the weekend as well.

i missed a button back and then ended up droping my bow from my stand.

SuperRedHawk,
Why would wearing orange keep you from hunting??

I don't know, I almost went anyways. I plan on going the next couple of weekends, so I wanted to take a weekend off, might as well be this one.
Not a big fan of bowhunting with blaze orange.

got reports today from Brown County, our farms are torn up with buck sign

Did you get that on film? :poke:

I will be out in the morning for an all day hunt. With the rain and now colder temps the deer should be moving more than during the last week. Also heard some reports of rub lines being made.

Good Luck Buckmark, let us know how it went

Had a good hunt yesterday evening. Had a small buck come through but was to far so i hit the can call just to see what would happen and he came right in. Decided to pass on him and then had a doe come through at 35 yards and put the ol beaman and slick trick through her. She ran about 80yards and piled up. Got the doe out of the way so time to wait on the big boy.

I tell you what...the cold got em movimg. We saw more deer today than we ever have. At least 2 dozen on the drive in this morning and at least 2 dozen different deer while hunting between the 2 of us, including many bucks, 3 of which were very nice deer. At around 6;30 pm, I had a fairly nice 8 come in. Spotted him at about 70 yards out and he walked straight to my stand stopping every few yards to nibble a bit and look around. Not once did he give me a chance to draw as he got within 25 yards or so he must have saw me move. Then it was a game as he looked at me with his nose going 240 trying to figure out if I was a threat or not. Every couple steps he took he would look up and check me out. He ended up walking 5 yards in front of me and I was just never able to draw on him. I figured it was better not to spook him and let him go on his way. If only he would have walked behind me then it was game up with a 10 yard shot. So it wa a good day even though we didn't end up with one on the ground...

this morning a seen 4 different sets of bucks fighting. i was a little shocks because i think its way to early for them to be fighting but i just wanted to report this :)

Illinois opener pic...
 

Not a good opener for me, I now have learned not to play softball right before season. I had surgery on the 1st. Out for 4-6 weeks.

OUCH

That sucks

Went out last night with a buddy. Had a doe and a button buck come up to me 20 yards after she blew and stomped at me. She came up behind me and done this and it scared the crap out of me. Anyways got to pull on her and I forgot to compensate for being in a tree stand(first ever deer I got to shoot at with my bow) and I missed her. She stomps and blows at me. I get another arrow knocked and she goes about 50 yards. She walks towards were my buddy is sitting he smokes her at 45 yards quarting away through both lungs ran 100 yards and dies. It sucks that I didn't get her but I'm glad he did. But, I learned from my mistake next one is mine. Going out again today. Can't wait :)

I Agree! Weather is looking good and so are the Trail Cam pics. I've seen a few scrapes getting hit and several rubs. I'm just hangin back right now biding my time, but it won't be long until I try to put myself in the middle of the action;)

Dan

Went out yesterday to hunt some private land....never again on a weekend...LOL seen 6 joggers. Moved my stand WAY away from that spot...anyways, seen several fresh scrapes along field edges, and they were being hit hard, so I created my own mock scrapes 100 yards from those, sprayed them down with Tinks mock scrape, and see what happens tonight!!!!