Finally, Illinois Success
 

After 3 years of hunting the same farm in Illinois, I finally got a solid Illinois buck opportunity and a successful ending. Here he is:

Awesome buck sir!

Is that growing out of his eye? Wow.

Wow I would say success, that's a great buck

Where is that growing from? His jaw bone? Anymore pics of that? Nice deer.

RE:
 

It is growing out of the eye socket. Here's a different view.

Thats going to make an awesome mount! Congrats!

way to go.

wow, thats crazy!! nice job.

RE:
 

More Story:

This deer was named 'Dagger' by my hunting friends who had seen him.

I got to the farm on Friday, 11/13 (lucky for me). My other 3 friends went out hunting upon arrival, but I decided to spend the day scouting. I found a spot in a swamp where 6 heavily used trails converged into one in a pinch point where 2 steep ridges flattened into the swamp. There was only one tree and I only had a climber, so I set up.

The next morning I went in and had to cut some limbs as I climbed just to get high enough (still only 15 feet). At 8:20 AM, I decided to blind call with my Primos can. I remember turning it over 7 times. Almost immediately, I heard the deer coming, so I clicked the release on the loop and got ready. The buck came in from the thicket, so I only got to see one side of the rack, but it was enough to know it was a shooter. The deer got suspicious as he didnt see another deer and stopped his approach. He stood there at 25 yds for what seemed like 5 minutes. Then as he turned and walked away, as luck would have it, he crossed a shooting lane that I had already ranged at 29 yds and stopped perfectly.

The shot was steep quartering away, but entered the ham, clipped the femoral artery, and exited the front shoulder after passing through the lungs. The deer only ran 60 yds and expired. The pics you see are at the recovery point.

For those who want to know, I was shooting a 2008 Bowtech General with 60 lbs peak weight. Arrow was a Easton Lightspeed and tipped with a GrizzTrick. The deer weighed 235 lbs on the hoof and green score gross was 174 7/8.

That'll be an amazing mount!

Great hunt - thanks for sharing!

JTL