Hey guys I am heading up to adams county on october 23rd, hunting for 3 days. I am just wondering what the dear are usually doing around this time. Also, I dont have much experience calling but i hear its very effective in Illinois. Can anyone tell me what type of calling I should be doing?

I'm in adams county and some light to moderate rattling..Nothing major quite yet...Some small grunting...Stand Placement! Stand Placement! Stand Placement! Get on a food source!

Your about 10-15 days to early...rattling will be your best bet if your not seeing deer random.

So when you say stand placement, the area I am hunting is covered with corn and a few fingers of hardwoods. My thoughts were to try and find scrapes along the corn/woodline and hunt over them, what do you think?

Around my property the are walking the field edges quite a bit right now...Thats where 90% of my Trail Cam pics are coming from...Field edge(corn)..

I'm right next door in Brown. Thats a pretty good time to hunt the area. You should be somewhere in the early trolling/seeking stage by that week. Light rattling and grunting can be effective. Scrape hunting should be just the ticket. Concentrate on structural funnels where cruising bucks will find the easiest way to cover some territory.

Those fingers heading up to the Corn would be where I start looking for deer sign & putting up a stand. My brother & I call this the START of the cruising buck stage. Light rattle, grunting.
I put my stand where I can shoot the edge AND into the woods.
Good Luck...

food sources...hit the fingers around the corn!

BTBowhunter, where in Brown County are you in? We have roughly 2000 acres in Brown County, we are roughly 14 miles south of Mt. Sterling

I can be warm that time of year do you have a water source near you? If it is warm it could be your answer.