Brett/IL

I took a nice doe the morning of Oct. 1 and a decent 8 pt. that afternoon. I live in southern Illinois and the cool weather was a welcome change from what we are used to on opening day. I have not had a chance to get out since, but I will be going tomorrow.

Lady Forge

Went out yesterday at around noon to do a little afternoon and evening bowhunting ,At 2:00 I had 7 turkeys traveling across the ridge opposite of the ridge I was hunting and unfortunatly they were out of my bow range, but it was great to just watch them.The wind was out of the east. At 3:00 I had a nice doe coming from the northwest walking up the ravine that I was hunting over on the ridge . I arrowed her at 20 yards I saw a total of 9 deer and 7 turkeys in the afternoon, not bad for a day hunt I think
I saw on the way out the deer were in the bean fields at sunset.

ChiTownBuck

It' s great to hear everyone is taking deer or atleast seeing some potential running around.

JZarr
You don' t have to tell me about Murphy' s law, I think Ilive it every day. Better luck next time. I have to ask. How did you do hunting moose? If you where successfull I would like to see pictures and a story to go along with it. Where you hunting those monsters with a bow as well?

rdy2hnt
I bet you are. Good job on the doe and the 8 point. Post some pic' s and tell me how you took them.

Lady Forge
You have been out alot. I am glad you are feeling better. Sounds like you are having a great time. And good job on the doe. Keep posting after your hunts, since I don' t bow hunt yet I can atleast live precariously through you. Maybe this can be your own hunting journal. Give me some details like setup, am or pm, weather, and cool things that you saw. If anything you can make me jealous.

Keep up the good work.

ChiTownBuck

JZarr

I searched for your Cananda hunt and found it. Sorry you did get yourself a moose but you took some great pictures. Man is it beautiful up there.

JZarr

Yeah, better luck next year I guess.

I just have to reitterate how exciting it is to have a mature bull moose grunting his way through the woods right towards you. The first one I had come in that week made me shake so bad my arrow almost fell off the rest! I haven' t been that nervous since the first time I shot a deer. haha.

In any case - it was a good time even though I didn' t get anything. Just being out in the woods all day and being able to experience that kind of a hunt is well worth the money. I' ve been fortunate enough to have been going on moose hunts since I was 12. [8D]

But now that it' s over, I have to concentrate on making up for the 2 nice bucks I missed last year. doh!

Brett/IL

ChiTownBuck-I was hunting a small patch of timber behind a sub-division on wed. morning. A few friends of mine and I have been hunting there for a couple of years now. Normally I hunt out of a climber, but that morning I decided to sit in one of our fixed position stands. The stand is located in a funnel that the deer use to slip from the patch of woods we hunt into an open field or to another piece of timber. Around 7:50 a.m. I noticed a doe and fawn out in the field, they were being followed by a small buck. I watched them for 10-15 min. hoping they would come in where they usually do, but instead they cut in about 60 yds. behind me. I thought that they would just continue in the direction they were heading which would have taken them away from me. Instead the doe decided to walk down the hill angling in my direction. I prepared for to take the shot when she passed through an opening that I had already ranged at 32 yds. I whistled to get her to stop and she gave me a perfect, slightly quartering away shot. I made the shot I wanted to on her and she piled up about 40 yds. from where I hit her. After my friend and I butchered her we decided to hunt that afternoon behind my house. I decided to hunt a small thicket on the edge of a bean field on the edge of a large creek. I got to my tree around 4:00 p.m. and I was set up to hunt by 4:20. I was only hunting about 12 ft. off the ground because it is so thick. At 6:00 I heard something coming my direction, by the time I could see that it was a deer he was less than 35 yds. from me coming right to my tree. I carefully lifted my bow and waited for a shot. He turned broadside at about 5 yds. and I drew when he stepped behind a large tree. When he stepped out he continued to walk right in front of me. When he started to quarter away, I made a VERY soft noise to get him to stop, he did and looked right at me. I had been tracking him with my bow so my pin was on him as he came to a halt allowing me to shoot as soon as he stopped. The arrow hit at the top of his shoulder that was facing me and exited his armpit on the opposite side. He ran in a big half circle about 60 yds. and piled up in a big deadfall. I have been bowhunting for 12 yrs. now and that is the first time I have taken two deer on opening day. The meat was a welcome sight for my empty freezer. I don' t have a scanner, nor did I take any pictures, sorry.

Lady Forge

ChiTownBuck; This is my second year keeping a type of journal , its a Archery Hunter Sighting Survey that I am doing for the IDNR, I know some of our other members here were also choosen to participate in this survey last year also.
I wont even go into the longggggggggggg story of my bowhunting nightmare I had the other day on public land.
EVERY YEAR I SWEAR I WILL NEVER HUNT PUBLIC LAND AGAIN

AND

EVERY YEAR I SAY TO MY SELF I WILL GIVE IT ONE MORE TRY
and once I do I kick myself for thinking it will be any better out there than the year before.Some day Ill stop trying to kid myself
Ill just tell you that I had 20 people pass within 70 yards of my stand and 2 were 23 yards from my stand.... and the icing on the cake was the 2 guys less than 10 feet from my stand... they knew I was there but just didnt care!!!!!!!!! Flippin people were all over the woods.[X(][:@]

george_s

i was out all day saturday. had a spike and a doe under my stand at 9am for about 10 minutes, but they were small. 9:50 had a small 8 come by. there is a minimum of 5 on one side where i hunt, though.

saw lots of hunter marching around the woods in the last few hours of shooting lite. talked to them at check out - no one saw anything....... I wonder why!

Lady Forge

I headed out today to go after some turkeys bowhunting.
I was hunting a river bottom , on a west facing ridge , I figure around 2:00 I had a flock of 9 turkeys heading north , I drew back and placed my 30 yard pin on one of the birds only to shoot right over its back, it was closer than I estimated, and to be honest I had a bad case of turkey fever( started to shake all over) thankfully it was a clean miss, but it was awesome to finally get a shot at a turkey, it was my first time shooting at a bird, hopefully next time I will have a better outcome. I decided to stay the course and wait for sundown and wait for the deer. Just after sunset I had a deer approaching from the south traveling north , coming from behind my stand I watched only to find it was a nice maybe 145 class 9 point, unfortunatly he was in the wide open area but he kept his distance at I ranged 45 yards and never came any closer, (I am not comfortable at a shot over 30 yards) so I opted not to try and just watched him slip into the darkness that was falling on the woods, I then heard deer coming off the ridges into the river bottom all over the place, I sat there for ever waiting for the deer to leave the bottom so I wouldnt spook them out of the area, now I m keeping my fingers crossed and the scentlok fresh in hopes of seeing the buck next time I hunt this bottom
The Bean fields are harvested and it seems the deer are really hitting the acorns
on the ridge tops around here.
So how is going for the rest of you Illinoisians?

Brett/IL

We hunted all weekend and had a lot of fun. Sat. morning I passed on a small buck, but had fun watching him walk all around my stand for about 10 min. Then around 8:30 a.m. I had 10 turkeys feeding behind me around 60 yds. away, they never presented a shot, but it was great to watch them too. Sat. night was pretty uneventful, one small buck came by about 75 yds. away, that was it. Sun. morning I watched 12 turkeys fly off of the roost 45 yds. from my stand, then they fed up the hill away from me. I had a mature doe come in on me at 7:15 a.m. and I was fortunate enough to harvest her at 30yds., she ran 60 yds. and piled up. I saw more turkeys last night, but still no shot and no deer. I took my friends wife hunting with me on Sun. morning because he is down with the flu right now. She haad turkeys around her for the first time, but could never get drawn on them. When she was telling me the story you would have thought she had seen a Boone and Crockett deer, she was so excited! My other buddy that was hunting with us saw birds and deer all weekend too. I love this time of year! Hope the rest of you are doing well. Lady Forge- Sounds like you had a great weekend as well. Good luck catching up with one of those birds. I think I was as excited with my first turkey with a bow as I was with my first deer. I hope you get one soon!