This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Some of you may remember that I posted a picture of a good 8 point that I shot with my bow up in Illinois last year. I was hunting some private land with some high school buddies who have family up there. On the same hunt that I arrowed the 8 point I saw a huge buck out in a soybean field and watched him for nearly an hour. Later on that year my friends called me to tell me that the guy who owns the land killed a monster during one of the late gun seasons up there. Well, it is the buck I saw and here it is.







Yeah, I'm going back again this year. You can bet your @$$ on that. Already have my tags.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

he is definetely grown

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Huge buck, sh!tty mount

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Wow it looks like he gave that deer a make over!! I thought the mount looked nice from the pic. I thought the deer was ugly lying on the tail gate myself. By the way YELLOW PUNCH BUGGY, NO PUNCH BACK!!!!![:'(]

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Great buck..........The taxidermist should be stuffed and mounted for doing that hack job on such a nice deer.


[:'(]



At least you got to watch him for an hour........better then nothing.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Wow! I don't know what is more surprising, the size of the deer or the poor quality of the mount.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

I couldn't agree more. In fact we have urged the guy to let a guy we know have it and redo it.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Great buck! Horrible mount! [:'(] I don't think I have seen something so nastily done since my dad's first mount, and that guy cracked the skull plate and lost 4" to the width.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Nice rack with a pretty good size body, too.

What county, if you don't mind?

Uncle Matt (in IL)

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

great buck...i think the pose the deer is in sucks...semi sneak would make it look alot better. i dont think the mount is that bad..sure, it doesnt look great, but i've seen worse..Awesome buck, buck of a lifetime right there

slayer

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

I though the same thing befor I read any responce.
nice buck,bad mount.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

It was killed near the little town of Olney in Southern Illinois.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

DS_37, the pose of the mount is the least of its problems. There are numerous anatomical inaccuracies, which is a real shame for a buck of this caliber. For example, note the huge gap between the base of the ears and the base of the antlers. With properly built ear muscling, you should maybe be able to fit one finger between the ear butt and the antler; you can see this even in the picture of the deer in the truck.

My purpose is not simply to bash someone's mounting job. I really hope to turn a positive out of this by providing even a small bit of awareness to hunters who may find themselves contemplating getting a nice buck mounted this year. Do yourselves a favor and study deer anatomy well ahead of time and look at all the mounts you can - critically. There's nothing worse than spending a few hundred bucks on a mount and gradually coming to the realization later that you didn't get your money's worth. Been there.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Let me see if I understand this correctly, 1st you saw that huge buck, then you shot the 8 point? What kept you from saveing the 8 point and trying for the big boy?

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Helluva deer.

Looks like a 90lb doe body on the mount.

RE: This is the Deer I saw in Illinois
 

Well it could have been the fact that the big one never came within 150 yards of my tree. So he was just a tad out of bow range where as the 8 point (Which was a fine buck) stopped broadside at 25 yards. That might be why?