ccwhitey

Scored 124 and some change. We try to take 140 min on this property which is why it is a bitter sweet moment. Bitter since it didn't meet the 140 min but sweet since it was my first buck in 6 yrs

Not much of a story on this guy. I took him this past sunday morning after the time change. The stand that I am hunting is in what has know become a thicket of envasive bush honey suckel do to mismanagement on the landowners part which is a whole other story. :bang: Anyways the bush honey suckle is so thick and taller than me and I'm 6 ft tall, we couldn't walk to the tree so we had to cut a path to it. Somehow the deer travel through the stuff which is weird because you will only catch glimpses of the deer moving through the stuff even though they are right under the stand. First deer I saw was at 8:45 that morning and it looked to be a shooter 8pt with 10 in g2 but it was hard to tell as he was moving too fast to get binos on him. Ten minutes roll by and this deer comes down facing straight on, nose to the ground in the only clear spot in this area. With that brief moment of looking at him I thought he was the shooter I saw earlier. He started moving though the jungle of honey suckle and somehow I found an opening at 12 steps. Needless to say I drilled him and he pilled up 30 yrds away. In hindsight he was not the deer that I was really looking to harvest from a management standpoint but a good deer none the less. I have measured him as a main frame 8 with a 1 inch sticker coming off of left g2. What do you think he scores and would have you shot him. Ill post official score in a few hrs. I have not aged him yet. The first pic is how I saw him coming in and the second one gives a better view.

Just ran my fastest 5k two weeks ago in 18:22 since high school. My fastest was 16:16 in which was done my senior year

Great deer!!

Watching the olympics and looked out my apartment window and saw this guy sunning himself by the dumpster. I have seen him several times but never got a chance to take his pic until now.

What part of Il do you burn? Not many prairies that size that I know of.

Great find. He will be a heck of a buck next year.

I'm taking this class because it pertains to my thesis but I never know just how vitial fire has played a vital role in shaping the ecosytems that are present throughout the US and world today. By the end of the class I will hopefully be burn certified and able to manage my own burns. Anyone out there use controlled burns to manage their timber or crp ground? Jared

Great first buck

Great deer and mount!

Great buck congrats to your buddy

Nice

Fiinally after several years of wishful thinking Dad and I build a display case for the turkeys killed in our family. The two strutters are his, the standing gobbler is my brothers and the bearded hen is mine. I hope to have a similar display case some day only with a grandslam in it instead of all easterns. We are still thinking of decorations for the case do you guys/gals have any opinions?? I planed on putting a few more sheds in there once I got home.

Love those colors more every time I see them congrats

Yesterday I found out that I got a TA position here at WIU. I didn't think that I would get a position because there was a large amount of 2nd year grad students that applied for the TA positions and I hear they were only taking 2nd yrs and this fall would be my first year. The second bit of good new just came a few minutes ago when I got off of the phone with the IEPA saying that I got an internship there for this summer. Sooo if any of you want to take biology classes here I might be teaching the lab. BTW my my grad research is going to be about native bees so if anyone wants to know the buzz look me up lol :hammer1:

Man you gotta love those tail feathers. They sure are pretty birds. Congrats

Contrats, great birds

Great pics

My uncle just got a jake this morning. Haven't had alot of success because birds aren't gobbling or working

Welcome to RT. I'm in Macomb Il as well. Are you attending WIU in the fall then?

One down many more to come, congrats

Heck of a first bird

Now that's the way to hunt no gun necessary :cool2: I never would have thought of using that combo a dog and a bird looks like it works well.

Great shots Dave

Thanks for the imput