Not a bad weekend in Illinois


MUDRUNNER

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After a slow, hard season, I finally hammered a nice buck. Bowhunting has been tough for our group this season. The rut seems to have never really fired up the way it has in the past. After strugglin through almost 7 weeks of bow season, it's nice to put one down with the shotgun.

I was making my way to my stand at the usual time, about an hour before sunrise. No sooner than I get to the base of the tree and I hear running on the ridge coming my way. It was too dark to see them, but I heard some grunting, so figured it was a buck dogging a doe. I slid up my 20' climbing stick, climbed on the stand, and got settled in hoping they would come back by when the sun came up. Sure enough, about 7:30 I hear them running my way again. They came in behind me and I wasn't able to get a shot, but finally got to see the buck and could tell he was a dandy. I watched them till they disappeared, and figured they moved on to the neighbors ground. About 8:30 I hear a twig snap behind me. I look over my right shoulder and see a doe walking straight towards me, with the buck trailing about 30 yards behind. To keep from getting busted all I could do was look straight ahead and wait to see if they would come around the left or right of me. Every step in the frosty leaves was closer and closer, and with every step my heart beat faster. The doe came to my left and was only about 4 yards from my tree. I don't know how she didn't see the steam from my breath....I had to look like a chimney up there I was breathing so hard. Finally he gets to where I can see him. I raise my gun about as slowly as I can to keep the doe from spooking. I put the red dot on him at about 35 yards and let the 12 gauge bark. He went about 30 yards and piled up. He's not my biggest, but I'm more than pleased with him after hunting so hard this season and coming up empty. To top of the weekend I bagged a big fat slick head yesterday morning at 9. We're down to our last two pounds of burger, so I'm getting the freezer filled up just in time.

He's a main frame 8 with a busted up G3 and a 1 1/2" kicker on his right side.

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nice!

we had great weather - but oddly i didn't see a deer the entire weekend.

first time my luck was this bad. deer were being shot all around me, just never on my hill

Man, that makes for a long weekend. Really our group didn't see a lot of action or hear much shooting. Evenings were a complete waste of time. No one even seen a deer after about 9 a.m. I seen deer twice over the three days and was fortunate enough to put one down each time.

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