What a weekend!

[ilhnter]

Well the opening weekend of Illinois shotgun season was one I soon won't forget. My dad, wife, and I hunt a little 40 acre piece of property and there was deer all over it this weekend. Opening morning I had a spike chasing a doe come out into the field at 20 yds. The doe got out to around 75 yds, but the spike was still around 25 yds so I shot him and he took off, well she turned and ran back towards the woods right at me. I got her to stop and shot her. Thats it my season over at 7:45 on opening day. It wasn't 20 mins later that i look up and here comes a doe up the field and she runs in front of me and then I start to hear some grunting. I look back behind her and here comes a real nice 130 in. buck hot on her tail and behind him a spike. They were heading towards my dad and wife, but must have cut in the woods before they reached them. It was about 15 mins after that another nice buck with his nose on the ground comes up the field, he was a real nice tall racked buck. Well driving out after picking up the two deer killed we saw a deer hanging out at a brushy draw in the pasture but didn't think much of it. 3 hours later when we come back for the evening hunt the deer was still there. So we worked up a plan and my dad put the sneak on him. He got within 65 yds or so and took the shot. Missed He was an absolute giant, one of the biggest deer I have ever seen on the hoof. We met up with dad at the edge of the woods to hear what happened then dropped off the ridge to head to our evening stand. My wife and I dropped off the ridge and made it almost to the hollow when I look up and a deer with his nose on the ground is coming down the opposide ridge. We drop to the ground and the deer comes all they way down the hill to 25 yds and my wife laid the smack down on him. We then started heading back out of the woods when my dad shoots on his way to his stand. He killed a 4 point and almost got a shot at the doe that was with him. Not much sat morning, but that evening my dad had 3 does come by and he shot one of them. This morning the wife and I had three come by and she took a shot at a doe and missed at 60 yds, the deer ran a little ways stopped so she took another shot and hit the deer, but not very good. We ended up jumping her in a 2 acre thicket and missed her. We backed out and came back several hours later and jumped her again and missed another 2 shots. She then made it out across a field about 500 yds to a piece of property we don't have permission to be on. The weekend started out great, but ended on a not so good note. 5 deer out of 6 tags....not a bad opening weekend in Illinois. Sorry about long post but was an exciting weekend and they were rutting hardcore where we were.