Expensive Deer Hunting Trip......

It was too windy and cold to sit in our stands on thursday afternoon, so we sat out of the wind near the top of a draw overlooking a creek valley. Had a good time, enjoyed the tranquility and serenity of being outdoors and headed in about 5 pm. On our way back to our trucks at the top of the field we scared all the deer which werent in the woods, back into the woods. Somehow as we carefully sneaked into the woods about 2 pm, they must have snuck out of the woods. Then after spending the afternoon hanging out by our trucks, they simply headed back into the woods as we headed out. It was almost like we were hunting with Elmer Fudd back in the day! Anyhow as I am writing this, I realize I gave way too much credit to the intelligence of the deer earlier. In hindsight I now realize there is just simply something about my truck that deer are attracted to! On my way home from deer hunting I was traveling down the road about 55 mph (the speed limit just in case my insurance adjustor reads my blog) and out from the field an 8 point buck comes running across the road right out in front of my manly F250. Had I not been just finishing up a conversation about our hunting expedition on my cell phone with my brother, I probably would have seen the deer coming, but nonetheless I hit the deer dead on! I only had enough time to hit the brakes less than one second before impact, but oddly enough only really remember sizing up the antlers and being disappointed the moment before the crash….

Look closely under the ford emblem and you will see the nice pile of crap the deer was so kind enough to squirt out.


Truck was still driveable after bending the bumper back up a bit, but still pretty busted up.

We finished gutting the deer on the side of the road and are going to turn him into jerky. Also we are going to put his head on the wall too. Not because of the size of his antlers, but just merely for decoration and a nice conversation piece... Mainly though because Justin is finishing up taxidermy school this winter and needs some regular bucks to practice on before mounting our monster deer from next season!!!

Sunday Deer Processing and Trout Fishing

Weather was perfect today, so I got the kids outside! They had a blast watching us cut up the deer and when we were done we had about a half an hour left to catch a few fish. Trout were biting like crazy! I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story of this picture perfect day in then middle of November:

Can Your Mom Do This?

Mom will kill me when she finds these pictures online, but I just thought they were pretty good! She skipped church today to help me skin and process 4 deer and then when we finished cleaning and packaging em we did a little trout fishing. Not too bad for a 50 year old lady!!!

My Illinois Shotgun Opener Buck

I got to my stand about 5 am on Friday morning and had to wait an hour and a half in the pitch black before legal shooting light. Time slowed down to an eternal crawl during that span of waiting, but thats not all bad these days. Anyhow, I was hunting this stand for the first time, and was pretty excited to check out the new surroundings as the light began to arrive. Pretty much everything looks like a deer early in the morning before the sun rises.

Chad walked me to the stand, and even placed a nice doe decoy and apparently dumped some deer urine on it out in the opening 20 yards in front of my stand. Here was my view from the stand:

It didnt take long for the action to warm me right up! At 6:56 am two bucks came trotting along the trail together and came to a complete hault when they came across the stinky decoy. The first buck was a nice tall 8 pointer with fairly thick beam, but abnormally narrow spread. He was definitely the smarter to the two bucks, after sniffing the decoy he looked right at me and quickly jumped on ahead about 10 yards but then stopped. It was like he knew exactly how to get his 'friend' killed! His friend sniffed the decoy as well and I think that urine got the best of him. He too looked over to the right and stared right at me as well, for actually about 30 seconds we stared right at each other, but after our glaring contest he just couldnt get his mind off of the pretty little lady just standing for him.

The moment he turned his head, I lifted my H and R slug gun, placed the crosshairs on his heart and without hesitating fired the slug! The buck spun around 180 degrees and ran full speed about 25 yards directly head first into a very small pond. His head went completely underwater and his back legs kicked furiously for about 30 seconds before he finally drown.



Last year I shot my first buck in the first 10 minutes of the season, and this year I had him down within the first half hour of legal light! I can't actually take any credit for either buck, because my cousin and brothers are the ones who do all the scouting. I just do what they say and sit where they put me and pull the trigger. This is my 2nd buck and 13th deer harvested overall, and I can thank them for every single one of them.

Another Otter Creek Monster Buck

Earlier in October I tried writing about a huge buck harvested at Otter Creek Preserve over near Astoria, Il, but I kept getting off subject as my thoughts and words kept drifting to the world class fishery that this place boasts! Even though we just stocked several thousand walleye, a couple hundred more muskie, and a truckload of rainbow trout just last week, this time I intend to stick much closer to the subect at hand- An absolutely huge 12 point buck just harvested by Ryan Pudik. This is his second buck this archery season well over 170 inches! With very limited hunting pressure to begin with and the fact that Otter Creek is archery hunting only, I would imagine that place is going to start filling up with deer over the next couple weeks from the surrounding areas!

Here are a couple more pics of this Central Illinois Trophy Buck:

Monster Illinois Deer Bow Kill!

My good friend Todd Staley has been renovating an old farm in Fulton County for quite awhile now! He has been working on a nice smallmouth bass pond, some wetlands, food plots, and just been transforming the farm into ideal habitat for ducks, geese, pheasants and deer.

His efforts have just recently paid off! When he was out bow hunting last thursday evening, Todd was able to harvest this monster 12 pointer! The deer gave him a perfect 20 yard shot from his stand and Todd was fortunate to not have seen this deer coming from the standing corn or Buck Fever would have for sure kicked in! Let me just say it is much harder to shoot straight when your heart is literally pounding out of your chest. Its much easier to harvest a buck when you dont have time to think, but just to react.

Here are some more pictures of this buck of a lifetime:

Peak of the Rut.....Chicago Shopping!

Well, its the peak of the whitetail deer rut, geese and ducks are flying, pheasants and quail are in season, and the fish are actually still biting pretty aggressively...........and this weekend I was in Chicago shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont get me wrong, I had a great time away from the kids and work (Brook will read this blog post eventually) but no matter how much we needed a weekend away from the kids (for the first time in 2 years) Its just hard to be in Chicago, and shopping to boot.

Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to Fun City in Iowa on Thursday afternoon so Brook and I booked a last minute hotel on priceline.com and stayed at the 4 star Hyatt Lodge for $60 that night. I had to work South of Chicago on Friday anyways, so we just made a weekend out of it.

Friday morning well before rush hour traffic I headed over to Art Van Barens new pond near Beecher, IL. We hooked up a vertex air one plus aeration system and then formulated a gameplan to turn this 1/2 acre pond into the very best backyard fishin' hole imaginable. A few weeks earlier we stocked 100 lbs of feed trained largemouth bass, and thousands of fathead minnows and golden shiners. With a feeding program in place for next season and a properly designed pond with aeration system, I expect great things from this pond by the end of 2010! By the time the pond is exactly 1 year old, he is going to have a 2.5 lb average on these genetically superior LMB!!!!

I didnt really want to rush back to the mall, so we spent a couple hours checking out a couple other ponds, Art's factory (which is AMAZING!), and even did a little fishing. Then after lunch I really needed to head back up north to the windy city. I just could not imagine living anywhere near there- there are just people and traffic everywhere.

So the next 24 hours really werent that bad, but boy was I glad to be on the road headed back towards God's country with a deep dish giordonno's chicago pizza and a 6-pack of cinnabons Saturday evening. The only good thing about Chicago is the food!!!

Big Illinois Buck From Otter Creek!

Otter Creek is an HB Featured Property over near Astoria, Illinois. It is quickly becoming the very best fishing property in the midwest with over 200 acres of trophy fishing lakes and hatchery ponds devoted to Largemouth Bass, Hybrid Striped Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Tiger Muskie, Pure Muskie, Crappie, Albino Catfish, and Hybrid Bluegill. Anyhow it is very hard for me not to talk about the fish when talking about this property, but it is also a very nice hunting property as well!

The wetlands, food plots, and aeration systems hold about 4500 geese and ducks throughout the winter, but still the subject of todays little article is the deer. Here is a picture of a deer harvested by Ryan Pudik last week. The body is so big it makes the antlers look small:


Working on this property is like going on VACATION! Just going around and filling up the feeders on all the lakes takes about 5 hours, especially when you stand with your jaw wide open as you push the test button and watch the fish feed at each station. There I go again, thoughts always drift to the fish when thinking about this property. All of the lakes have been built and stocked within the last few years and I just shiver inside thinking about the fishing potential this place boasts not only presently, but in the future. These fish are still young and have alot of growing up to do!!!

Huge Missouri Buck Down!

My friend Jacob Heimer over near Taylor, Missouri shot Cutter on opening day of the 2009 archery season. They have been watching this deer since 2007, passed on him in 2008, and took him down in 2009! Cutter's rack green scored 170 inches.

New H & R Slug Gun

I am not a diehard deer hunter at this stage of my life, just got too much fish stuff going on to devote time to bowhunting. However, I do really enjoy deer hunting with my brothers and cousins during shotgun season, just like they enjoy fishing with me when the fish are biting. I do all the grunt work/preparation and take them fishing, they do all the grunt work/preparation and take me deer hunting.

Anyhow, after harvesting 11 does and 1 buck over the last 6 seasons borrowing my cousins extra slug gun, I finally went out and bought my very own H&R Ultra Slug Gun Deluxe. I cant be more excited for this season being able to use my very own gun! I will pick it up early next week and start attempting to put holes through cardboard about 100 yards away! We shoot hornady slugs with these guns and they seem to just be an awesome combination!

I wouldn't classify myself as really that great of a shot when it comes to practice shooting at targets, just on a lucky streak while hunting that I hope continues with my gun. Using my cousins gun I havent missed a shot on a deer yet. I know I am doomed now this season since I wrote that, but I think I am a firm enough believer in the H&R / Hornady combination to say how impressed I am with it. I havent had to shoot at a running deer yet, and generally won't take any shot that I am not 100% confident with, but just hope that I haven't jinxed myself for this season by buying a new gun and pulling up my pants abit while saying I havent missed a shot on a deer yet!

Last year I shot my first buck and while it is not the monster trophy deer everyone raves about, it is proudly hanging on my wall at the lake! To make an already too long story even a bit longer, I shot my buck last year opening morning and it scored 140". Then later that evening I was sitting on the ground looking for some does when a monster buck waaay bigger than the one I shot comes walking up the ravine within 15 yards of me, stops and stares me down. He simply stood there frozen for a few seconds, turned around and walked away. Both of my brothers saw that same deer that night, but neither of them could get a clean shot off from their stands, and boy did they want! I am definitely looking forward to this season!!