Archery Talk

I can't go again until Wed/Thur. Highs in the low 60's then. I can deal with that.

 

I have one just like them at the locker

 

Good luck out there folks!

 

Checked cameras today and it looks like the boys are sizing each other up. I had a lot of this in the past week. Time to start getting excited!

 

Good lord! I would be lucky to see one buck that size on my hunting plots, let alone two!

 

I have about 6 or 7 deer this big or a little bigger going through my property which is located in west central Illinois. We also have a lot of hunting pressure in this area.

 

same deal for me, when they are in velvet I get tons of pics of bucks...once they start rubbing velvet off they are gone. Then when they do show up its usually about midnight to 3am...

 

Ah - it makes sense now! There are some decently big deer here in Virginia, but they don't grow 'em quite like they do in the Midwest!

 

Don’t we all... I can’t wait to own my own land one day. I will be very selective where I buy and who the neighbors are.

 

I live in a pretty densely populated area. The decent deer all get hit by cars while they're chasing tail or shot by other hunters before they have the chance to really become something special. There are some nice "mountain" deer in the western and southern parts of the state, but they're usually pretty spread out population wise. To see two deer like that on one piece of land would be somethin'!

 

You can be as selective as you want. Just when you think things are going good,it can change over night. One of your neighbors sells their land or worse yet they lease out to an outfitter and things can go to shit fast. Our main goal is to get deer to 5 1/2 years old which is no easy task. The fact is, if we want big deer then we have to be the first ones to pass up the 3 and 4 year old deer and hope they survive.

 

I agree but I want to be strategic about it and look for land where it cannot be developed in the future. Terrain features, federal land, etc.

My real problem here is that if you are lucky enough to find someone to let you hunt, they also let more people hunt also. I understand it’s their land. But it makes it very difficult to control deer movement and pressure etc. Here on the east coast leasing is very rare. Since this area was inhabited much earlier than the Midwest the land parcels can’t even be compared in size.


Are they big properties here? Yes but few and far between. In the Midwest there are huge farms and sure tons of people are leasing like outfitters etc., but at least its an option. Here it’s very rare unless it’s some assfuck hunting club that does more harm than good.

 

Yep...I hunted on a private area where they would only let you kill 3pts on one side or better. Good if everyone else abides by that but the neighboring property and everywhere else it was no minimum restriction. Kind of pointless to have a minimum unless you own 10,000 acres.

 

Years ago you could beat on doors in the area of Illinois I hunt and every so often people would let you hunt, just because. Met a lot of great people that way. Especially the small farmers. They didn't like deer eating their beans too well. There are less and less small farms now, so we switched to public land. Plenty of deer, but also plenty of pressure.

 

Nowadays the name of the game in Illinois is...Money talks and Bullshit walks. When I started deer hunting in the mid 70’s you could hunt anywhere you wanted for pretty much nothing,now it’s how much you going to pay me.

 

Exactly.

 

Saw a fawn a button buck and two does. Does were too far.


***Also, a bunch of turkey hens car around the landowners house and started standing and pecking on his wife’s BMW convertible. So I got down and ran them off. Early day today. Lol. Don’t believe me????

 

My step brother took this guy today.

 

Slow night...2 does 3 fawns and a coyote.

 

Good idea!
As muxh as I hate to think about it I already am getting developers knocking to buy up mine. The "I'll consider it price is going to be $1,000,000/acre" then I'll head over the mountain and grab 40 acres.
But i dont want to leave i still have such a good parcel where they are coming as a sanctuary away from construction.