fly

My 2 cents... The term trophy hunter is commonly used by anti-hunters as a negative term. We all know they want all types of hunting destroyed but they can't get that so they target what they can. When a hunter kills a lion the anti's will always refer to the hunter as a "trophy" hunter - even if the meat is eaten and the lions mane is bald. If the term gets enough negative publicity (social media) people will develop an automatic negative reaction to the term and hunters will start justifying what they kill as "non-trophy" to avoid backlash. I think we as hunters need to stop this and say HELL yes I'm a trophy hunter! It doesn't matter if it's a doe or a buck or has 150 inches or 10 inches. If you legally harvested a game animal that you are proud of then it's a trophy! You don't have to mount it because you'll have the memory and to me that's the real trophy. Now that I've said that... yes I do take pictures and mount the bigger animals I hunt. Mostly because I like to decorate my house with them and have the reminder of those memories each day I walk through my house.

Nice!

Truly amazing! You all are sure doing something right!

Congrats Lewis! I'm still hunting but not too heavily any more. Deer camp was fun but no deer this year. Saw a few small ones but nothing we wanted to shoot or that was in range.

Awesome! If we took 150 class bucks every year it wouldn't be as big a deal. Congratulations!

Thanks everyone. We had some arctic weather come in. Should make for some good hunting with the rut in full swing!

Thanks William. Butchered him up this evening. Still had a considerable amount of fat for a November buck.

This 2.5 year old 8 point took the wrong trail on November 6th to flee from a neighbor on a 4 wheeler. The full on rut hasn't hit in IL yet but should any day now. This buck was taken with my TenPoint Stealth XLT using Rage 2 blade Crossbow X broad heads. The 2 inch slightly quartering away cut went through both lungs but did not leave a blood trail as the manufacturer advertises. However, the blades opened and the deer only ran 50 yards and fell over. I watched it fall from the stand and it expired in less than a minute. It is always nice to know that your shot was true and that the harvest is a sure thing. This deer was taken on a private ground farm that I will likely be loosing permission to hunt on after 12 years due to family members of the owner needing a place to hunt. I had set my goal of a mature deer early in the season but after finding out the news I decided any deer presenting a good shot would do just fine. I'm very happy with him.

Team 1 fly Buck - 8 point

Been tough this year with limited hunting access so I had decided to take whatever presented a good shot. This 2.5 year old 8-point took the wrong trail today. No rut activity - was scared to me by a 4 wheeler. Whatever... I’ll take it. Only a 15 yard Shot with the X-bow. He ran 50 yards and fell over. Great feeling knowing you have a gimme track job. He’s no giant but given my current circumstances I’m happy to get him. Oh yea... on the drag out I got chased by some cows. Had to drop the deer cart and jump a fence. They mooed a while then finally left. Crazy cows.

Awesome news Pat! I haven't been hunting in a week but will be out as much as possible for the month of November. I took the girlfriend down to S. IL this past weekend. We stayed in Alto Pass (Union County) and I did some scouting and hung a stand in preparation for deer camp in a couple weeks. Was walking on snake road to scout an area I hunt and had quite the experience. We walked about 100 yards on the road and saw a huge cotton mouth on the road. The girlfriend freaked of course. She wanted to go back to the truck so we did. Saw 6 more snakes on the way back we didn't see the first time. Pretty crazy stuff! https://thesouthern.com/news/local/environment/shawnee-forest-snake-road-closes-sept-to-protect-endangered-reptiles/article_b2873810-ad45-11e8-b074-d3159c452379.html#4

Great looking buck Pat. Congratulations! Hunting has been tough so far. Been out about 7 or 8 times and only had one shot opportunity at a tall four point. He walked right under my stand at 7am yesterday. I have seen one shooter while on stand and that was last week. He was walking in a field about 150 yards away. I grunted and he heard me but had no interest in a fight. It's been a long while that I've went this far into the season without harvesting a deer. Unfortunately I Lost half of the 50 acre farm i have been hunting for the past decade. A relative of the farmer has started hunting and put up a stand 20 yards from one of my stands on the east side of the property . He took down my trail cam and left a note to call him. Nice guy and all but sucks for me. I've been saving for land (got about 20K for a down payment) and hopefully can find a reasonably priced parcel for next season.

Around here we get the October lull for that middle week in October. The summer movement pattern is shifting as crops are all but out now. This is fine with me as all I've seen have been does and too far to shoot. Probably will get out on evening this week even though we are smack dead in the lull.

Well Pat????? I sat for 3 hours yesterday AM - not a deer. Still was good to be in a tree on opening day.

Nice work Pat! A week from tomorrow and I'll be up a tree. Can't wait.