2017 Illinois archery success

[68Ioweu1]

I’m looking at the 7:30 time stamp of the last text I sent my buddy Jim, letting him know what I was seeing.

5 minutes after I sent it, some midwestern magic happened.

 

At about 90 yards away, coming out of the thickest most dense briar thicket I’ve ever seen, a big bodied thick buck that has been the subject of my dreams since I was old enough to flip through the pages of outdoor life stepped out. He was angling away, ready to take another trail down a ravine, no doubt following the mature does that took that route earlier. I grunted, and he started walking in my direction, offering me a 12 yd broadside shot, I did not realize he was slightly quartered toward me though.

I aimed right on and at that angle the shot went slightly rearward. The angle, combined with the arrow nipping a branch made a tricky trajectory.

 

 

And that’s where the fun began.

 

Sooo we gave him an hour, and started tracking. We were confident of the shot and thought it was double lung.

 

There was no exit but he still left a great blood trail that we had no problem following, also when the arrow hit him he just about got knocked over and the sound of crushing bone was crazy loud!! He ran to a clearing at about 80yds and staggered and I thought he was gonna go down but no such luck.

He turned and ran out of sight, with no sound of a crash.

 

We picked up the trail easily an hour later and after about 150yds all hell broke loose and we jumped him from his bed, but he was hurt and right before he ran out of sight his ass end went out and he staggered giving us just enough to know that he was in bad shape.

We immediately pulled out and planned to come back at 3 o’clock.

 

When we finally got back after the 8hour wait we couldn’t find any blood. So after 30 minutes, since we knew where he ran, we started grid searching.

 

After about 45 agonizing minutes I finally layed eyes on him and he died on the run in a grass strip after making it about 400yds from initial impact.

He definitely made me earn it and I felt horrible all day thinking about it, but damn near cried when I saw him. (Edit. Ok...maybe I cried...) Lol

 

He pull down the scale to185 pounds and the rough green score of the typical main frame eight totaled 150 inches

 

Thank you Danny for lightening up the picture, both of you guys were on my mind. Very sorry for yours and Tracey’s loss.

Edited November 11, 2017 by 68Ioweu1

[tcook8296]

Beauty. Congrats. Few more days Im gone again

Edited November 10, 2017 by tcook8296

[allmann]

congrats  nice buck

[Lady Bird]

Wow what a buck, congrats!

[BowhunterNJ]

Nice buck, and beautiful country out there!

[not on the rug]

Congrats!  What a beautiful buck.  He definitely made you work for it though.  

[Thunderchicken]

Congratulations!! Just Awesome!!

[rocky]

Great harvest congrats. 

[nmc02]

Awesome buck, congrats

[Deerslayer21]

congrats !!!  What a beauty 

[Pathman]

Way to go Anthony, The Jersey boy makes good, congrats!

[LittleM]

DAMN!

[BHC]

Great buck

[Lunatic]

• Nice beast!!

[stratocaster]

285! Wow just wow man.  What a fantastic buck!  That will be well over 100lbs of venison and corn fed no less.  Did I say wow?  The man upstairs must like you a lot. Oh, and for those who say you can't eat the horns and a deer is a deer blah, blah.  One deer like this and the freezer is almost full.  Too bad we can't get some of those genetics in our herd, what an improvement it would be.   No lectures please.  

Edited November 10, 2017 by stratocaster