New World Record Bow Kill

[tcook8296]

Looks like hes hunting in a great neighborhood. 

Congrats to the hunter. Thats a freak of a free range deer. 

The more I hunt in Illinois, the more I meet neighboring landowners. I met another guy this season that has 1000 acres fairly close to my farm. I have another 950 acres directly across the street.Landowners with big tracts of land is what it takes.  All these guys are doing habitat management, food plots, passing young deer etc. I am not surprised at all at some of the giants coming out of these areas and as long as ehd doesnt come back, the upward trend is going to continue. 

5 years after major ehd breakouts, the deer are coming back. 

I saw some great deer in Illinois this year  . I had my best season this year with a 162, 148 and 140 coming off the farm. 

 

[NJ Predator]

Sometimes I find it hard to believe bucks can get that big and crazy out in the wild. They must know a food plot that has a magical soy bean crop or something rather  

[hammer4reel]

4 minutes ago, tcook8296 said:

Looks like hes hunting in a great neighborhood. 

Congrats to the hunter. Thats a freak of a free range deer. 

The more I hunt in Illinois, the more I meet neighboring landowners. I met another guy this season that has 1000 acres fairly close to my farm. I have another 950 acres directly across the street.Landowners with big tracts of land is what it takes.  All these guys are doing habitat management, food plots, passing young deer etc. I am not surprised at all at some of the giants coming out of these areas and as long as ehd doesnt come back, the upward trend is going to continue. 

5 years after major ehd breakouts, the deer are coming back. 

I saw some great deer in Illinois this year  . I had my best season this year with a 162, 148 and 140 coming off the farm. 

 

Spend a day out at BUSHNELL locker and see the bucks that come  in daily. Pretty unreal the amount of great bucks .

 

[SPEARFISH]

Crazy buck.

The rules at the place I hunted in Illinois were if you shot something less than 140 you had to pay a $1000 fine, get it mounted and leave it at the lodge on the Penalty Buck wall.

[bushden]

WOW you have to have nerves of steel to NOT SHAKE 7 HAVE HEART ATTACK when a deer that big comes in.

[archer36]

Yikes!!!!!!

[_X7]

What sticks out for me is that it was shot a bit away from the Golden Triangle you always hear about. Often overlooked is the big buck potential of eastern Illinois. Back in 2003 I hunted in Coles and Clark County which is south of Edgar County. The Coles county sheriff I hunted with had some very impressive bucks from the ground we hunted right along with the stories of un-killable giant bucks. He said the area is the best kept secret in the Midwest as part of what he called the Paducah circle. He shot a 150  the first time I was out with me seeing some impressive bucks. The second time out I whiffed on a big 140 that I shot short grazing his chest while hunting the ground in the rain. Took him for 20 and he was more like 40. 

I can only imagine now with this harvest there will be an influx of hunters looking into the area dreaming of the same thing. The 1 buck limit and the lack of Public Land is what gives those who hunt Illinois a chance at a giant. Hope to get back there one day.

Edited January 11, 2019 by _X7