My first ever Bow Kill..............

[Fawnibal Rectum]

Went to Alexander County Il. After seeing several great bucks I finally got a shot.......took this one at 7 yards.

Just short of 17" on the spread.......... 7 points.

Not the one I would have liked but not bad for my first. Going on the wall for sure.

[THE GOB-FATHER]

Great buck and especially for a first with the bow... definitely would go up on my wall too bud! Congrats on a fine deer bud! Did you get him in the evening hunt or the morning?

[Fawnibal Rectum]

4:50 P.M.

He was the second buck I'd seen this evening. Long story but the first one was a "Heart Breaker" and ran right under me about and hour before this one walked in on the same trail. I couldn't stop the bigger buck for a shot. When he finally did stop, I had literally screamed at him.........60 yards quartering away is not a shot I can take. Watched him slip into the timber and that was it.

After 5 days of hard hunting and sitting there feeling rather down at not getting a shot off on the 140+ earlier, I couldn't pass when this guy meandered down to me. I sent the "Slick Trick" flying and connected with the near lung "Quartering towards" and through to the far back leg............52 yards later, he was down.

On the first day I passed on a bigger 8 pointer at 18 yards. Figured I had 10 days in the woods and didn't want to tag out when the potential for a bigger one was a possibility.

Saw a couple of does and a bunch of smaller bucks before this one.

Anyway, I was eager to tag one by this time and was extremely tired physically.

Unfortunately, the very next evening a "Monster" offered me a shot at 30 yards............all I could do was watch. Sort of a mixed bag of emotions at that point but hey.....thats hunting and I'll be going back in January and try to fill my doe tag. Seems like a long way to go for a chance at a doe but my wife still has her buck and doe tags so we're gonna give it one more shot.

[4Pointer]

Great looking Buck~~~~[glow=red,2,300]CONGRATS[/glow]
Larry

[2Poppa]

Sweet... Great photo's.

[Win Mag]

Congrats shawn great looking Buck !!

Are you hunting private property or through a outfitter in IL

Anybody shooting a Hoyt and is a Packer Backer is alright in my Book...Ha Ha

Again Congrats on your first Bow kill

[mrjbigfoot]

Wow, congrats Shawn! He was a nice big stud with heavy beams!

;D

[Phishy]

, nice wide rack, you make it sound so simple, Must be them Big IL bucks that are running everywhere. congrats on a fine harvest. Good to see ya back too. Suppose you've been busy huntin'.

[Fawnibal Rectum]

Thanks guys.......I was out hunting for 20+ days. Georgia and Ill.
This hunt was on "Public Land" "Shawnee National Forest".....strickly a DIY hunt.

[Win Mag]

That makes it more impressive in my book shawn.You had to have done your homework.

I've pulled the forest up on the net and check sat images and Topo's.The place is huge.

Did you see a good number of deer?
A buddy and are have talked about hitting it next year for a few days.

[Rackman]

Great first deer with a bow. I sure your hunting isn't over yet. haha

[loserchumpandfool]

great buck especially with a bow.my all time favorite hunt is my first bowkill,a small 7 point so i know how much a nice buck like this means to you

[Fawnibal Rectum]

Thanks again guys.

Win mag, I went there in March and spent 2 and a half days working the area over. During that time I saw close to 40 deer. When the time came I had a good idea as to where to start. As the days wore on I made a couple of adjustments and re-set several times. In all I saw 20+ deer. I saw only 2 doe which was my ONLY disapointment, obviously because I really wanted to use my doe tag. Well. I had a couple of guys walk in on me but that comes with "Public Land". I saw 3 true "Monsters" and many bucks that would have looked very good on the wall.

I'll go back in a "Heart Beat" if the "NR" price tag doesn't get much higher......my sources suggest that next year "Tags and fees" will go into the $450 range. I figure that price is about as high as I'm willing to pay.

[Win Mag]

Mercy i hope they don't raise the fees again.That is simply robbery.What i can't understand is where is all the money going they are collecting now.And it still isn't enough.
Then the Wardens seem to be out to do nothing but find any little violation to write tickets for.I have no problem targeting poachers and such.But they are getting people for little things you would never know you where doing wrong.So far the report is they surpassed the last years harvest numbers for the shotgun season.Thats a good thing.Second shotgun season is this weekend.Should be another good harvest with the cold snap setting in.

[Fawnibal Rectum]

I'm obviously in no position to give an educated answer to "Why" the price is going up. My contact in Illinois says he believes that the politicians discovered the proverbial "Cash Cow" and wanted in on the action.

It's interesting to note that when the price went up, the issued Tags went down. Seems that many of my fellow "NR's" simply can't afford to pay that kind of money for 2 deer and the DNR folks were left holding some 1200 or so unsold "NR" permits and tags?

My contact suggests then that perhaps next year the price may decrease in an effort to "Sell out" the tags.

I hope so......I'm missing the hunting there as I type this now. If all works out, I'll make one more trip that way in January with the wife. She has a buck and doe tag to fill and of course I still have a doe tag.

Funny you mention the "Game Wardens", down here they don't really make a big deal about "Deer Hunting" anymore. We have 1.2 million deer and need desperately to thin out the herd. Game Wardens do spend a lot of time seeking out "Water Fowl" violations though. Don't take that the wrong way, DNR does a great job IMO but don't seem to be as concerned with the deer hunters as with the Duck/Goose hunters.

Good luck with the upcoming gun hunt.....bag and tag a big one.

Maybe one day we'll meet up in the "Shawnee" and share a hunt or two.

Take care.