2022 Illinois Buck

My dad and I have been traveling up from Louisiana to Illinois for 8 years now, chasing Midwest whitetails during the rut. We have had some great success over the years and it's always an enjoyable trip. This year was no different.



We left Louisiana around midnight Saturday Nov. 5th for the XX hour drive to Nunya Bidness, IL.


Once we got up there, bought our licenses and groceries, we headed out to scout around some places that we have had luck in the past. There is a ridgetop that narrows above a creek bluff that creates somewhat of a pinch point that I decided to sit the first afternoon. I told my dad that I wanted to get in the bottom adjacent to that ridge but the wind was wrong. I set up where I had a good shot of the whole ridge but I could also see across the creek, into the bottom. An hour before dark I hear something that makes me turn and look into the bottom and sure enough I see a hell of a buck down there, of course. I text my dad saying, "Saw a dandy in that bottom. He has a phenomenal right side but something was off with the other side. No doubt shooter."


All week the temps were higher than usual with winds out of the south except for Tuesday evening. That afternoon I snuck down there into the thickness, hung my saddle and hunted. First deer I saw was about 2 hours before dark. A doe worked her way through and a nice young 8pt was only a minute behind here, checking and freshening every scrape he passed. After sunset, I heard the undeniable sound of deer fighting (obvious it wasn't some fool rattling lol). I eventually see these two 1.5 y.o. bucks walking side by side and stopping to spar every 20 yards or so. Pretty cool to see.


I bounced around the next few days, hoping to run into one but I knew that Friday’s cold front was going to be my chance to get back down in the bottom. An all day sit was going to happen.


The front pushed through overnight on Friday. Temps dropped 40 degrees. Winds NW. Let’s Go!


I get in there early, very early. I didn't want to chance someone else beating me to the spot. Climb up and settle in. Right at first light one of the bucks that was sparring the other day shows up. He passes by me at 10 yards. Good start. Next I see a small 4pt, he beds down 30 yards from me. Shortly after, another one of the bucks I saw sparring the other night. He walks up to the bedded 4pt and pushes him out of there. Around 8:00 I see the 3rd buck I had seen Tuesday, the one following the doe.


I text dad “I’ve seen all the bucks that were down here except the big one.”


8:30 I hear a deer snort wheeze. (Legit first time I’ve heard a wild deer do that). I look to my 8 o’clock and he’s standing there bowing up to the first buck I saw. That buck says aw hell no and walks away. This buck ends up walking the same trail as the first buck I saw. I am expecting a 10 yard, perfectly broadside shot. LOL at that right? He passes that "turn off" and proceeds to walk up 5’ from my tree without giving me a shot.


He looks up. We lock eyes.


“Oh ****!” - him

“Oh ****!” – me



He bounds off. I start yelling “MEHP MEHP”


He stops in some thick brush. He’s behind a tree and I can just see his shoulder forward but I have a fairly clean path. I put my pin right on the edge of tree he was standing behind and sent it.


Mule kick. He took off the way he came from. Crossed the creek. Gone.


I immediately called my dad. “I STUCK HIM!”


I was pumped but there was still some uncertainty, in my mind, about the shot. I couldn’t see my arrow on the ground but I know the nock buried in him. My initial thought was that I heart shot him.


I got down after 20 min (couldn't stop shaking until then) and find my arrow and the back 8” were broken off. I see blood. Good blood.


Trailed him 40 yards to the creek he crossed, which was too deep for me to cross. I placed a pin on OnX when I was in the tree of the last place I saw him. I packed out and had to go all the way around. I get to the last place I saw him and he’s piled up in a gulch 5 yards off the creek bank. I would have easily been able to see him from the stand if not for that ditch he was in.


This ended up being the only shooter I saw all week. It was tough hunting but that made it that much more rewarding.