My Illinois Adventure

2022 Illinois Adventure
   This adventure is dedicated to both Don N. and Steve Scott. Don’s desire for details and Steve’s influence of keeping a journal of my adventures (Safari Hunter’s Journal). 7 years ago, I started leasing a small farm in southwestern Illinois for hunting and I have both bows hunted it and I hunt their Firearms season. As normal for the northern states the Archery season is multiple months long. The firearm season is broken into 2 parts, first season is only 3 days and always the Friday/Sat/Sun the weekend before thanksgiving. The second firearms season is 4 days long, incorp a Thursday through Sunday 2 weeks after thanksgiving. Then there is a late black powder season after that. For the firearms season you can apply for an “either sex tag” and an extra antlerless tag as you must put in for a drawing to obtain. This is a non-guided hunt, just a DIY hunt. We do not have perminate blinds set up, instead we set up pop up blinds each year where we feel will be the most productive ambush spots at that time. We haul a UTV side by side up to set up blinds and to extract deer out with. For the firearms season, you are limited to shotguns with slug’s only (20 ga is the most popular choice), Black powder rifles and handguns. Per the state of Illinois, the handguns are restricted to straight wall calibers or bottleneck neck cartridges must not have a case longer than 1.4” (see Illinois requirements). For me I choice the handgun using Mike Bellm’s 30 Bellm cartridge. I convinced him to change using a 444-marlin case to use a 6 BR case as it meant only sizing it up to 30 calibers instead of multiple manipulations of the 444 to get the same size. I had mike build me a 16 ½” TC Encore barrel to my specs, a bull barrel, plus I had Mike put his design muzzle break on it. Then I had Tony Grettle build me a set of grips to fit my hand size plus the forearm to my specs 15” long, 2” wide, with aluminum pillar bedding and air vents on the side and free floated. also. I have topped this gun with a Leopold Pistol scope 3-8 x 32mm. Instead of the 115 – 125 PSP bullets that Mike used and had manufactured, I opted for a Berger 155 gr VLD hunter. I did this due to the velocities of the pistol to get optimum expansion due to the velocities.
With 29.5 gr of IMR-4198 I am getting 2675fps out of this round. The barrel I have produces a consistent 3/8” group at 100 yards and I sight it in 3” high at 100 yards to cover the area distances that I type hunt up the (bean and corn fields). I also use a Primos trigger stick with an adjustable rest in the blind to help keep the gun at ready to minimize movement and to offer a stable shot (though sometimes the animals will come out in a spot that I must take the gun off the rest and take a free-handed shot). Now I know I have included a lot of data but from comments before from hunting adventure I have written, a lot of new to hunting and or young people have asked me has encouraged me to add more data for their knowledge. So, Don there is your stats, so now to the adventure for 2022!!!

   We started to Illinois on November 15, this gave us time to scout and to set blinds up and then move out of the area, plus it gave us a day to rest up from the trip to be able to sit all day in the blinds without a break as the rut was on. I said “we” as a friend came with me this trip, but I will let him tell his own story. The weather was clear and no rain in the forecast, but temperatures would be in the lows of 15 deg and highs of the 30’s. For me, this trip had me extremely excited as I have cudde Link trail cameras set up all year long and days before we made the trip, I started seeing bucks that had my eye as you can see in the pictures:

   So here we go, That Friday morning I got in the blind an hour and a half before legal shooting time as I am a believer in getting to my blinds early and quietly, it was 15 deg that morning but due to utilizing SITKA layered system I stayed warm. I also use Kenetrek boots for warmth and stability. I also use Wilderness Athlete hydration as I tend to not take in enough water while hunting. So as the beginning of a fantastic sunrise appears I am in awe at what God gives us when we just open our eyes and our minds. As the time goes by, I am ever searching for movement and ready to react. At 9 :00 am I started hearing a few shots in the area, so my anticipation starts to climb. Then at 9:20 off to my right was a group of 5 does bursting out of the trees into the soybean field followed by a spike buck. Then at 9:25 a buck came running out and my brain went straight to work, it Said “old buck shoot!!!!”, without hesitation I took the pistol and moved to the window on the far right and as I leveled up on the buck putting the crosshairs on a high shoulder shot and all in one fluid moment squeezing the trigger the buck collapsed straight down like a sack of taters. Now here is the kicker, when I squeezed and as the buck was collapsing in slow motion my brain then said, “what are you doing, this is not the buck we were wanting?” This was all in a nano second. I sat there and stared at the body in the field, 152 yards away. I never rush a shot, second guess myself until now. I just sat there and looked and thought, why did I do this? After 15 minutes I got up and got out of the blind and slowly walked over to the deer and as stood above him looking down I got down on my knees and I opened his mouth, and his teeth were completely worn into the gums. I look at his face and his antlers and then it made sense to me, all the years of studying management and understanding the taking of the old/ mature animals had ingrained into my subconscious, I realize I did the right thing and I thanked GOD for his gift to me. So now the work begins for phase two, we load the heavy animal into the UTV and carry him back up to a neighbor’s barn to begin the cleaning process. Once he is cleaned and washed down and cut up and place in the coolers with ice, he will then make to the trip back to Texas to have final processing done as everything I hunt is eaten, never wasted. Even the antlers are used either in a mount or turned into something useful.
   I honored this animal and will do a European mount as to always remember the gift of a genuinely great trophy!

Thanks to these guys for their services and great product in making my experience a great one!
https://www.bellmtcs.com , www.tonysforendsandgrips.net , https://www.stevescott.tv , www.wildernessathlete.com , www.bergerbullets.com , www.sitkagear.com . www.kenetrek.com , www.cuddeback.com

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