Hello from Chicago!

Just watched your videos. Pretty sweet to score on your first hunt. This year was my first western hunt as well. DIY Colorado archery. I work downtown in the loop every day but live in northwest Indiana out in the country. I’m lucky enough to hunt within a mile of my house.
 
nwihunter said:
Just watched your videos. Pretty sweet to score on your first hunt. This year was my first western hunt as well. DIY Colorado archery. I work downtown in the loop every day but live in northwest Indiana out in the country. I’m lucky enough to hunt within a mile of my house.
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nwihunter - how did you do out in CO?!? I would love to hear the story!

Oh man, I can't tell you how jealous I am. You get the best of both worlds, big city excitement yet hunting out the back down of your home. I actually made a neat discover last week. 1 hour, 5 mins straight south of downtown Chicago there is the Kankakee River State Park open for archery whitetail hunting. I went down there for the first time last Thursday and 15 minutes into the morning hunt I bagged a doe. I was home by noon and spent the rest of the afternoon butchering! I was super pumped!
 
How was the deer hunter pressure down there? Flatland and I have duck hunted and pheasant hunted there a fair bit. Neither with any significant success.
 
You’re on fire this season. I had an awesome time on my hunt. It’s been a dream of mine to hunt out west so finally doing it was sweet. The area I hunted was extremely thick and hard to hunt. Didn’t have many close encounters but did see elk and got to call back and forth with some. Really hard area to try and get up close to them. I learned a ton that’s for sure. Can’t wait to get back out there.
 
charliebravo77 - Pressure was non-existent. I didn't see a single other hunter. I ended up seeing 7 does, no bucks in that one morning. Seriously would be worth checking out.
 
nwihunter - holy smokes! No joke. I just got back from duck hunting up over in Western MN and bagged my very first banded duck! AND it wasn't just banded it also had a GPS tracking device strapped to it's back. Super cool. I have call into the MN DNR gentleman who's heading this Mallard migration study so VERY curious to learn more about it. Unfortunately, I don't think the GPS device I acquired with help much with the "migration" studies. The young drake mallard was banded just a couple of miles away from where I bagged him.

Are you planning on heading back next season? Hearing some bugles and EVEN getting responses to your calls had to be absolutely amazing! I'm still searching for the elusive bugle. I've never heard one in the wild. Western hunting is super addictive, isn't it?!?
 
I will definitely make hunting out west a regular yearly thing but not sure if I will do 2018. Have a couple of family trips planned for that year. I’ve invested in all of the gear so I have to go back. That’s what I keep telling my wife anyways. I also have a preference point in iowa and might draw for whitetail hunt for 2018. Really wanting to to start hitting it hard by the house if the weather would cool off a little more.
 
IF only time was limitless! I suppose if you didn't draw Iowa and ended up have time next fall and wanted to do an OTC hunt in CO or similar you could always plan one last minute.

It's definitely starting to become "that time of year". I saw some fresh rubs a week and half ago up in Minnesota and also had a buddy report a couple of smaller bucks sparing. I'm getting super antsy to wait to get up in the tree stand. Unfortunately for me that means, 5-5.5 hours of driving to the WI farm and not heading up there until the 27th. Fingers crossed that corn is off by then!
 
Yeah they are picking here now pretty heavy. Still haven’t picked the fields I’m on though. I found a couple of fresh scrapes on my property on Saturday morning so that’s a good sign. Hope to hit hard this coming weekend but the forecast is still pretty damn warm.
 
Thank you elkhnter and hello to fellow Illinois sportsman!

nwihunter - How did the hunt go this weekend? Still balmy? My buddy ran out briefly to our WI property over the weekend and had some good and bad news to report. Bad news first, all the crops are still standing. Good news, he check two of the cams and we have some new "hit list" bucks that showed up. In 10 days, we'll be there for a 5 day hunt. Couldn't be more pumped to get into the stand!
 
high_rise_hunter said:
Thank you elkhnter and hello to fellow Illinois sportsman!

nwihunter - How did the hunt go this weekend? Still balmy? My buddy ran out briefly to our WI property over the weekend and had some good and bad news to report. Bad news first, all the crops are still standing. Good news, he check two of the cams and we have some new "hit list" bucks that showed up. In 10 days, we'll be there for a 5 day hunt. Couldn't be more pumped to get into the stand!
Click to expand...

That’s always a good feeling when you have pics of good deer on your property. My weekend was pretty much a bust. Went out sat am right after the rain stopped thinking I was in the clear. Needless to say the sun wasn’t even up yet and it poured on me. Thunder, lightening, the works. Of course I had forgotten to put my rain gear in my pack after my elk hunt. Didn’t get out again because of weather and other commitments. I plan on hitting it hard this weekend. The following weekend I’m camping in the Manistee national Forest in Michigan with my wife and kids. That’s where I grew up hunting so I’m thinking I’ll pick up a tag and get a few hunts in. Not real good trophy potential but decent numbers of deer. We used to have a camp full of guys every weekend up there when I was young so it’s kind of a cool place to go back to.
 
Isn't that how it goes?! I NEVER seem to have my rain gear when I need but always seem to have it with when I don't. :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, it looks like this weather is still going to be pretty warm this weekend. That should be a blast to get back to the old stomping grounds. Worse case you could always try and tag a doe for a little freezer filler.
 
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