kkirme2
New member
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2010
- Messages
- 1
Hey all,
I'm new to these forum talks but I was hoping to get some insight on a problem I have been faced with recently. I moved to Southern Illinois in August for graduate school and have brought my bow with me for when I get some free time. Not knowing anyone around here, I started to use the state land for my hunting. I was able to scout only a few times in September once I was shown the boundaries of the dnr property.
I've chosen an area which is about a square mile of dnr property, surrounded by private land on 3 of the 4 edges of it. I am unsure if those property owners hunt or not, but I haven't seen any sign that people have been using the same area as I am. When scouting, I noticed there was little actual sign (i.e. droppings, rubs) but I did notice a lot of trails. The thing about the trailer were that they seemed to fade into nothing after a while of following them.
I've managed to be lucky enough to spend about 5 hours every saturday afternoon/evening in the woods since Oct. 1st. Besides the last two saturday's, I haven't seen anything. The past two saturdays I have seen the same deer, once at 10 yards and once again this past weekend at 20 yards. This deer is a fork-horn, hard to tell whether hes 1.5-2.5 years old, but I would like to see how he looks next year if possible. The first time I saw him, he came from the side of me walking directly into the wind. I was in a stand and out of the wind, but he crossed the path I took and you could tell he knew something wasn't right. I heard another deer behind him, but with him being about 10 yards away I wasn't able to turn and see what it was. This past time I was sitting on the ground and he came from the other way, walking with the wind. Once again I heard another deer following up behind him, but especially with being on the ground, I didn't look fearing I would spook them both. I passed up another shot at him hoping the deer behind him would follow the same trial. Well eventually the fork-horn crossed in front of me, where the wind was blowing my scent. He stopped and was very spooky, he even jumped when an acorn hit the ground! Shortly after that, he ran about 10 yards further away and walked away into the woods.
So with that, I have a question for all of you, if you would be willing to give me your advice. Of course I know it is good to see deer, trust me I would rather see that little fork over nothing at all, but I don't know if I'm educating that fork-horn or not? Would it be smart to continue to sit in that same area? I'm also used to hunting in NW Illinois, the deer are much larger there than they are down here. I'm not a trophy hunter at all, I would take a doe if given the opportunity. I just haven't seen a doe yet, just the fork-horn. I'm not sure if a fork-horn is something to be excited about down here or not.
I'm new to these forum talks but I was hoping to get some insight on a problem I have been faced with recently. I moved to Southern Illinois in August for graduate school and have brought my bow with me for when I get some free time. Not knowing anyone around here, I started to use the state land for my hunting. I was able to scout only a few times in September once I was shown the boundaries of the dnr property.
I've chosen an area which is about a square mile of dnr property, surrounded by private land on 3 of the 4 edges of it. I am unsure if those property owners hunt or not, but I haven't seen any sign that people have been using the same area as I am. When scouting, I noticed there was little actual sign (i.e. droppings, rubs) but I did notice a lot of trails. The thing about the trailer were that they seemed to fade into nothing after a while of following them.
I've managed to be lucky enough to spend about 5 hours every saturday afternoon/evening in the woods since Oct. 1st. Besides the last two saturday's, I haven't seen anything. The past two saturdays I have seen the same deer, once at 10 yards and once again this past weekend at 20 yards. This deer is a fork-horn, hard to tell whether hes 1.5-2.5 years old, but I would like to see how he looks next year if possible. The first time I saw him, he came from the side of me walking directly into the wind. I was in a stand and out of the wind, but he crossed the path I took and you could tell he knew something wasn't right. I heard another deer behind him, but with him being about 10 yards away I wasn't able to turn and see what it was. This past time I was sitting on the ground and he came from the other way, walking with the wind. Once again I heard another deer following up behind him, but especially with being on the ground, I didn't look fearing I would spook them both. I passed up another shot at him hoping the deer behind him would follow the same trial. Well eventually the fork-horn crossed in front of me, where the wind was blowing my scent. He stopped and was very spooky, he even jumped when an acorn hit the ground! Shortly after that, he ran about 10 yards further away and walked away into the woods.
So with that, I have a question for all of you, if you would be willing to give me your advice. Of course I know it is good to see deer, trust me I would rather see that little fork over nothing at all, but I don't know if I'm educating that fork-horn or not? Would it be smart to continue to sit in that same area? I'm also used to hunting in NW Illinois, the deer are much larger there than they are down here. I'm not a trophy hunter at all, I would take a doe if given the opportunity. I just haven't seen a doe yet, just the fork-horn. I'm not sure if a fork-horn is something to be excited about down here or not.
