How is IL. season going

Walt Francis · October 13, 2015, 10:11:00 AM

My hunting buddy Lenny Brown and I are headed east to Illinois three weeks from today, November 2nd. We have a seven day self-guided hunt we bought at the PBS banquet in Cincinnati and to put it mildly, I am starting to get a little antsy. I hunted Illinois seven or eight years back on a guided hunt a friend won in a raffle. I'll just say it wasn't a very good experience; we got what we paid for.

Anyway, I am looking forward to hunting hardwoods and headers instead of cottonwoods and river bottoms. I went to Uncle Barry's boot camp a few years back and got some Midwest whitetail education, hopefully I will be able to implement some of his header techniques and stand setups that are not applicable to the river bottoms we hunt. Been studying google earth for treestand locations but have had trouble finding a web site with the prevailing winds for the areas we are hunting. Anybody know of a good web site for wind directions?

Did I mention I am getting a little antsy?

Good luck to everybody.

ranger 3 · October 13, 2015, 10:11:00 AM

Thanks Mike, it has cooled a little so I am going to start hunting again. I went a week ago and only seen another hunter on state land.

toddster · October 13, 2015, 02:57:00 PM

First apoligize, as work got in way of making follow up report for sunday, but got another day in anyway. Sunday night, which as many recall got warm, right as the sun set, I seen 4 does browsing through, then looked to my right 20 minutes before last shooting time and there was a "monster" buck, he was 30 yards with alot of brush, but he stepped up to the edge of the field and checked it out.
Last night, I sat in stand and had 3 does browse through again, but one slipped up and got to close, now she is in freezer. They are starting to pick up.

jonsimoneau · October 13, 2015, 05:09:00 PM

Walt check out Wunderground.com. But my guess is that your two most common winds are going to be NW and SW. Don't forget to pick a few spots for East winds. We seem to get more of that during November the last few years.

Herdbull · October 13, 2015, 06:27:00 PM

Walt, I also log onto weather channel and punch in the closest city, then click hourly forcast for wind direction etc.

Last year it was very windy (>30 mph) with temps in single digits during early Nov. Good luck.

Ceb · October 14, 2015, 07:08:00 PM

still seeing numerous does and fawns, only buck a little 1 1/2yr old. No shots yet.

Walt Francis · October 15, 2015, 01:01:00 AM

Jon,

Thanks, it looks like the that site will have the information I need.

Mike,

Thanks, I didn't think of using the Weather Channel, guess it was to obvious. It is not uncommon to get -20 here with 20-30mph winds in late November. However, ours is a dry cold, everybody tells me the humidity makes a big difference.

ranger 3 · October 15, 2015, 04:26:00 PM

Went out this am and no luck, 42 degrees and my toes got cold.

toddster · October 16, 2015, 08:41:00 AM

Seen four does in standing bean field, had two more move behind me to it, 20 minutes before last light, seen turkeys too. An awesome evening.

Hoyt · October 16, 2015, 06:37:00 PM

I was in a prime spot where I had a couple bucks come by a few days ago..one fine one. Didn't see anything and it was cold for my thin blood.

I got Beagle problems and they are ruining my hunting season.

Ceb · October 17, 2015, 11:07:00 PM

Made it out again this morning, managed to put an arrow in a small 7 point a little before 9:00AM. Quartering away at about 17-18yds, he managed about 75yds before going down. He was one of seven I saw this morning. Bow was a mid 70s Mag handle Bear takedown 53#. Doug fir shaft tipped with Zwickey Delta.

ranger 3 · October 18, 2015, 10:05:00 AM

Good job Ed, have any pics. and story?

Hoyt · October 18, 2015, 12:15:00 PM

Since Scout has gotten so screwed up, I check this site for wind. Doesn't do me much good though in the ridges and drainages I hunt.

https://www.windyty.com/?2015-09-11-00,37.562,-88.445,12

Huntschool · October 18, 2015, 03:08:00 PM

Have seen a few but nothing I wanted to take. That being said, temps have been too high. Last night however we went into the 30's but are now trending back up.

Oak mast is thin right around the house. I am concerned about food availability as the season progresses.

I will be busy with teaching classes and coaching our shotgun team until after the end of the month. Then I'll kick it in gear.

Rick Wiltshire · October 18, 2015, 03:13:00 PM

30 hours on stand so far - total of 4 deer seen with only 1 in shooting range.

Jered Shofner · October 18, 2015, 08:06:00 PM

The herd around me seems to finally be starting to recover from EHD devastation of 2013. I took one doe and missed another in the last week.

Just spent the weekend with friends around lake shelbyville at the UBI rendezvous and the deer numbers there seem to be up, too.

toddster · October 20, 2015, 08:51:00 AM

Warmed up this week, so I expected the deer to slow down little. Last night, didn't see but one deer in a field, but did see some turkeys.

toddster · October 29, 2015, 11:27:00 AM

Went out last night, seen 3 does, to far to shoot. Some more buck sign on schedule

Brianlocal3 · October 29, 2015, 08:57:00 PM

Anyone else here hunt Coffeen?

Fletcher · October 29, 2015, 10:17:00 PM

This was my view on Sat morning, Oct 17. A little before 9, four deer came in and this 1.5 yr old yearling doe finally stopped on the second bare spot. It was a pretty quartering shot and she made it about 30 yards. Saw a total of 11 deer that morning, not a single antler.