On October 16th, I went hunting at Walnut Knob Outdoors in Pike County, IL. It is located just southeast of Pittsfield, IL.. I had hunted there last deer season so I was familiar with the terrain. We arrived there a little late in the afternoon, about four o'clock.
We hadn't really planned on hunting that afternoon, but I was excited about getting into the woods. I remember from the year before, a staging area next to this field. So, we went in there with our climbers and found a tree about 60 or 70 yards from the field. We thought we could at least see what was coming out into the field from that position.
We had just gotten settled in the tree and saw a few does come into the field that had been planted in winter wheat. It was about 30 minutes later when a hot doe came in behind us making a doe in heat sound. She was headed straight to the field and that was when things got really exciting.
We started seeing horns through the canopy of the trees and heard the crashing of horns. Suddenly this really nice buck came running down the edge of the field, jumped over the fence and started toward my stand. He started raking trees and thrashing the ground, making a scrape.
I sat there in awe as he played out his roll as the assertive buck and watched as he started moving in my direction.
I could see he was a chocolate horned 10 pointer with his horns well past his ears. He looked to be a 150 class buck or better. The best thing about all of this was he continued heading my way until he stopped, within 9 yards of my stand.
I was just about to draw my bow when I glanced out into the field and laid my unbelieving eyes on a true monster. There stood a white horned buck at least 20 inches wide with 14 or 15 inch G-2's and G-3's . This was a true giant. I pointed to my cameraman / dad for him to look into the field. When I pointed, the deer under my stand caught movement. He didn't really spook but he jumped and started to walk away. I still had a good clear 12 to 15 yard broadside shot. But this 150 class deer looked like Bambi compared to what was in the field.
Well, of course, this is where the old saying comes in " A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush." The monster buck that was in the field never came out of the field. We reviewed the tape and decided that the buck that was under my stand was closer to a 160 than a 150. Lesson learned: Shoot what is under your tree, not what is way out in the field. Don't get greedy!
We did not have any luck the next morning because it was so warm. Later in the afternoon, we hung some treestands right next to the wheat field where all of the action was happening.
Around 5 o'clock a few does came into the field and then, coming across the field was this nice buck. He was coming right toward me, working his way around the fence line and was heading right toward my stand. Every so often, he would stop and rub little trees along the fence. He also made a couple of scrapes. I could see him clearly at about 65 yards out. He looked to be a 140 inch or better.
What was really unique about him was he had a perfect turkey foot on his left side G-2 and his right side G-2 was split with a sticker coming off of it. He came within 50 to 55 yards of my stand and all of a sudden jumped the fence where the other deer had and was headed to the spot where we had our climbers the night before. A little later, we saw four or five big bucks out in the field about four to five hundred yards away. That was our last night to hunt there for a few days.
On Friday October 29, we returned to Walnut Knob and got into our stands early Friday morning.
We had a 130 class 10 pointer come in behind us but I made the mistake of looking around the tree as he was scratching himself. He looked right at me, sensed something wasn't right and went right back out the way he came in.
I was really excited about hunting later that afternoon. It was cloudy and stormy and looked the beginning of a big weather change. I know this weather pattern usually puts the deer in motion.
The only problem was the storm started getting violent quickly. There was a lot of jagged lightening all around us. As much as I wanted to stay in the stand, I knew better.
You could actually feel the static electricity coming from the lightening. Having a bow in your hand with an aluminum riser, carbon limbs and a quiver full of carbon arrows, is like holding a lightening rod. I had just lowered my bow to the ground when things started really getting ugly. When we are filming, we hunt about 30 to 32 feet high. I had just climbed out of my treestand and was starting down the ladder, when the tree started moving in a circular motion. The leaves and the sticks were going straight up in the air.
I realized we were in the middle of a small twister. We were in a tree that was a good 20 inches in diameter and I literally thought that it was going to snap off. It was all I could do, just to hang on to the tree. It only lasted for a matter of seconds and when it was over, I felt like I had just jumped into a swimming pool. I was soaked to the bone and my favorite Team Realtree hat was gone.
We got to the truck and drove back to talk to the owner Doug Pennock. Doug was picking tree limbs out of his yard and told us that there were tornado warnings all around the area. There is no doubt in my mind that it was a twister, maybe not an F-4, but it was a twister!
We went back again on Sunday morning and I hunted from the same stand. We saw a few small deer and later in the day, we saw the same big bucks crossing the ridge about four to five hundreds yards out.
Then Monday morning we were back in the stands and saw where the bucks were going back into the timber. It is where we had seen them on the ridge every night, so we decided to move our stands (about 11:00 am) over to where the bucks were moving in and out of the timber.
Randy, Election Day 13 pointer
When we were walking across the field, to move our stands, I found my TEAM REALTREE hat! I knew that was a good sign, because that is my lucky hat. Tuesday Morning, November 2, (election day) I was determined that I was going to try and intercept one of those bucks. Due to the time change, when we set our clocks back an hour, I overslept.
By the time we got to the stands the sun was already up and there were already does in the field. I put some doe estrus around my stand, being very careful not to spook anything out in the field. As I climbed into my stand, I would take a couple of steps and look to the field to make sure I did not spook anything. I made it into my stand undetected.
I did not anymore get my bow up in my stand, when I saw a couple of bucks run out into the field chasing does. One of them was a real nice 10 pointer. They had caught wind of the doe estrus under my tree and came to my stand like they were on a string. A little wide 6 pointer came in right under my stand and then the nice 10 pointer came in.
He came in the same way, right underneath my stand. He had his head down smelling the ground. At 30 yards, I came to full draw. I let him walk on in and released my arrow when he was at 7 yards. I made a perfect shot through the vitals. He jumped like a bee had stung him and then just slowly started walking away like he had not even been shot.
He went up over the hill and I heard him go down. I still gave him about 30 minutes before I went to recover my buck. He was only about 80 yards from my stand, a perfect 10 pointer with 2 stickers coming off of his right G-2 and one sticker coming off of his left G-2 . He wasn't the biggest buck I could have shot while I was at Walnut Knob, but he is going to look really good on my wall and in the freezer. He still made a 130 class Pope and Young. There is nothing like hunting whitetails in Illinois, especially at a place like Walnut Knob in Pike County, IL.
Walnut Knob Outdoors covers many tracts of land, some near the Illinois River valley.
There are nearly 4000 acres of quality hunting ground. There are furnished cabins and hunts are semi-guided. This is quality bow and muzzleloader hunting only and not a high pressure assembly line hunt. To book a hunt call Doug Pennock at 217-285-4259 or www.walnutknob.com.
Equipment used by Randy: Mathews Outback bow set at 70 lbs., Muzzy Zero-Effect Arrow Rest, Muzzy 100 grain 3-blade broadhead, Toxonic Top Gun Sight, SIMS Limbsaver Products, Summit Treestands, Scent-Lok Odor Eliminating suit, Wildlife Research Scent Killer products and a Copper John, 2-Finger Eagle Series Release.
