Went to Illinois this past week. Hunted four and a half days on public. Friends have been going for years up there.
During that time I learned a lot. I e never hunted ridges and elevation changes. Learned about Topo and feel better
About next year. Just cause it says a NE wind don’t mean it’s a NE wind where you hunt. It was blowing 30 mph
And you would put that milk week in the air and it would go completely different direction. So. I have some reading up
On that. Also can’t expect a 150 on public even though you very well could. I would go with the intentions of shooting a good average alabama buck or larger. If the biggun come by. Great.
The hunts were good. Worst day was Thursday. Blowing 25 with gust to 35 it seemed. Last deer saw for our group was at 7:40am. Now. They were all bucks and one shooter saw my buddy before he saw him.
I saw 15 different bucks with five within 20 yards. Just all forked horn bucks. Every doe had a buck that I saw behind it. I may have saw one shooter. I was about 120 yards from private and I heard something. Looked on the private and a buck was whipping a sapling in a thicket. All I saw was a big fork. The trail come twenty steps so grabbed bow cause them deer make some tracks quick. Grabbed the bow. Checked him. Saw him flicker his tail. Grabbed binocs and he vanished. That was probably my biggest deer but assume it had a doe pinned down. Good time.
Tired from hunting all day. Them ridges and mountains wrecked me. But. I think I’m planning on going again.
Had a house in the middle and drove hour to the east and west different days hunting different sections.

That sounds like a great hunt !

It really was a great trip. First time out of state. Went in blind a lot and still saw deer. Think I had one morning and evening sit without seeing anything.
We’d sit till 12 ish then run to another spot if we wasn’t feeling it the first spot.

Going with someone who has been there before is the ticket.
So ya'll just eased in and posted up when you had a good
vantage point or trail ?

Looked on hunt stand topo map. Found saddles or ridges and finger that we thought looked good. Replicated some of there spots that they know were good in the past up there. Then looked at what was planted in fields previous years and timber changes. We hunted two spots we scouted we like and I saw that good deer on private and he saw a borderline shooter on both our first sits. I never had the opportunity to shoot mine but he did his and flip flopped back and forth and decided not too. He was on a doe also. He’s shot at two bigger bucks in past years and wanted one of those. I probably would have shot then we hunted spots they hunted in the past.
Just added to the list of spots persae.