Before my eye caught the brownish mass drifting irregularly through the thick tree line 200 yards away, I’d been seriously considering filling my doe tag. It was the first afternoon of Illinois’ second firearm season, and from my stand tucked inside a small woodlot, I could see five of them milling around in a harvested cornfield to my right. Earlier that morning, I’d stumbled my way through leftover snow to hunt a stand down in a timbered bottom, but I’d come up empty, seeing only one doe. That first sit’s minimal activity and the anticipation of bringing home meat had me contemplating shooting a doe. The large, russet-colored apparition in the trees changed that in an instant.
With the does now forgotten, I watched what appeared to be a big-bodied deer…
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Game & Fish East (Digital) - 1 Issue, December/January 2024-25