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| A great early season look at the dropper... |
By Chad Stearns
Flat screen, high-definition, surround sound, home theatre. Now that's
what every NFL-lovin', hocky-watchin' sports junkie dreams about. What
could be better than watching the big game in widescreen bliss...well, to this
sports fan, hunting giant whitetail bucks.
Every week in the Sunday paper I get inserts from all of my favorite
electronics stores. I spend several minutes ogling over plasma televisions
and home theatre systems before thinking of my hunting partner and cameraman,
Skeet Colosky. You see, last year on the return trip from my fourth consecutive
unsuccessful hunting trip to Illinois Skeet made a brilliant observation.
He pointed out that if I had saved all the money I'd spent on hunts in Illinois,
I could have any big screen system I want. While I knew he was joking,
those are the types of comments that haunt a guy. Every Best Buy ad now
kept me up nights...maybe I should give up on Illinois; maybe versus chasing a
P&Y candidate I should pursue a Sony! And so it went for several
months until I spoke with Hans Keller. Hans is the owner of Global Hunting
Adventures, Jay's preferred booking agency for worldwide hunting trips.
After hearing my tales of woe, Hans hooked me up with Joe Gizdic of Tall Tine
Outfitters in Roodhouse Illinois. According to Hans, if anyone could break
my big screen blues, Joe was the guy.
Tall Tine Outfitters operates in four counties of west-central Illinois and
Joe controls over 10,000 acres of prime, trophy-managed whitetail habitat.
I had the pleasure of meeting Joe on a previous hunting trip to the whitetail
"promised land". One of his hunters had arrowed an absolute giant of a
buck scoring over 202 P&Y inches and we went to admire the trophy. I
knew right away I liked Joe when he said to everybody staring awe struck at the
giant, "He would've been really big next year!" So needless to say, when I
got the invitation to hunt with Joe, I did not hesitate to accept.
As we planned for the fall hunt Joe, in typical fashion, joked that maybe I
should apply for a muzzle loader tag in addition to an archery license...that
way maybe I stood a chance of breaking the jinx. We could bowhunt for five
days and also muzzle loader hunt the second shotgun season. Ego in check,
I followed Joe's instructions and on November 26th headed for Illinois with two
tags in my pocket; my personal version of an extended warranty!
When the alarm announced the first morning of hunting all I could think was
"I should' a bought the big-screen". Rain was pounding on the roof and the
wind was howling at 40 mph...less than ideal conditions for bowhunting with
camera gear. As we sat around the breakfast table studying the satellite
weather forecast online, my overwhelming confidence began to wane. Wet,
blustery conditions would be the norm for the week. As was the case on my
four previous trips, Mother Nature was not going to make breaking the jinx easy.
Knowing we had a limited amount of time to score on a big whitetail, Skeet
and I tried to make the most of the bad weather conditions. Four days of
clinging to trees limbs in the relentless wind and shaking off spitting rain
produced only two encounters with shooter bucks. The first came on a
gloomy, gray morning. We were hunting a brushy creek bed that connected
three cut corn fields which were all dotted with newly opened scrapes. We
had been on stand for a couple of hours when Skeet caught a glimpse of a nice
buck running in our direction from the field behind us. Instantly, we both
jumped into action; Skeet hurried to get the video camera on and focused while I
grabbed my bow and readied for a shot. The buck leaped across the narrow
creek and turned directly toward our tree. As he galloped closer I came to
full draw and began to blat with my voice to stop him for a shot.
Blat, Blat, BLAAATT!!! Nothing! He kept his furious pace and before
we new it, he was across the adjoining field and out of sight. As I turned
to ask Skeet what the heck that was about, I saw two dogs hot on this buck's
trail. Initially I thought the buck was tracking a hot doe; instead he was
outrunning his pursuers. Now the thoughts of choosing a big
screen were racing! What are the chances of encountering a horrible week
of weather and still seeing a shooter only to have him chased off by dogs?
The jinx was alive and well!
Our only other encounter with a shooter came on the final morning of our
week-long bowhunt. The nasty wind and rain had finally moved through and was
replaced by clear, cold conditions. We moved to a new stand location on
the edge of a cut corn field bordered by a thick, brush-covered ravine&a
perfect bedding area. As darkness started to give way, we began to see
shadows moving all over the corn field. Deer seemed to pour out of the
thicket into the field. As we watched the parade of does I glassed behind
them and spotted a gorgeous 8-point working a scrape in the bedding
thicket. I grunted a few times and he snapped his head up looking in our
direction. I was certain this guy would follow the rest of the deer into
the cut corn field and offer us a shot. Consistent with my Illinois luck,
the 135" shooter finished working the scrape, turned and gave us some great
video opportunities as he walked in the opposite direction and out of our lives;
another empty tag closer to a big screen.
After our second "close but no cigar" morning, Joe gave us directions to a
new trophy-managed farm in Jersey County where my muzzle loader tag was
valid. We packed up our gear and prepared to head out for our new hunting
location which would give us a chance to bowhunt one last evening while
simultaneously getting familiar with the property we would muzzle loader hunt
the following morning. As we were getting ready to leave, Joe must have
sensed my frustration over the jinx. He reassured us of the trophy
potential of this new property and proved his theory by showing us several
recent trail camera photos of bucks from this farm. One, in particular,
caught my attention; a big framed non-typical with a large drop tine. When
I asked about the big dropper, Mikey, Joe's head guide, interrupted and said
"that picture was taken right in front of your stand". That was all I
needed to hear&we were headed for Jerseyville!
Things were looking up as we made our way to our new stand location. We
would be hunting a large oak tree situated on top of a ridge overlooking a
harvested bean field. On either side of our stand was a large CRP bedding
area and two draws that led up to the picked beans. If the bucks were
moving; we'd see them from this spot. We climbed into our stands and began
to get ready. I follow an almost ritualistic routine to get ready in the
tree, an approach that Skeet says is worse than a woman, but makes sure
everything is right and nothing is forgotten. I no more than finished my
fussy practice when a small buck exploded from the cover of the CRP chasing a
doe; the second rut was finally rockin'! While we didn't see any shooters
that evening and I added another empty tag to my collection, we were both
excited about our chances of breaking the jinx in the morning.
It must have been the week of Skeet's sarcastic remarks or the endless
conversations about why and how I do things that made me think of changing my
routine on the opening day of muzzle loader season. I knew we were in a
great spot, I knew there were several trophy bucks around, I knew I could now
shoot 200 yards effectively, so a little extra mojo couldn't hurt. To
change my luck, I decided to get completely ready at the truck, sneak into the
stand ready to go eliminating any extra noise or movement...my big screen blues
were about to be a distant memory! It didn't take long for the euphoric
feeling to disappear when half way through our pre-dawn hike I was sweating like
I was in Africa! I got into my stand and tried to ventilate to cool
off. In the dark, I got my coat twisted around my safety harness and my
sleeves were bunched up to my armpits. By the time I got settled, I was a
sweaty mess with clothes half off and enough frustration to last a lifetime...my
morning of inevitable triumph had turned into the biggest jinx reminder of
all. I sat motionless just waiting for another smug comment or suggestion
from my beloved cameraman. Somehow I think he knew I might just throw him
from the tree so he let me stew in darkness. As the sun started to rise we
could hear gun shots all around us. Suddenly to our left, a single,
close-range gunshot seemed to announce the arrival of the Best Buy ad. I
turned to say something to Skeet and noticed several deer entering the picked
beans from our right. I slowly raised my binoculars and saw the droptine
buck from the photos following several does. I immediately grabbed my
Thompson Center Encore 50 cal and struggled to find a shooting lane.
Because he had come from the opposite direction, the branches of the old oak
prevented any clear shots. Skeet struggled to focus the camera on the
buck, as I turned to find a rest. I had placed an EZY Hanger in the tree
to use as a shooting rest, but as soon as I touched my elbow down, it echoed a
loud CRREEEEK! The opportunity to break my Illinois jinx was only 116 yards
away, but suddenly it felt like a mile. I gently placed my arm on the rest
again and settled the crosshairs on the big buck's shoulders. Alerted, the
does started to slowly walk toward the safety of the woods and the buck dropped
his head turning to follow...it was now or never! Hoping that Skeet had
the buck in view, I squeezed the trigger. A plume of grey smoke
momentarily blocked our view until I saw the giant lying on the ground; he was
ours! I quickly reloaded just in case; with the way my luck had been I was
taking no chances. We quickly finished the on-camera necessities and I
climbed down to collect my trophy. As I approached the non-typical buck I
realized just how big he really was. With several broken tines he scored
144 3/8" with a 21 ½" spread and a dandy 8 1/2" droptine...the exact same buck
in the trail photo. In that instant, five years of frustration,
disappointment and plain bad luck disappeared...I had finally taken my first
Illinois whitetail and broken the jinx.
Several months have passed since that special day. Skeet still gives me
a hard time, I still get the Sunday paper and I still ogle over the 50 inch
plasmas, but thanks to Joe and the guys at Tall Tine Outfitters, I just smile
and think "the big screen can wait"!
For the Illinois Hunt of a Lifetime Contact:
Hans Keller
Global Hunting Adventures
Shelby Township, Michigan
(586)749-HUNT (4868)
www.live4hunting.com
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