Warning: Dead Critter!

It has been three years, but I finally got another nice IL buck this morning. It was so beautiful outside. The temperature was mild, the leaves were raining down giving a yellow cast to everything, and I'd just had the thought, "It's wonderful to be out here even if I don't see the big boy," and then he just walked right in like he'd read the script. My stand, and the spot I shot this big guy, is just over my shoulder in this picture, about forty yards down the hill. It was nice that my good-buddy-land-owner, who left work to come help me haul this heavy guy out, was able to drive right up to this fence on a neighbor's property. To say I was excited is an understatement, but I guess to those who know me, it's hard to imagine seeing me TOO excited about anything. Well, this was it, and I am very thankful for the successful hunt - and even the new taxidermy bill we'll have.
He came by at 8:15 in the morning. I watched him do a lip-curl - checking for does - before he walked straight across the clearing in front of me some fifteen yards away. After the shot, he circled right behind me and dropped on the top just five yards from the fence, just a couple yards from where the picture below was taken. How's that for being cooperative? He is a twelve pointer even though his G4 on his left side is broken and only an inch and a half long. He has a curled kicker point on both G2's, but it's hard to see the left one, and his right brow tine looks like a can opener. Lots of character. He's a beauty. So now I only have doe tags in IL and the land owner said he'd like to see us take about fifteen of them. I wish! I'd settle for a couple during Thanksgiving week - who knows...