bscofield

I'm so frustrated........[:@]

I spent 4 days away from my wife and 5 month old so that I could, for the first time this year, hunt more than 5 acres! I went Thursday afternoon and my buddy and I went to the north side of the lake to Eckert's woods. We parked at the parking lot that it is right at the foot of a pretty large bean field. We scouted around for about 2-3 hours before hanging our stands. He was on the tree line about 700 yards in where there was good fresh prints moving along the tree line and a good trail moving out of the tree line heading straight to a little woods/pond oasis in the middle of the field. I was at the end of the field in a patch of woods that was sort of like a not-so-deep creek and a serious go between for the deer to get between the field my buddy was hunting and a pretty large block of woods (leading up to the kaskaskia river). There were tracks from everywhere leading up to that place where I was at! They were just cutting across the field from like 10 different spots to get into this THICK crap I was in.

So we're done with Thursday. We went in completely descented like we were hunting, we hung our stands and got out. We didn't even hunt Thursday evening to make sure we didn't alarmy anything with our sudden influx of activity. So come Friday we hunted morning and afternoon/evening. Three guys spread with a good view of about 500 acres (a rough estimate) and we saw NOTHING! I couldn't believe it. I was disappointed. For the amount of fresh sign that we had seen this was not what we had expected. Saturday morning rained us out so we stayed in.

Saturday afternoon there was just 2 of us and we decided to go hunt 2 funnels that we had seen that looked like they had good potential. On our way in at noon to do our scouting we jumped one good size doe, so that was encouraging. We found 2 good spots for us to hunt both funnels and then got out to come back later that afternoon. So at about 2 PM we head back in. We both get to our spots and are fairly confident with what we see. We're on a flood plain so there is next to NO undergrowth so we can see a fair distance. We're huntin' from the ground for about 20 minutes when we hear 4-wheelers going through the woods that we were counting on getting deer from (through the funnels we were on). The guys stop in the middle of the woods and starting HAMMERING ON SOMETHING!!!!!! After about 20 minutes of this they get back on their scare machines and start crusing the woods. They first move off to where my buddy is (north of me) and come within 10 yards of him, see him and give this cocky little smile and take off. They were 2 13-14 year old little punks! They then head almost straight for me, get to within 40 yards of me, slow down, one points me out to the other and then the ride straight for me and come within 10 feet and give me the same frickin' idiotic smile and take off through the woods again![:@][:@][:@]

For about 2 minutes I had a new prey I wanted to kill!!! Then I calmed down. I went over to talk with my buddy and asked him if he wanted to move or stay put. We decided that since it was only like 3:30PM we'd stay put and see if the deer move in from another area. Since we were on funnels there were 2 sources of deer so we thought we'd stay and try our luck, it felt too late to go into another section of woods anyway. So I went back and I moved away from the side of the funnel that the kids were in and move to where the part of the woods was thinner so that I could effectively intercept anything coming through from the other side. I find a new spot to sit. I sit there for about 20 minutes or so and glance off to my right (my only remaining source of deer) and there's another bow hunter walking towards me at about 20 yards away. We just kind of waived at each other and he moved back from where he came from. I don't blame him for any of this madness he was polite. For all I know tho he just went to the other side of the funnel and intercepted deer before they could get to me

(Out of curiosity, is that hunter a member here? Just wondered if he got anything. It sounded like I heard a shot about 1 hour after he walked away from me)

On Saturday night we talked with another hunter who had seen these kids on the 4 wheelers about 1 mile away and he said it looked like they were LOOKING FOR HUNTING TRUCKS AND GOING OUT TO TRY AND SPOOK DEER. [:@]

Now comes Sunday. We move back into our original stands and are there all morning. I saw ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. No movement, no deer near me or far away from me. What is up with that? My buddy saw one deer. A small buck who had a bad antler (he thought it was a doe for a long time). The deer even let him take 2 shots on him. Second one he connected. We drug it out about 1/2 mile through this nasty flood plain stuff to our car.

That was my 4 day weekend! [:'(]

I'm so bummed... that was my only planned weekend for this year where I was really counting on seeing some deer because I was finally going to be on a large plot of land (eckert's woods is something like 3000 acres). Instead I got jipped...

if you made it to the end of this... CONGRAGULATIONS!

RiverBottomBowHunter

I wish you would of said that you were heading in there. I've hunted that area the last couple years. I've always seen deer, there are also a few big bucks around. Anyway, you guys went to the wrong area. The locals around Eckerts woods are always in there messing around. Next time you go, pm me and I can head you in the right direction. There are a few spots that I will promise you will see deer. All you need is a climber and a boat!We'll keep this between us.

RBBH

adams

Sorry the weekend didn't go as planned. I can deal with not seeing deer but the kids on the 4 wheelers need a good beating. It would have been nice to get a picture of them and turn them in. In maine it's illegal to harass hunters and I'd say for certain that's what they were doing. It almost makes you want to carry a pocket full of rocks(big rocks) to throw at them[:@]

I'm glad to hear your friend had some sucess. Hopefull your 5 acre parcel will pay dividends once the rut kicks up.

That's not necessary. It was a good read.

mjqood0

I feel your pain!

Yesterday, the wind was finally right for my new stand... and apparently was right for the neighbor to pound posts for a new fence.... right down through the pasture within 100 yards of me. Granted it's his land, but he knows I hunt and he knew I was there. He even waved and shouted hello...

We have an agreement that we can hunt each other's land since I mainly bow hunt and he mainly gun hunts... so I don't disturb him when he's out and I kinda expected him not to disturb me either.. Oh well.

A good read though! Misery loves company.

Stalker22

Sounds like you got the bad end of it. I would be mad too if I had that happen. [:@]

warrendixon

pm sent sir