Illinois 2nd Firearm Season

[luieb45]

No I haven't got anything yet. I wanted to post that 1st so I don't leave you in suspense :rotf: . I'm hunting for deer that would be about 120 in. or better or will cull bucks with scraggly racks. I had a 70 yard shot this morning on a spike but decided to pass because I wanted to be sure I could take the deer. I'm sure he'll be around tomorrow. I saw 8 this morning and 4 of them were well within 30 -40 yards but were does. The rest were at 70 - 90 yards. But my dad isn't going to get skunked this year. He lost his patience with getting a deer with his muzzleloader and took out the shotgun and killed a cow elk(275 lb. doe). And guess what. He killed it at 9:00 and was going to a land auction with my grandpa at 10:00 so he hauled the deer out of the pasture into the field for gutting. He was going to be late if he gutted it himself but he leaves me to gut this gigantic, gut blasted doe(gut blasted because his scope was bumped 8 in. right). And some of you might not believe this either. When he went to recover his deer 10 minutes later he finds 3 bald eagles on the carcass tearing at the exit wound trying to eat. Hundreds of eagles flock to this mississippi every winter to congregate at the dam. But we are 20 miles from the river and only occasionally ever see an eagle out there. But anyway I got the doe dressed by myself. Then this evening my brother shot a small doe and he has shot 5 deer but never even gutted one before(I have no idea why not) and my dad wants him to gut it because after all he is 20 years old. So he even needs help from me to lift this 100 lb. doe over the creek where it died to the truck. For most of the way I just carried it by all four legs. Then when I'm holding the legs for him my dad's telling him how and where to cut on this deer and he is just plain scary with a knife! When he was cutting the hide at the rib cage he just held the knife and stabbed at it with one hand thinking that would get it done :shake: . But I had a good day of hunting seeing a good amount of deer. Jumped 3 at 10 yards going to sit this evening and had a doe walk within 7 yards of me without getting busted. I was just sitting with my back rested on a tree with no ground blind or cover, plus I wasn't even wearing any camo just brown coveralls. I guess it shows that camo isn't completely necessary.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Throw in a paragraph now and then. :grin:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Lets keep the hunting tales to traditional muzzleloaders only. We've got a mixed bag above . . . I guess.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Now that's an eventful day. :shocked2: Good luck with your buck tomorrow. :thumbsup: GW

 

[luieb45]

But I was hunting with a traditional muzzleloader and my dad was hunting this evening with a traditional muzzleloader. But we didn't see any deer that we were looking for.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Don't mind Stump.

He gets grumpy this time of night.

 

[rabjr]

You might wanna mention that next time. Only thing I see is a shotgun mentioned in place of a muzzleloader. Don't sound to Traditional to me. :v

 

[luieb45]

I guess I got so wrapped up in talking about everyone else I forgot to mention myself. I had a meltdown going to the stand this morning. I snapped a cap like usual before loading and it got REALLY stuck and I haven't even been able to get it off with vise grips yet. So I had to change nipples while racing against the sun because I was still working on the gun when it was time to be going.

 

[rabjr]

I found a small pocket knife in that situation the best for removing a cap like that. One you don't care much about, use it tight against the nipple and scrape upward. You should now see a sliver of cap material cut out of the cap which should loosen it. Always worked for me when that happened.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Never had that happen. I use Remington caps which are kind of thin. They always split and flick right off.

 

[luieb45]

That did the trick with a little oil on it. Thanks again Swampy :thumbsup: . Glad to have you posting around here again.

 

[shootemup]

Great tale, man that's a big doe. :thumbsup:

 

[ny griz]

Good story,but where does the word elk come in?Is that for comparisment?Griz

 

[Maynerd62411]

Yeah, we don't have elk, other than escapees , in Illinois.

 

[luieb45]

During the summer I shot remington caps and had 5 tins that I bought had the material that makes them ignite fall out. About 1/3 of them were unusable. I rarely have that with CCI but I got the stuck cap because I was shooting a cap before loading and it had nothing in it. Luckily I didn't put that on my gun in the tree :shocked2: . Plus I buy CCI because that's what our powder and cap guy at the club stocks from his yearly trip to Graf's in Mexico, Missouri.

 

[luieb45]

I was just trying to say it was a big doe. Someone mentioned escapee elk and that reminds me of a story from Ohio where a guy shot one thinking it was a deer. And their DNR said it had ventured from kentucky or something.

 

[luieb45]

Today was a bust. I'm starting to think percussion caps don't like me because I had a meltdown before going to sit tonight and spent 10 minutes looking everywhere for my capper and found it on the truck tailgate :idunno: . Didn't see any deer at my stands but had a 70 yard shot walking out of the timber at a doe. Next week I can hunt Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning of our muzzleloader season. Then after that I'll have no more oppurtunities to get a buck. So I gotta make my time count.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

During the summer I shot remington caps and had 5 tins that I bought had the material that makes them ignite fall out. About 1/3 of them were unusable. I rarely have that with CCI but I got the stuck cap because I was shooting a cap before loading and it had nothing in it. Luckily I didn't put that on my gun in the tree :shocked2: . Plus I buy CCI because that's what our powder and cap guy at the club stocks from his yearly trip to Graf's in Mexico, Missouri.

I've read that before. I have to wonder if it was a bad batch, or maybe the old caps. They came out with a new hotter cap awhile back. I've never experienced what you did in thousands of caps. Something has to be different.

 

[Maynerd62411]

A couple of years ago, there was a young hunter down around Carbondale that got an elk. He was hearing an elk and saw it numerous times. There had been a "breakout" at an elk farm a few years before, and apparently, they were breeding. He tagged it with his deer tag, but was told by DNR that he didn't need to have tagged it at all, since elk are not indiginous to Illinois.

 

[Maynerd62411]

When I first started shooting muzzleloaders, I had a tin of CCI caps that after popping, they would leave the paper in the nipple and clog it. I used Remington caps for a while, but couldn't find any, last time and got CCI again. No problems with this bunch.