Illinois Six Pointer....

Wow, Great 6!

There is something special about a big mature 6 pointer. I guess it is because they are rare.

Nice job.

Neat buck Woody! Gald you got him, he's a dandy.

Very nice 6!

Nice buck. Congrats.

Good one Woody, congrats!!

Beautiful buck Woody! Congratulations!

That's an awesome deer! I know I've said it before but big 6's are way up on my love to take list.

Great buck, congrats!

The story...

I took this fine 6 pointer on November 22 in Illinois with a slug gun. He was the 10th deer that I saw in the first 45 minutes of light. All the others were does and fawns – including one white doe and a piebald fawn.

I considered taking the white doe, but one of the other hunters had spotted a big buck after a white doe. No such luck this time.

My setup was 25” up a big oak in a fence row that smack dab in the middle of two CRP fields that were about 60 acres each. CRP fields hold a lot of deer. The trouble this year was that Southern Illinois had received so much spring rain that the weeds were super high. Most times if you saw deer in the CRP all you saw was their head, if they held them upright. If they were traveling head down they could walk right past you and you’d never see them. Still a good place to be.

This was the third and last day of the Illinois first gun season. I had passed a few lesser bucks the first two days.

When he came cutting across the CRP field from NW to SE all I could see was lots of white on top of his head. I never even thought of counting points. Of course I would have shot him if he was that big of a spike too.

I had to swivel around in my seat and get the gun in between a couple big limbs (good cover in that treestand) to get a shot at him.

He reached about the 60 yard mark and I BAHHED with my mouth to stop him. All I could see was his rack, head, neck and about an inch or two of his body. I aimed at best I could wher I though his cheat was and shot. He dropped. I watched where he dropped in the weeds and all of a sudden I could see the rack come up and sway back and forth. I knew that he was trying to get up so all I could do was watch and hope he did not get up and if he did I could get another shot in him. He did that several time, but he never stood up. I could not just shoot down into the weeds as I had no good sight pictures of him.

Finally after about 5 minutes he had not gotten up, so I figured he couldn’t. I got down out of the tree and went to finish him off. Even though he was only 60 yards away and I had marked a bush that he close to, I still had a little trouble finding him in the tall weeds. All those bushes looked alike at ground level. I finally found him and finished him off. The first shot was high in the shoulder breaking him down but not killing him. I just did not get the sight down far enough on him.

Points – 6

Inside width – 17”

Beam length – 25”

Tines length – 11”