Well, How did you do for the first season? I shot a nice 10 pointer out on the Kaskaskia river.

It was a great weekend to be in the woods. I saw approximately 60 deer, 9 of which were nice wall hangers. I took a shot at a nice buck on Friday. I mean to tell you he was a big mature deer. After I shot he laid down for about 10 minutes, and then he was gone. I checked the area where he laid down and there was a great blood trail. I went back to the house and got two buddies, one who is one of the best trackers I know. We then trailed the deer for over 2 miles and looked for the deer for 3 1/2 hours, following good blood the whole way. Then the blood just stopped ( I guess his buddies noticed that he was bleeding and gave him a band-aid or something) We never found the deer. ,) I'm not sure but I think that the buck made it onto the neighboring property and was harvested by another hunter. Needless to say I was in a slight state of depression after lossing such a nice buck! I guess my shot was not as good as I thought.
Other than that I still saw a lot of wildlife (i.e. deer, turkey, quail, and one very brave squirell) On the brighter side, one of my hunting buddies harvested a magnificent 24pt non-typical that had an inside spread of 22" and the bases of the rack were 7 1/2". It was a huge mature buck. I tried telling him that it was the deer that I had shot, but he was'nt buying that
Hopefully I will get one on the second season, there are plenty of them out there.
Congrats on the 10pt., what did you shoot him with?

My cheap 50 cal smoke pole. I ordered it thru Cabelas about 4 years ago. with scope and high rise mounts, it was under 100 bucks. It shoots as well as the wife's Thompson Center Black Diamond XR. Sot him at 130 yards, and the shot was right on the mark. He went 30 yards, and fell over. I am really sorry to hear about loosing a deer. I know the depression that comes about afterwards. I have lost 2 in the 25 years that I have been hunting, and still remember them both like they happened yesterday. I hope the season gets better for you