It is the second week of November…what else is there to say!! It is the best time to be in the woods and where else would we rather be but at Rayse Creek Outfitters in Mt. Vernon, Illinois! Last year was the first time hunting at Rayse Creek Outfitters for Levi and me. Since then we have become such good friends with the whole family; Bret, Michele, Brad, Gary, and Brenda Chesnik. If you are reading this and would love to go to Illinois to hunt huge whitetails and be around a good atmosphere of great people, well this is the place to go! There’s nothing better than going to a hunting lodge and having that family atmosphere. And might I add that Michele and Brenda are wonderful cooks!
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We had this hunt planned since last year and got a call early season from Bret telling us that if we could squeeze an extra trip in for mid- October, that it would be well worth it. He had some unbelievable trail cam pictures of giant whitetails. One in particular really caught our eye. This deer became known as the Big Tall 8! He was the most unique looking buck and his rack stood so high up on his head. We jumped right on that invitation and headed up there.
They had been seeing this buck on a huge bean field, so if the wind was right, we decided to hunt there. That week, we saw so many nice bucks but they just wouldn’t come close enough. The night before we were suppose to leave, we were hunting from a ground blind and right as we were running out of shooting light, I looked through my Alpen binoculars and said to Levi “there’s a buck standing in the field.” Levi looked and was like holy crap that’s the buck we’re after! Needless to say he hung up at about 80 yards and we ran out of daylight. We weren’t too upset because we knew we would be back in November.
November rolls around and the first couple of days were a little slow. But I’m pretty sure it was due to summer temperatures! Last week in Ohio we had to deal with the full moon and now hot temps..ugh! On the evening of November 11th the wind seemed horrible for every stand we had to hunt. That morning they were cutting the bean field and Levi said “we need to be on that bean field as soon as they’re done cutting it.” So early that evening Levi, Keith, and I sat up a ground blind…well they set it up…I stood there going “yep that looks good”…”uh you need to cut that” lol!
Levi and I hadn’t been sitting in the blind long when we saw some does come running over the hill. And anytime you see does running in the middle of the rut, you better get your bow ready!! So that’s what I did! What we saw next, we couldn’t believe. It was the BIG TALL 8! I was freaking out I was so excited. The does ran out in the field and I ranged them at 55 yards, figuring that’s where he would be headed. Sure enough here he comes. I pull back and he stops facing me…
You better watch the show to see how I take the biggest buck of my life with my Mathews Passion! Keep us in your prayers and we’ll keep you posted!
Samantha!
Rayse Creek Outfitters – Mt. Vernon, IL – Whitetail
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