Anyone handgunning in Illinois next weekend? After many bowhunts in Pike Co. I finally got a firearm permit this year. The .460 works well on Alabama whitetails--bet it does the job on Illini whities, too!

Good Luck Kingfisher! You have some huge Deer up in Pike county! I will be chasing them way down South in Pope County for the first firearm season then North a little in Hamilton County for the second season.
I have been hunting Pope for 15 years, taken almost as many deer, I can't wait to try the hangun this year as this will be my first hunt with the revolver!
Good luck and make sure you post your results with pictures if possible. I will do the same!

I've heard of Pope Co. How far south is it? Also, what handgun will you be shooting?

Speaking of deer in the midwest...on the way back through KS, MO and IL....JD and I saw some MONSTER bucks along Interstate 70. Several looked to be in the 150"+ range.

Dan, there are some monsters to be found, especially around Interstate 70. There is great farmland along that interstate and the Deer get very well fed.
Kingfisher, I am hunting about 20 minutes from Paducah KY. I hunt just outside of a little town called Golcanda, Illinois. Golconda sits at the confluence of the Ohio River and Lusk Creek. The property I hunt is divided by Lusk Creek. Here is a link to a google Map of Golconda.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Golconda,+il&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1&iwloc=addr
I will be using a Smith & Wesson 686, 357. Its the same gun as my avatar. I put a Bushnell Trophy 2-8x32 scope on it. I will be throwing Winchester partition gold 180 gr fully jacketed hollowpoints at them. As long as I can get them in 50 yards or less I feel very confident, anything further will get to keep walking

I have hunted east of there, close to Shawnee. Rode the ferry across the Ohio at Cave in the Rock and went north a few miles--close to a prison.

Pope used to be one of the top producers for Deer, I think it is out of top ten now, but there are a lot of deer down there. Was that Shawneetown? The Shawnee forest is absolutely enormous. There is a patch that backs up to the property I hunt and it covers the southern part of the state from river to river. I turkey hunt on the same same property. You are right, it is beautiful down there. And since it is extremely rural, its like a vacation from the real world. The place I hunt has anm old three room house with no running water, power or indoor facilities
But that means no tv, phones (the wife still thinks I have no cell signal ) I love it down there.

I DON'T have a cell phone signal when I'm below Shawneetown Ever been to the honky tonk east of Shawneetown right on the river? Good pool tables, great New York Strip, great beverages, good looking honeys from across the river in Evansville, and....I over-sleep every time I go in that place

Kingfisher where do you hunt in Pike County? I have a good friend who runs a whitetail outfitting business in Jackson County (Southern Illinois Trophy Outfitter - SITO.

regnets1 I hunt North Pope on a friends farm that borders Lusk Creek. It is kinda between Eddyville and the Y that turns south to Golconda.

I hunt with either my 6" F/A 555 or my 8" Colt Python

I hunt between Atlas and New Canton in western Pike County. The property is actually a couple of miles north of a small community called Rockport.

Know where I'm speaking of?

Welcome to the board Dekker!
We are very close! That Y in the Eddyville Blacktop is Coon Hunter's road. I take that and make a right turn where they just put some trailers on an old horse pasture along Coon Hunter's road (been there about three years now). That really sucks because the kids are driving their 4 wheelers all the way back into the property I hunt on. It's only about a 3//4 mile away and since the owners aren't around all the time they are giving the landowners a fit. It was a lot nicer when they weren't around. Anyway, I will be taking the 686 into the woods for the first time this year. Good Luck!