Ohio 2000 And Wisconsin 2000 Whitetail Bowhunts

I was fortunate to be invited to hunt in Ohio with friends of my son's this past year.
Pete, Eric and Brandon Bilinovich, and Bob Hauser are just a few of the good people I had the pleasure of hunting with.

The quality of hunting is good in this area of Ohio and will only get better. Pete is conscious of management requirements and has embarked on a program that will improve the natural balance of the deer population and also help to maximize the number of mature deer.

My son Scott finally connected in Ohio. He had seen several bigger bucks on previous trips and we won't mention what happened in two of those situations.
He redeemed himself on Friday, November 17th at around 7:15 a.m.. Of course, as he was dragging his buck to the cart road one of the bucks sighted earlier (a 155+ class B&C) appeared on the hill just above him!
This ten-point buck has split brow tines and a 20-inch spread. He was aged at 4-1/2 years old.

I got lucky the previous evening at around 3:15 p.m. as this buck came and stuck his nose in the tracks of a doe who had been around my stand for almost an hour.
It was a 22 yard shot and he died in sight.
I also had seen the same 155+ buck that Scott saw that morning at about 60-yards in thick cover but he was not interested in a grunt or doe-bleat as he was already partnered-up with a doe.
My buck is also a ten-point with a 17-inch spread. He was aged at 3-1/2 years old.

After we both got our bucks we took a drive around the property and spotted 3 bucks and 9 does in an open field just before dark. Two of the bucks were in the 100 to 120-inch range and one was an absolute bruiser which I estimate would easily make B&C with about 10-inches to spare!

Nice truck load!

Brian Bilinovich of Ohio took his 3rd Buckeye record book buck this year.
Brian is a consumate young hunter and was very pleased with his food plot and scouting results in bringing this huge buck to him.

My sincere thank you goes out to Bob Hauser and the Bilinovich family for their hospitality.

I took this 9-pointer in Wisconsin the week before going to Ohio. I had seen two very big (140+) bucks in my area but just could not get them in front of me. The buck I shot was 4-1/2 years old but had a slightly palmated, and stunted rack. He weighed almost 200 pounds after field dressing.
Wisconsin has been very tough to hunt. This year I made 3 trips out there. I started in mid summer with clearing trails, cutting shooting lanes and hanging stands at places I had scouted the previous season.
I returned in early fall and hung a couple more stands. Then went back in November for some serious hunting.
I always see huge bucks there but just don't seem to be able to get them near my stands. I have 12 stands on 480 acres but the big guys continue to avoid me.
This year my timing was terrible. There was a special 4-day gun season for does right in the middle of archery season. For some reason I did not read this in the license booklet and I showed up at the farm the day after the gun season closed.
It was 5 days before I saw a deer while hunting.
This buck was only the second deer I saw in bow-range during an entire week of hunting.

My goal, for the past 29 seasons, has been to take a mature Pennsylvania buck with a bow. This year I did everything time would allow to accomplish that but did not hook-up with such a buck.
On the bright side, I saw more bucks than ever this year and had several opportunities at small bucks. There are a couple of good bucks in the area around my cabin and I hope it is just a matter of time until I connect with one.

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