Buck of the week
January 18, 2011 11:48PM
Updated: September 24, 2012 6:25AM
Tim Edison sent one of the oddest nominations for Buck of the Week: a buck still in velvet with six scoreable points on one side and only two on the other.
‘‘It was meandering through the snowy woods, feeding on bush honeysuckle, with a group of about 12 does and fawns,’’ e-mailed Edison, a large-river ecologist for the Illinois Natural History Survey. ‘‘As I was sitting on the ground next to a large oak tree, one of the does walked to within 20 yards of me, checking me out. She became nervous and trotted away, causing the buck to turn and present a broadside shot at 80 yards that I couldn’t pass up.’’
He bagged it with a Savage blackpowder rifle during muzzleloader season Dec. 10 in Iroquois County.
‘‘After field-dressing the deer, [with] snow on the ground and the use of my son’s sled, getting it out of the woods was fairly easy for a deer that field-dressed at 250 pounds,’’ Edison e-mailed. ‘‘A great day and a deer that will be appreciated on my wall.’’
Deer hunting has wrapped up for 2010-11 in Illinois. When harvest numbers come out, I will post them at Stray Casts ( blogs.suntimes.com/bowman/ ).
We have more BOTW nominations to run. E-mail them to straycasts@sbcglobal.net.
