Dreams of Pike - Illinois
Terry and his Pike County dream.
Terry and Jason.
Hunter: Terry Edwards
Cameraman: Jason Martyn
In July at the annual Posse Bash Ralph asked if I would be interested in going to Pike County, IL for a bow hunt. Without a second thought I jumped at the chance. After working out the details, Joe called and told me I’d be hunting and filming with Jason Martyn at Eagle Lakes Outfitters in early January. Needless to say I was pumped. I had read many stories and watched hundreds of hunts filmed in Pike County. I had always dreamed of hunting there and I could hardly believe that now I would be hunting this same area. Time passed quickly and on January 3, I said goodbye to Kim, the kids, and work as I pulled out for Eagle Lakes. Upon arriving I was shown around the beautiful lodge and introduced to the other people in camp for the week. Jason arrived a couple hours later and we began making our plans for the week.
The first couple of days we saw lots of deer with sighting of several bucks, but nothing in range of our Hoyt’s. On Wednesday morning we hunted a stand in a funnel between two cornfields and had several deer pass by in the field just out of range for Jason. After climbing down from our morning hunt Jason had a great idea to build a natural ground blind of cedar limbs and grass in the field about 70 yards from the stands we had hunted. After we finished building the blind we just had to wait for the next morning with the right wind to hunt it. The wind didn’t cooperate on Thursday or Friday for us to hunt it, so we hunted other stands seeing lots of deer and some good bucks but again, just out of range. Finally on Saturday morning the last day of our hunt, the wind was right to hunt the blind we had built earlier in the week.
Jason and I slid into the blind early, we both had high hopes for this setup and were soon rewarded with our first sighting of the morning, only a couple of yearlings, but the blind worked perfect—they walked right by us. We only had a short break after the yearlings passed when we saw more deer crossing the field. Jason having a better view said a shooter buck was coming. As the deer came over the rise in the field I finally got a look at the buck as he followed a doe right in front of us. The doe stopped at a spot which I had ranged with my Nikon rangefinder to be 35 yards. Jason gave me the okay and I drew my Hoyt placing the pin behind his shoulder.
The release felt good and I watched as the spitfire tipped Beman hit its mark and I knew the buck was mine. The buck only ran 50 yards, stopping at the field edge where he stood for a few seconds and then fell. After some celebrating and high fives, we made our way over to the buck. I then realized I had just taken my best archery buck and it was time for more celebrating and a photo session. I would like to thank Archers Choice, Eagle Lakes Outfitters and Jason Martyn for making my Pike County dream come true.