HEARTLAND'S MONSTER BUCKS

Get In Line

EDITOR'S NOTE: James Woodley is the lodge manager at Heartland Lodge located in west-central Illinois in Pike, Adams and Brown counties. Heartland Lodge uses extreme deer-management strategies to raise monster bucks on the property.

QUESTION: How hard is it to bow hunt here at Heartland?
ANSWER: Last year, Illinois restricted non-resident permits to around 12,800 hunters on a first-come, first-serve basis. You call a 1-800 number to get a permit. Once the 12,000 or so are gone, that's it. We do not issue the permits. The hunter has to get the permit.

QUESTION: Is booking a hunt at Heartland hard?
ANSWER: It depends on the season. The bow hunts during the rut are booked a year in advance. We do have a combo (bow and gun) hunt. It is the first three days of shotgun season, and each hunter is allowed to harvest one buck with a bow and one with a gun. This hunt has a 3- to 4-year waiting list.

QUESTION: Do you decide where everybody will hunt?
ANSWER: Yeah, but a lot of guys want to come up in Pike county where we have a camp. Other than that, the placement of hunters depends on the openings.

QUESTION: How do you decide where to put the people?
ANSWER: The main factor is wind. We wait until the morning of the hunt to do the actual placement of the hunters. We'll have ideas depending on what the deer have been doing, but where we are going to take the hunters depends on the wind.

For more information on hunting with Heartland Outfitters, call James Woodley at (217) 773-3003.

TOMORROW: LOCATING THE MONSTER BUCKS