12-19 SS Pike Cty.

I took a recent trip to Illinois in conjunction with my Outfitters Showcase program on the Outdoor Channel.  I was told that there were massive whitetail bucks that could be found in countless numbers. I’m DS...  I’ll tell you something. if you want to avoid any action, just bring a TV camera along with you. Pike County Illinois has a fabulous  reputation when it comes to huge Whitetail both in terms of size and population. At one time there were 90 outfitters in that one County alone. So that tells you something. I brought my camera crew out to go on some Whitetail hunts and the net net is that the camera guys spent 5 days in tree stands and never saw a buck. that said, it was during a full moon and unbelievably warm temperatures, as in, 60 to 70° in December.  Well history tells me that there is truly a great number of whitetails and here is  outfitter Brock Campbell.  “Pike County is located between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and the soil content with the nutrients and what not as a lot to do with the size of the deer. Corn and soybeans are the predominant crops here, they are high in protein and that has a lot to do with the size of the deer here, not to mention the management that is here. The food sources are here, the habitat is here, and if the property is managed correctly as far as the pressured goes, that is just a recipe for monster bucks. Our motto is have a lot of food sources, a lot of ground, the right habitat and very low pressure. With that being said, it is a recipe for success.”