The 2018/19 whitetail season was full of great memories for our hunters and guides here at Hadley Creek Outfitters in Illinois. But one of the most memorable bucks from the season was one that became known as the Snow Monster.
Chris and Angela came from Indiana to hunt with us at Hadley Creek during our late archery season. Early January brought cold weather and snow to the Pike County area. During Chris and Angela’s hunt, we experienced a storm that dumped 24 inches of snow.
On the evening of January 11th, Chris was sitting in a hay bale blind on one of our Hadley Creek farms. In fact, this was the same 80-acre farm featured in our August 2018 blog post, which featured two available properties.
As Chris was watching the snow fall that afternoon over the freshly mowed corn, a shooter buck appeared and Chris took the shot. Waiting in the blind, Chris saw a number of deer, including two more shooter bucks.
So on the second night of their hunt, Chris and Angela sat together in the same hay bale blind. The storm had continued dumping snow throughout the area. In the midst of the storm, a buck appeared. It was a big old buck, still in velvet with broken points. The buck quickly became known as the Snow Monster.
As it turned out, we had trail cam photos of that buck in that exact same spot, two years earlier. In the photo from January, 2017 the buck appeared to be at least five years old and in velvet. However, nobody had seen the buck since. Until two years later, when he walked out during a snowstorm.
Angela took the shot, and within 24 hours, the couple had put two big Illinois whitetails on the ground.
Back at Hadley Creek headquarters, the Snow Monster buck scored 130 using only the mass, width and main beams. He would score 160 as a seven pointer, and weighed 350 pounds. This buck’s bases were among the biggest we’ve ever seen in our 22 years at Hadley Creek Outfitters.
It was a memorable hunt for Chris and Angela, and for everyone here at Hadley Creek. Chris and Angela decided to purchase that 80-acre farm, which was still available. We’re excited that they will be a part of the Hadley Creek family!
If you’d like to learn about our landowner program, you can find that here. For more information on free-range, trophy whitetail hunting in Illinois with Hadley Creek outfitters, please explore the rest of our website. You can call us with questions at 217-335-3804 or contact us online.