HEARTLAND'S MONSTER BUCKS

Hunters Keep Coming Back For More

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: Your guides are bowhunters, right?
ANSWER: Yes.

QUESTION: How do you get your guides?
ANSWER: Some of the guides are guys who booked hunts with us years ago. Then after they retired from their jobs, they wanted to do a little guiding. A lot of the guides are locals who have lived around here for a long time.

QUESTION: How long have you been here?
ANSWER: This will be my fifth year. I started in 1998.

QUESTION: How large was the best buck taken by a bowhunter?
ANSWER: This year, the best buck -- a non-typical -- scored just over 200 inches. Outdoor writer Bob Robb took the largest typical buck, which netted 176 B&C points .

QUESTION: How many of your hunters re-book hunts?
ANSWER: About 90% of my hunters re-book hunts with us.

QUESTION: Is this the reason booking a hunt at Heartland is so difficult?
ANSWER: Every year we may only have two or three open weeks and that's out of the three camps. Hunters have a difficult time booking a hunt with us, especially a rut hunt. You need to book at least a year or two ahead to get that certain date you want. But, sometimes we have an opening due to a cancellation.

QUESTION: What does a hunt cost?
ANSWER: Early-season hunts, from early October through mid October, cost $1,850 for five days of hunting. A five-day rut hunt costs $2,150. The three-day archery/gun combo hunt costs $2,750. The prices include lodging, transportation and butchering.

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