HUNTER: Cody Tucker
STATE: IL
YEAR: 2019 (Oct 7th)

WEAPON: (Click to View)

HUNTING PRODUCTS: (Click to View)

WHITETAIL PHOTOS

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WHITETAIL STORY:

Last night I ended the chapter with “Geronimo”! My #1 hit list buck for the 2019-20 deer season in IL.

After having him at 84 yards on Thursday night hunt and at 68 yards the following Sunday night hunt, I decided on the my next hunt to move a little closer…and he read the script perfectly at 43 yards. 

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For me the season never ends.

I am always preparing for the next season. Whether it is looking for shed antlers in the early spring, to preparing for food plots to be planted in the spring and summer months to putting up stands throughout the year it never ends.

I have been running trail cameras since 2009 which have definitely changed the industry of hunting.  To me trail cameras have helped me out in so many ways by basically having eyes in the timber when your not there.  I currently run 18 Browning & Moultrie cameras in Logan and Macoupin Co in IL and Ralls Co MO.

This past summer on July 8th was the first time I checked my cameras for the season to see what mature bucks were around to hunt for the fall.  As I sorted through the pictures I came across a giant deer that I new was a buck of lifetime. 

I usually name the bucks that we want to go after so that my dad, brother and myself know which buck we are talking about.  When I showed my brother for the first time he was in shock. We ended up naming the buck “Geronimo”,  as a name for a massive leader or warrior (tough guy). 

As the months went on I kept telling my wife Kaitlyn, I cant wait till Oct 1st to come around so that I would have a chance to harvest a giant like Geronimo.

My first sit of the year was Thursday Oct 3rd which a lot of the crops were still in here in central IL which then at 6:20 pm Geronimo stepped out of the field edge and my jaw dropped. This was my first encounter with him at 84 yards.

With an unsuccessful hunt Thursday, the next evening I could get out was Sunday Oct 6th. That evening I laid eyes on him again and filmed him for about 20 minutes at 64 yards, but ultimately he faded away into the evening.

The next day, on Oct 7th I had to work until 3pm, but rushed home to jump in the timber. I put on my hunting clothes and went out and sat on the ground and made a makeshift blind out of some cedar branches.

That evening around 5:30 deer started filtering out. I kept looking down the field edge and all of a sudden there he was. The adrenaline started pumping through my body while I was ground level with a deer of lifetime. Trying to be still and patient with all the other deer around, he finally started working towards me which took forever!! 

I am currently shooting a Mission SUB-1 crossbow made my Mathews fueled with a Black Eagle Executioner bolt and Rage Trypan broadhead. I had a bad 4 wheeler accident in 2011 and had to have shoulder surgery with a plate and screws put in. 

Once he got within 50 yards I knew I would have the opportunity to release a Black Eagle Executioner bolt at him.  As he kept working his way towards me he stopped at 43 yards and started getting antsy from some of the does.  I knew that the time was now or never, I squeezed the trigger and the bolt lit with a Nocturnal Lighted nock flew at him like a roman candle and hit the mark I was aiming for and he went about 120 yards and tipped over.   

Nobody will ever understand until you get in the saddle and experience the adrenaline that pumps through your body when you chase these IL giants! 

Thank you to my wife Kaitlyn who supports me in my hobbies which had to here the story nonstop from when I first got pictures of him this summer!