Phil McDonald
Posted By
Chad Lathrop
at
9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
Phil McDonald, 28, lives in East/Central Illinois with his wife, Abby, and their five month old daughter, Hadley. He is currently a Police Officer of the City of Champaign, Illinois. Phil was born and raised in Illinois, and spent the majority of his youth in the woods chasing whitetails with his father, Phil Sr. Phil harvested his first whitetail deer with a bow when he was ten years old, and has been obsessed with bowhunting ever since.
When he is not spending time with his family, Phil is chasing whitetails and turkeys in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. Although his true passion is hunting big whitetails with his father, he also takes every opportunity to travel to other states in pursuit of different species of big game. Phil says that he cannot imagine his life without deer hunting, and hopes to one day introduce Hadley to this great sport.
Phil's Hit List
This summer Phil has logged countless hours searching for and filming big bucks to add to his hit list. His hard work has paid off, and he has some real whoppers to share. Although Phil has found these big bucks and filmed them in velvet, the hard part is still to come. The challenge of harvesting one of these brutes on film is one that Phil is most definitely looking forward to.
The following words are Phil's.
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“MAXIMUS”: Unfortunately, I do not have any good pictures or video of this buck, but believe me when I say this buck is a stud. I named this buck “Maximus” for a good reason, he is giant. When I last laid eyes on him, he was slipping out of a drainage ditch, and heading for a thick fence row about a half-mile from the road. I could see him clear as day through my binoculars, and was in such disbelief that by the time I got my video camera on him he was just too far away. The first thing I noticed about “Maximus” was, well, everything. This buck has it all: mass, width, height and points galore.
“Maximus” is going to present quite a challenge this year, in the form of patience and restraint. He currently resides in a system of hedge rows that are located in the middle of an ocean of agriculture fields, and fortunately I am the only person with permission to hunt these hedge rows. My plan to get close to “Maximus” is to stay away until crops are harvested (restraint). I have found that once the tall corn and beans in this area are gone, it forces the mature bucks to hug the only cover around, which just happens to be the hedge rows. By the time the fields are cut in this particular area, the pre-rut has begun and the big bucks start cruising (patience).
“HIGH 8 and ACE”: I don’t know much about the "High 8", other than he just showed up on one of our farms. What this buck lacks in width, he more than makes up for in height, mass, and symmetry. “High 8” is what I call a clean buck. He does not have any trash on him, and seems to match up on each side.
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Bottom line: he is in serious trouble if he strolls by my stand when I have a bow in my hand, and the camera is rolling.
I first spotted “High 8” in the back corner of a partially secluded alfalfa field, and like I said before, he just showed up one day. He appeared to be comfortable despite the time of day and the amount of filming light that still remained. I currently have trail cameras set up in the bottoms on this farm, and hope to pattern him. If all else fails, I will start out hunting the field edge, and adjust my tactics as he changes his pattern.
“ACE” has been hanging out with “High 8”, and is another one that just showed up in the last couple of weeks. I don’t really know much about him. The one thing I do know: he is a fairly wide nine-point with exceptional tine length. But he lacks good mass. He is most definitely not at the top of my hit list, but I would not hesitate to stick one of Illinois buck tags on him.
“Ace” has pretty much the same story as “High 8”, and my plan to hunt him also remains the same. I will keep you updated as I learn more about these two bucks.
"SPLIT G2 BUCK": This is a new buck that I just added to the hit list. I am going go after this buck in the next couple of weeks so make sure that you keep checking back for updates on this deer.
