Scott Wiegel
Posted By
Chad Lathrop
at
10/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
Scott Wiegel is the owner of Blue Ridge Backwoods located in Monticello, Illinois. This archery pro shop and specialty store is Illinois’ largest and provides products and services to thousands of bowhunters and target shooters each year. Scott is a member of many industry groups including the Archery Trade Association, International Bowhunters Organization (IBO), Archery Shooters Association (ASA), and the Boone and Crockett Club.
Scott hunts mostly private land – with several shared hunting leases that are very productive. Scott also owns a section of land that contains a large creek drainage that flows through agricultural fields, cattle pastures and forest land. Scott has been intensively managing this farm for six years now by creating and managing food plots, shooting lots of does, and improving the habitat. In a change to management tactics, no bucks have been shot or “culled” on this farm the past two years in an effort to add age to the deer herd – as you will be able to see from the 2009 hit list - the strategy is slowly working.
Scott lives and works in the Monticello area with his two daughters and one grandson close at hand. Amanda is employed at the bow shop and Christine is currently going to school at the University of Illinois in the College of Business. Amanda has a 1.5 year old boy with another one on the way. Making Scott a Grandpa! Which he can now definitively say is much more enjoyable than parenting.
During the winter and summer months, Scott travels to shoot competitive 3-D events at the state and national level. In addition to many other tournaments, Blue Ridge Backwoods has hosted four ASA Illinois State Qualifiers and two ASA Illinois State Championships. Scott believes that shooting these competitions provides a hunter with a lot of useful knowledge and experiences. Equipment knowledge and familiarity, quickly judging yardage, accurately shooting a bow, visualizing where you want the arrow to hit, instinctively knowing the trajectory of the arrow to avoid hitting limbs and brush, and many other skills learned during 3-D are very useful while hunting.
Scott is very fortunate to have four friends from the area that will be helping with the camera work this coming season: Todd Wiegel, Steve Koss, Jerry Donaldson, and Adam Sykes. Scott will also be filming for them – it should be a great season!
Scott's Hit List
The following words are Scott's:
"MULEY": This is a deer that was first noticed in 2006 on the farm. We are not sure where he came from – just popped up one day in the very center of the farm like he owned the place. We estimated him that year to be 3 ½ years old. We got good video footage of him during the rut. With his unique antler configuration we decided to let him get some age and see if he filled out. He has been hanging in the center of the farm ever since – never being seen more than 1/2 mile from the point where we first saw him.
In 2007, I got many glimpses of Muley but never could capture him on film or by trail camera – he was very elusive. He kept his characteristic eight point main frame with split G2s and a split G1 on the right hand side – he had grown in mass significantly. I must confess that due to malfunctions of my shotgun – I missed a shot at Muley during the second shotgun season at 20 yards. We had crept several hundred yards on the ground to get in position only to miss! He immediately repositioned himself on the edge of the farm where we caught trail camera pictures of him. This is the furthest he has ever strayed – but he returned later that year to his home territory.
In 2008, I saw Muley many times in the very center of the farm where he always hung. He totally eluded all of our trail cameras and videoing efforts that year. He had grown into a main-frame ten-point with two drop tines – one on each side – very long brow tines, and incredible mass and inside spread. It seemed every time I left my video equipment at home – I would see Muley off in the distance. I got very close to him on three different occasions – always on the ground and he got away each time.
For 2009, Muley has maintained his aloofness from trail cameras and videoing efforts. But we have seen him several times this summer in his old haunts and he has grown to be even more impressive. We estimate him to be 6 ½ to 7 ½ years old now and he seems to be in his prime. Muley is number one on my hit list for this year.
Here are a few more bucks that I will be trying to track down during the season. Some of these bucks are real giants. They are all mature deer, shooters in my book. Keep checking back to see what happens with these bucks as the season progresses.
"HIGH CLUB EIGHT"
"3D SHED TEN" "APPLE EATER"
