News from the Boneyard
Hunting Report from the Boneyard Outfitters!
Thanks to everyone who was part of a great year at Boneyard Outfitters
Here is hunting report and message from Jason Johns, Owner and Guide...
Despite a national pandemic, we did what it took to make sure our hunting and fishing clients got to enjoy the outdoors! We did implement some COVID precautions with additional cleaning and daily disinfecting, and zero infections. In addition to being in a region with a very low infection rate, spending all day outdoors is a great way to social distance and keep your sanity when the country is going through this crisis. Our hunters once again put some dandy bucks on the ground and some heads on the wall... Check out the PHOTO GALLERY HERE. I'm also excited to announce that we have some NEW PROPERTY to hunt this fall! We also caught a pile of giant buck on trail cams AFTER the season, which means the herd is looking excellent for the 2021 season. Our gun hunts are almost booked, and we still have bow hunts open but call me soon to reserve your dates.
Thank you to everyone that was a part of another great year a the Boneyard!
- Jason
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Apply NOW for 2021 Illinois Turkey Permits
Book your Illinois Spring Wild Turkey Hunt with Boneyard - The Deadline with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for the next drawing is January 12, 2021.
Anyone interested in hunting Spring Wild Turkey at Boneyard Outfitters should apply for their permits ASAP! Be sure to call Jason and make sure the season is open before you apply, because you need to select your choice of ONE of FIVE seasons. And be sure to select the SOUTHERN ZONE- FRANKLIN COUNTY! We literally have hundreds of turkeys here just waiting for our Boneyard hunters. We can only hunt until noon, so after you smack down a big gobbler, talk to Jason about catching some crappie on Rend Lake.
Call soon, hunts are getting booked. Hunters can apply online for their turkey permit HERE.
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Check out the trail cam photos - Boneyard Outfitters has giant whitetail bucks, both typical and non-typical
Boneyard Outfitters still has a few openings for prime October Illinois Whitetail Deer Hunts
We just finished checking our trail cams and we are pretty impressed with what we are seeing. We've seen several bachelor groups of buck running around —and one group has 5 bucks in it! They will start breaking up here in a week or two as they seek out their turf for the upcoming rut. All signs point to an early rut this year, which means October should be fantastic with pre-rut activity - bucks checking scrape lines and asserting their dominance over the smaller bucks. This is a great time to use a "young buck" grunt tube to get the big boys fired up.
If you are looking to get in on some awesome Illinois bowhunting action, call Jason soon and book a hunt at 618-927-3432.
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Deer Hunting Report from Boneyard Outfitters
We had one of the best years of whitetail deer hunting ever at the Boneyard, and it’s not over yet.
We saw huge numbers of deer throughout the entire season and took a good number of healthy mature bucks. The upcoming herd of deer for next year is going to be incredible. We spotted a lot of 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old deer that are all going to be shooters next year. Franklin County was not impacted at all by Blue Tongue Disease (EHD) compared with other counties throughout the state. Our deer numbers were fantastic this year, which means next year they will only get better.
October started out a little slow, but our hunters still scored. A lot of does were taken early, and the buck activity really pick up by the end of October. Bucks were working scrape lines before Halloween, and we had a lot of sightings of Booners, with some really good bucks killed.
Then November just exploded. Hunters saw monster bucks on many hunts. A good number of bowhunters took some really great bucks every week — check out our photo gallery. The rut started a little bit early this year, so buck activity was consistently good the first three weeks of November. Gun hunters took some dandy bucks and everyone saw giant deer. Then we got to experience something that does not happen too often in Southern Illinois — we got pounded by a winter snowstorm during the second half of gun season. But our hunters toughed it out. A beautiful 150-class buck was taken on the first day, and just about everyone filled their tags. And we still have blackpowder hunters due in camp next week, as well as a few late-season bowhunters.
Despite a drastically low harvest across the rest of the state, our deer harvest totals for Franklin County were not much lower than previous years. So our hunting forecast for the 2014 deer season looks outstanding. We already have hunters that rebooked for next year. We hope to see you in camp!
