Hunters haul in big bucks
From the Chicago Sun-Times

November 21, 2007
Symbolic of how whitetail hunting in Illinois became a nationwide quest, David Castleberry bagged one of many monster bucks taken during the first firearm deer season.

Estimated harvest for the three-day hunt, which ended Sunday, was a record 85,490.

Prairiestateoutdoors.com reported a 20-point non-typical green-scored at 243 inches, taken by Marty Sharp of Gilson on Friday in Knox County.

Castleberry's buck is close to Sharp's. Castleberry was one of five hunters from northern Florida hunting at the Schuyler County outpost of Golden Triangle Whitetails, guided hunts spread over the area around the Illinois and Mississippi rivers by Orland Park outfitter Michael Pavlick.

''He saw it Saturday in first light in a thicket downwind,'' said Spence Petros, the Chicago outdoor legend who also was hunting there. ''Every half-hour, he heard an 'urph.' After three hours, he took an aggressive grunt call. A grunt came back, and the deer came out of the thicket. It stopped behind a tree. One more grunt, and he could see the hair raise on its back.''

Castleberry made a good quartering shot on the 23-pointer, which green-scored at 210ÃÂ.

''It looked like an elk,'' Petros said. ''Guys were standing around with their hands in their pockets and their mouths agape.''

Dale Bowman