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The property
Nearly eight thousand acres above the Mississippi.
Rolling hills, river bluffs, corn, soybeans and year round food plots, cut through with timber, CRP and natural travel corridors. All of it in Henderson County, Illinois.
01 · Straight answer
What ground does Bigger Bucks Outfitters hunt?
Nearly 8,000 acres of managed ground in Henderson County, Illinois, just over the bluff from the Mississippi River, made up of rolling hills, river bluffs, corn, soybeans, year round food plots, timber, CRP and natural travel corridors.
That list matters more than the acreage number does. Eight thousand flat acres of continuous corn would be a worse property than half that with relief and cover, because deer need bedding, food and a reason to move between them in daylight.
What western Illinois has that most of the state does not is vertical relief. The bluffs off the Mississippi cut this county into draws and benches, and those draws are natural funnels. A buck crossing from a CRP bedding field to a standing food plot has a limited number of places he will do it. Those places are where the stands are.
The food plots are planted for the late season specifically, which is why December hunting here holds up when the rut is over and everyone else is complaining about deer going nocturnal. See the season dates for how the blocks fall, and the hunts and rates page for what each one costs.
County level deer data for Illinois, including harvest by county, is published by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources if you would rather check the numbers than take an outfitter word for it.
02 · How we hunt it
Stand placement follows the deer, not the map.
Cameras run year round. By the time you sit down in a stand, your guide has months of data on that corner of that farm and a specific reason for putting you in it on that particular wind.
We also move hunters. If the wind turns wrong for a setup you are not sitting in it out of stubbornness, and if a stand goes quiet for two sits it gets rested. Having farms spread across the county rather than one contiguous block is what makes that possible.
03 · Inventory
We know what is standing before you book it.
Two frames off the cameras. There is no landscape photography on this page because we would rather show you the deer than a field.
04 · Questions
Questions about the property.
How many acres do you hunt?
Nearly 8,000 acres of managed ground, all of it in Henderson County, Illinois.
Is it all one piece?
No. It is a set of farms across the county, which is an advantage rather than a drawback. It means your guide can move you to a different property when the wind turns rather than burning your best setup on a bad day.
Do you run trail cameras?
Year round, across the farms. Stand placement follows what the cameras show rather than where a stand happens to already be.
What is the terrain like?
Rolling hills and river bluffs off the Mississippi, with corn, soybeans and year round food plots, cut through by timber, CRP and natural travel corridors.