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Booked a 4 day rifle hunt (11-15 thru 11-18-2011) with Mike. Four hunters stayed in a 4br house on the lake in Cadiz. The house was very nice and dinner was delivered to us each night. The food was pretty good and there was enough for everybody. We were on our own for breakfast and lunch.

I went to KY to hunt because I am an avid rifle shooter and rifle hunting is not allowed in Illinois. The terrain around Cadiz is well-suited for large deer. It is rugged with tillable acreage surrounded by hardwoods and steep hills. The stands were sturdy, safe and comfortable. Of the three stands I used, two were placed in the woods' edge overlooking pasture or clover and one overlooked a steep wooded draw. The area around the stands could have benefitted from some pruning, but overall the shooting lanes were satisfactory. The terrain and the size of the fields I was overlooking limited shot ranges to under 200 yds.

I have hunted Wisconsin on opening day of rifle season and it sounded like WW III at sunup. I could definitely tell there were many hunters in the woods. By contrast, I heard very few shots in the area we hunted in KY. I don't think there were very many locals hunting while I was there.

We were rained out on the first day, but the weather cleared and cooled at midday on day two. The four guys in the house hunted from 9 am til dark on day two, morning and evening on day three, and two hunted the morning only on day four. The other two hunted both morning and evening on day four. During that time, I saw a total of 6 does and two fawns. The other three guys saw a scattering of small bucks and a few does. Most importantly, none of us saw a buck over the 130 inch limit the whole time we were there. One guy shot an 8 on the morning of the last day that was under 130.

I rated the hunt "poor" for that reason. We were there with good weather, during the rut, for the better part of three days and didn't see one shooter buck. Before I packed up and left on the morning of day four, Mike's dad told me there were 12 hunters during those four days and none had killed a buck over 130. I don't know how many killed bucks on the last day, but the two guys from my house who stayed to hunt through the evening of the last day did not shoot a deer.

I have done my best to simply present the facts about my experiences on this hunt without speculating or placing blame. I understand the fair chase concept and have no desire for a guaranteed kill or to shoot fenced deer. The facts are that four of us went to KY to hunt trophy deer and none of us even saw one.

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - NO