Carter's Hunting Lodge

Date: November 7-14, 2009

Location: Milton, Illinois, Pike County

Species: Whitetail

This year I met with Carter’s Hunting Lodge at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show. During that time I made arrangements with Randy Hall and Nathan Carter to hunt with them during the rut.  Carter’s Hunting Lodge offers TROPHY whitetail archery hunts in Pike County, Illinois. (You can see the story of my hunt under my Field Journals) Needless to say, I was in for a true hunter’s delight.
Lodge: They offer a comfortable laid back stay at their hunting Lodge. When entering the Lodge you can’t help but be astonished at the big Pike County bucks hanging all over the walls. Not to mention the wall plaques of pictures of hunters with bucks taken over the years. That alone gets you excited for getting in the woods. The Lodge is roomy yet cozy and comfortable. When you came home from hunting the ladies would have a wonderful warm meal ready with all the fixings!  Catered from the local eatery Dink’s Diner.

Food: When you came home from hunting the ladies would have a wonderful warm meal ready with all the fixings!  Catered from the local eatery Dink’s Diner. The food was delicious and there was plenty to go around! They provide you with two meals per day Noon and Night. A complimentary breakfast will be provided the morning of the hunt. The food was delicious and there was plenty to go around!

Stands: Carter’s has over 8000 acres of prime hunting ground managed with various food sources. There was no need to worry about being crowded by other hunter’s there was plenty of room.  They have over 250 stands anywhere from 20-24 feet.  All stands are double hung stands mostly done for the purpose of filming.  They were either a hang on stand or a permanent built stand. All stands had a ladder which made climbing easy.  Carter's can place you in a stand giving the hunter every opportunity according to wind direction and deer movement. Guides will take you to your stand locations and pick you up mid-morning to go in for lunch then back out in the evening. Or you can opt to stay out all day and hunt as we did.

Deer: Carter’s does have an antler restriction of a 140 inch minimum and there is a fee assessed if you choose to shoot less than 140 class bucks.  That is why it is TROPHY hunting. By having this restriction Carter’s assures that their bucks are reaching their full potential and maturing.  Thus providing the hunter with quite possibly a buck of a lifetime! The big bucks we saw were in the body size of up over 200 pounds with massive antlers.  The bucks have interesting characteristics of kickers, drop tines, split brows and so on. A lot of character running around their property!  The bucks were big, healthy, big, and did I say they were BIG??

Guides: Carter’s has a Guide for everyone. Some of the return hunters chose to go to their stands on their own and so forth. Which is an option to those repeat clients that are familiar with the stands, property, etc. The Guides will take you and drop you off to your stand each day, recovery and processing of your deer and give you guidance according to your feedback from each days hunt. I know there wasn’t a Guide at Carter’s that you wouldn’t like. All the guys were personable and made you feel welcome as soon as you introduced yourself.

Carter’s has over a 76% return rate with their clients.  Which is totally understandable. I know I wanted to go back before I even left! During the week Don and I saw around 50 bucks and more does and fawns than we could count. The stands were comfortable and numerous!  They have food plots and water sources all through the property. I absolutely loved my hunt with Carter’s. Everyone treated you like you were family and the Lodge was laid back, comfortable, good food and fun.  These boys know how to manage deer!  We saw proof of that!

Carter’s also offer hunting property and land for sale in Pike County and surrounding areas with their Real Estate Company, Carter Realty Network.
If you are looking to harvest a Trophy Whitetail in the mid-west with a great group of people, I would highly recommend Carter’s Hunting Lodge.

They are at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor show  each year in February, or you can contact Them at:
Randy Hall  1-217-779-0404,     P.O. Box 259, Milton, Illinois 62352     randy@carternetworkrealty.com