My journey to Harpole’s Heartland Lodge (HHL) began some two and a half years before I set out from my home in Denver, Colorado this November to join my friend, former college roommate, and fraternity brother (some 20 years ago) at his beautiful hunting lodge in central Illinois. In early …
It was the second evening of Jeff Mohney’s late muzzleloader hunt at the Heartland Lodge, the weather was near record highs for mid-December and deer movement had been relatively slow. With a major cold front moving through the next day, hopes were high that deer activity would be increasing throughout …
Mark Spillane was lucky enough to get the opportunity at a buck of a lifetime this week and was able to seal the deal with a 194 inch buck known as Jackpot. Whitetail manager Matt Brunet had been chasing the buck for two years, and was finally able to close …
Ask any veteran whitetail hunter about the biggest buck they’ve ever seen, and their response will probably be a very captivating, animated story. Stories that usually begin with; it was just breaking light on a foggy morning…it was spitting snow and ice on a cold November day… I had been …
On the first morning of Nic Schaalma’s hunt at Heartland Lodge, veteran guide Mark Hively situated Nic in a tree stand in the downwind corner of a secluded, thick, brushy field. Nic’s morning started slowly until around 9:00, when a 2 ½ yr old 9 point came in on the …
Nowadays, just about everyone is using trail cameras for hunting, but the real question is, “Are you getting your money’s worth out of your camera and using it to its full potential?” Most hunters dust the camera off about mid-August to early September, s
For the past two years John Brewer has spent the first week of November at
Harpole’s Heartland Lodge. Many of our hunters have a favorite week, and they return to camp at that time every year. The reason for creating this habit may be based on previous
Our friend John Brewer from Florida took this incredible whitetail at 5:00pm on the last day of his deer hunt in Pike County, Illinois. John stayed optimistic throughout his entire hunt. He would always have a smile on his face and say “It was a great d
Our old and good friend Floyd Simone took this mature whitetail on the opening day of Illinois second gun season. Floyd had an incredible deer hunt, seeing 4 shooters! This buck is at least 7 years old and was in a brutal fight with another buck sometime
Our good friend David Ward harvested this heavy mass split brow 11pt. David had an incredible week of hunting. He first started out hunting the archery week before the shotgun season. David saw shooters almost every day and came very close to arrowing a b
