MO - Antlerless 12/15 & 12/16 2007

12/15/07 AM North MO Property
We had a cold front move in Friday evening and it brought 2-3 inches of snow, cold temps, and a strong NW wind. Me and Scott hunted the S side of the main road in the a.m.. Scott set up on the Beach and I hunted the Middle Pond. Around 9:30am and after not seeing anything moving, I got up and walked the North Road. There was very little sign in the snow, so the deer must have been held up waiting for the weather to break. I was slowly working down the road checking every draw for any sign of deer. I was about 50 yards form the Tri-fecta set when I spotted a young deer about 40 yards S of me down the draw. I dropped to one knee and steadied the rifle for a shot. I pulled the trigger and a cloud of snow shot up in front of me and the deer was just standing there looking around. I looked over the scope and got the answer almost instantly. There was a small branch in front of me and I shot right through the middle of it. I chambered another round raised up a bit and took another shot, this one hit the mark and the deer ran about 30 yards before piling up. As I was watching the first deer run off 4 more deer that must have been bedded down exploded out of the draw without offering any shots. As I started to lower the rifle a 5th deer bounded out of the draw and stopped were the 1st deer had stood only seconds earlier. I settled the cross hairs and squeezed off another shot, which landed right in the boiler-room. The big doe ran back into the draw and piled up in a dead fall going out the other side. Two more deer for the freezer!!!

12/15/07 PM (Logan's 2nd deer hunt)
Logan, Scott, and myself hunted the N Meadow ground set this evening. The wind was howling, snow was falling, and the temps were bottoming out. Logan fell asleep after about 40 minutes of watching the snow fall. Around 4:15pm he woke up and wanted to go home (over heated??). We finally decided to pack it in around 4:30pm because Logo wasn't happy. I had made it about 10 yards out of the blind when I saw 4 deer coming out of the N wood lot to feed. They spotted me at the same time and bounded back into the cover. I crawled back to the blind and Scott hurried across the meadow. It was almost last shooting light and he took a shot at one of the does back in the timber. We searched for about 30 minutes without finding any sign, and decided to come back 1st thing in the morning.

12/16/07 We walked all over the N wood lot with no sign of a hit from the night before. We jumped 5 does out of the NW corner. Scott missed a doe we kicked up off the main road and also missed a coyote on the run going out of a draw. He wasn't very happy!!! In all it was a good weekend of hunting. My season total is up to 8 deer (new personal record) and hopefully 1 more with the bow if everything works out.

MO Antlerless 12/8/07

Brian and I hunted the North MO property on opening day of the 2008 MO Antlerless Season. We had freezing rain and snow Thursday 12/6 and the forecast was for more of the same later today. Winds where out of the E - NE at 15-20mph and the temp was 26 degrees. We arrived just before legal shooting time and planned to still hunt into the sets. Brian hunted the Wheelhouse Set in the S meadow and I was going to hunt The Beach set.

You could see for several hundred yards into the timber with all the snow, so I was taking my time going down the main road. I only made it about 90 yards when I spotted a deer on the opposite ridge just S of the barn. I sat down in the road, got a steady rest and took the shot. The deer snow plowed about 10 yards then flipped over backwards and slid down the hill. LIGHTS OUT!! I ranged the fence after I shot and it was a 148 yards.

There were a bunch of deer & turkey tracks at all of the usual crossings on the road. The Beach bottom was covered up with tracks and sign from the last 24 hours. About 30 minutes after getting setup I pickup movement to the E coming off the meadow. It was a young doe. She worked in behind a big dead fall at 85 yards and then I lost sight of her. I figured she had bedded down and was just going to sit there for the morning. About 15 minutes later I picked up movement again near the dead fall and a 2nd young doe jumped in front of the dead fall and started milling around. I was watching her through the nocs when I noticed the 1st deer stand up and start to work North. She fed into an opening about 90 yards out and I took the shot. Deer 2 down in her tracks. The other doe ran past the downed deer and stopped about 5 yards further north. I had a perfect head/neck shot and let 30-06 bark. She ran in a circle and stopped almost in the exact spot she had just been standing only a little farther N and in a good opening. I took another shot and she piled up where she stood. 3 deer down in about 55 minutes.

Brian, who had already packed it in for the morning after a solid 45 minutes of hunting, was already heading my direction and was almost at the N tree line of the meadow when I shot. I sent him to get the four wheeler. When Brian returned we loaded my 2 deer up and were heading to get the first one when I spotted a big deer standing on the bank of the Middle Pond. Brian hopped off the 4 wheeler and took a shot. "Spinebuster", the big bodied deer dropped in it's tracks. Brian's deer was just another memorable disaster in a long list of his blunders in 2007 and throughout his hunting career.

Overall it was a great morning with the fresh snow, cold temps, and a new personal record of 3 deer in a day (Actually under an hour). Roger was very happy about us taking the does and I told him we'd be back up next weekend with Logan, for hopefully another good doe shoot!

North Missouri Property Map

A map of the North Missouri property. The red dots are current stand locations. The blue dots are potential stand locations.

MO - Muzzle Loader 12/2/07

Northern MO had a weather front move in late night on 11/30 and it brought rain/freezing rain, high winds, and a 30 degree temperature change. The rain and wind kept me out of the stand on Saturday, but with Sunday being the last day for filling my 07 firearms buck tags, not even mother nature was going to keep me out of the woods.

12/2 I hunted the property in New Cambria, after giving it a break for 2 weeks. The wind was 20-30mph out of the W - NW and temps started out around 57, but plummeted to 32 by 10am. I started out hunting N of the middle pond. I thought the draw would provide good shelter from the wind and the bank was covered in fresh tracks. There was no movement at all. Around 9am I slipped into the bottom and began to spot & stalk the beach. I only made it about 60 yards down the bottom, when I noticed a small tree that was thrashing back & forth. I worked up another 30 yards and could see the rack of a buck behind a curve in the creek, working the tree over. I slid up the bank on my side hoping to get a better luck at him, since I could only see his tips from the bottom of the creek bed. I got settled behind a huge white oak and prepared to wait him out. The wind was swirling from every direction in the bottom. After about 3 minutes of watching him maul the tree he finally lifted his head. I guessed him at about 3 1/2yrs. old His left side was very tall and carried 4 solid points, but his right side had only a 10-12 inch fork. Very cool/odd looking. He went back to rubbing the tree, and was totally blocked from offering me a shot. I noticed movement to his left as 2 does walked up over the bank edge he was behind. I was on the wrong side of the tree to get a shot at the does and they kept walking right to me. At about 2 yards the bigger doe figured out something wasn't right and they all headed up over the road, no worse for the ware.

I moved the ground blind to the N meadow for the antlerless season and also located an awesome funnel on the N side of the road (great sign).

I'll be back out next weekend and hopefully my season will take a turn for the better!!!!