Missouri doe hits the dirt

10/2/10 - It's been a frustrating season to this point for me in MO. I've been out every weekend, but have dealt with multiple serve thunderstorms, 20-30 mph winds, and little bucks only within bow range. So, with the expected drop in temperatures in the forecast I was pretty excited to get up to the north MO property Saturday morning.

I arrived at the farm around 4:30am and was greeted by 50 degree temps and a stiff north/northeast wind. I'd planned to hunt the "stolen set" which I rehung about 30yrds southwest of the mineral lick. I was settled in by 5:30am and waited for day break, which came and went with zero sign of deer movement in the area. Around 9:15am I caught movement to the south and watched a little 6 point cross over the ridge into the deep west draw. I shut down the morning sit around 10:15am and went to pull the card on the lick camera. Roger had been cutting corn all week and the amount of pictures (10) for the week, proved that the deer pattern in that area had been disrupted by it.

For the evening sit I decided to hunt the new set I hung this summer at on the east end of the road. I thought that the deer may have moved north into the bean fields, since the corn was being harvested on the south end. I encountered 9 turkeys in the top end of the meadow on the way into the set, but the strong wind allowed me to get around them without spooking them. They were all hens, so they got walking papers from me.

I reached the new set and was settled by 4:15pm. I was pretty concerned with the wind because it kept swirling through the bottom, but around 6pm it finally settled down and starting coming consistently out of the north. At 6:15pm I caught movement to the west of the set down by the "Beach". I spotted two does browsing on some of the underbrush while they worked in my direction. I was already standing, so I decided to double check yardages of several possible shooting lanes since this was my first sit in the new set. When I looked back to the west to check on the ladies the original two had multiplied and now I had a group of 5 does headed right at me.

The lead deer was about 25yrds in front of the group and was coming in pretty quickly, so I prepared for a shot on the closest trial about 14yrds in front of the set. To my surprise she actually cut up a wash directly on the west side of the stand at 12yrs. I had to do a little quick maneuvering to get into shooting position and one of the trailing deer must have spotted me, because she snorted once started to stomp. All her commotion actually worked to my advantage. The lead doe stopped to look back at the group and offered me a perfect shot at 11 steps. I touched off the shot and watched my fletchings disappear right on the shoulder crease. The ol' girl mule kicked and bounded up the embankment 20 yrds or so took 3 steps and it was lights out. The other deer stayed in the area for about twenty minutes before moving off and I was able to make a quick recovery and get her out of the timber without much commotion.

I hunted the south ridge set above the "gash" Sunday morning. I didn't see any deer movement but I did have 5 hen turkeys and 3 otters work right by the set, so it was a pretty entertaining sit.