Monday, October 18, 2010

My first weekend hunting the MO Zoo

10/15/10 - Brian and I were selected to participate in a special deer hunt in north KC. The property is privately owned, but holds an extremely high number of deer per square mile. Because of the high number of auto vs. deer accidents on the main road through this particular city the local police department enlisted some local hunters to help manage the overpopulated herd and luckily we were selected to the killing crew!

I've been allowed to hunt the property previously, but under a very restricted format. That is not the case this time around however. We have free reign on the majority of the property, so I went in Friday to get a couple of initial sets hung based on my previous hunts. I located Brian's set towards the SE corned of the hunt area and actually saw 9 deer within 100yrds of the spot while trying to find a suitable killing tree. After getting set #1 hung I moved over to the NW side of the property to an area I knew would funnel deer through it, based on my previous observations. I was not disappointed by the amount of sign in the area once I started to kick around. There were huge trails running through the entire draw and several good rubs lines were already being worked on both sides as well, so I hung set #2 about 3/4 of the way towards the top were several of the trails intersected or passed within 40yrds of it.

I was settled in to my stand at 4pm and at 4:02pm I had my first deer show up on the scene. Unfortunately for me it was a button buck, so he got walking papers from me. Little did I know that he'd stay in the area all night working back and forth through the bush, causing me to be on edge every time he'd show back up. Around 6:40pm the little guy finally worked over the edge of the draw to my east, so at 6:42pm when I heard foot steps coming off the west ridge I know it was a new deer. The light was fading quickly in the timber but I could tell this was a mature doe, so when she eased into my shooting lane at 30yrds I was already at full draw. A quick errrrp! stopped her cold and the Hoyt took care of the rest. The doe didn't take two steps before piling up in the shooting lane.

10/16/10 - Since I was able to get the doe from last night drug out of the area without much disturbance, I elected to hunt the same set in the morning. The wind was still great for the setup and I had high hopes of seeing some good deer movement, unfortunately there were several deer right around my set as I walked in. Only one of them blew at me, but I could hear 3-4 of them walking in the brush. I got to the property earlier than normal so I was optimistic things would settle down before legal shooting light and I was right. Around 6:45am I heard a couple deer work off of the west ridge and drop into the draw, but it was still to dark to see. Around 8am I spotted a spike coming in from the west also. He actually worked in to 8yrds and proceeded to rub a sapling for about 2 minutes. It was pretty cool seeing him work the tree over so close to my set. The spike hung around for about 20 minutes before moving off and it wasn't 10 minutes later when I spotted the next deer. A doe and her fawn were coming into the draw from the NE and their path took them directly under my set. I let the doe get about 12yrds out and when she turned broadside I slid my arrow right behind her front shoulder. The ol' girl couldn't hold the Montec and after a short death run she piled up within sight of the set.

I hunted the morning of 10/17 as well, but only had small bucks and button bucks working through my area so no arrows got released. I was really hoping to go back, to back, to back days with a kill, but I can't really complain. I've been lucky enough to harvest a mature doe every weekend of October so far...I just hope that killing streak continues for the next six weeks. This new property will be jumping in about 10 days!!!!

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