MO Firearms 2012 Harrison County Style

The 2012 MO Firearms opener was finally here and my brother-in-law Joe and I headed up to my friends farm in Harrison Co, Missouri. It was a last minute invite for Joe, so when we arrived early Friday afternoon we immediately headed out to hang Joe's stand.

-Day 1-

In typical Missouri opening weekend fashion, it was hot and windy. I headed to the set that I shot my buck out of earlier in the year. It's a funnel along a creek bottom and Joe went to his new ladder set overlooking a big bottom. At first light I immediately had action with three does passing by. Not too long after I was sitting there enjoying the morning when I looked up to see a doe coming through the funnel followed by a nice 2.5 year old 8 pointer. They came right into bow range at 15 yards. The buck was a nice looking deer but just not what I was looking for straight out of the gates. He was also heading right towards Joe and I was hoping he would get a shot at him.

The buck did cruise by Joe but he also decided it was what he was looking for and the buck was passed again. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful for Joe and I. We saw a few more does and the day finally came to an end with no shots fired.

-Day 2-

Day 2 was a total 180 from the previous day. We woke up to pouring  rain, so Joe and I decided to hunt my buddies box blind to stay out of the elements. As the morning progressed the rain let up just a bit so I decided to slip out of the blind and hunt a bean field not too far from the box. As I got into position I looked out in the field and noticed a mini standing there at 85 yards feeding. With an itchy trigger finger and wanting to let the new Tikka bark I decided it was the perfect time to see what the new .270 could do. I put the cross hairs on old boy and let it rip! The little button only held it for 20 yards before piling up and I was excited to get my first deer down.

After Joe and I got the mini hung up in the barn we decided to hunt a new area with two box blinds. As we were walking slowly through the CRP field I looked to the south and noticed a giant buck standing there about 300 yards out broadside with two smaller bucks and a doe. I melted down and went into scramble mode and after five botched shots...yes five shots! Old boy finally had enough and took off. Hind side is always great and after thinking about it we should have crawled down to get closer...school boy mistake, for sure! The deer headed towards a small food plot so I decided to check it out to see what else was moving around. As soon as I get to the plot I notice a forky standing there starring into the timber. I knew there were more deer there so I waited them out. A couple minutes later out popped a decent 3 year old 8 pointer chasing the forky around. A few anxious minutes went by before he finally presented me a shot. As soon as he stepped into the clearing I let the .270 bark again and deer number two was down and it was celebration time again! I have had my best year to date and this just topped it off! 

After getting the buck back to the cabin and showing him off it was time to get Joe on a buck. My buddy told us to go check out his 160 farm, so Joe and I were off. As we were heading in I look up and at 300 yards a good buck and doe were feeding in one of his food plots. Joe anchored down and let the 30.06 rip twice but unfortunately he didn’t connect and he was down in the dumps for the rest of the afternoon.

Right at the end of shooting light we still hadn’t seen another deer, so we decided to walk back to the truck in hopes of getting lucky. Well we spotted a doe at 150 yards and this time Joe’s shot was true and he had his first deer kill in several years.

Overall we had a fantastic weekend and Thanks again to my buddy for letting Joe and I hunt your awesome farm…much appreciated! The weekend ended up pretty good with 26 deer killed, 6 of them were nice bucks. Oh yeah and the buck that Joe and I passed up opening morning. Well my buddies dad connected on him that evening…congrats!