Two Does Hit the Dirt

Good friend Greg Cole and I headed up to the north MO property October 5-6 with the goal of killing some more does off the farm. Saturday morning's hunt was basically a washout. The rain moved in as we were walking into our stands and kept after it most of the afternoon.

Saturday evening we focused our efforts around the cut corn fields. Greg hunted in the "Coon Pop" stand and I crawled up into the "Do North" stand. Almost every deer I saw the weekend before fed right in front of the stand Greg was hunting. Around 4:20pm the first deer popped out in my corner of the field and the parade continued for the rest of the night. Does and minis kept filtering into the field and working in close without offering a good shot. Finally around 5:50pm a doe and mini broke and walked directly into my 17yrd shooting lane. The Hoyt did it's job and the nanny didn't know what hit her. She piled up 70yrds into the field.

 

We celebrated by the fire pit a bit too long Saturday night, so Sunday morning's start was a bit rough. Greg headed into the "North Oak" stand and I settled into "Double Trouble". Just after legal shooting light I spotted deer working off the fields to the east. A nice 140"s ten point and a younger eight point worked into the bottom, but their path kept them about 55yrds out and in cover. I just watched them head into the security cover. Before my adrenaline slowed down I had more deer headed my direction. This time two big slickheads were on the move. They took a closer trail than the bucks did, so when the lead nanny put her head down to browse at 33yrds, it was all over but the crying. The arrow hit the mark and the ol' girl only carried the shot 40yrds. 

 

For three years in a row I've tried to get Greg on a deer while hunting this farm and for the third straight year...he was jinxed. At least he got to watch me shank the doe Saturday night from across the field; sorry brother!

 

New MO Farm Produces Early and Often

 

I was lucky enough to pick up a new local farm to hunt this year. It’s only 52 acres but it hunts much larger. Ironically it is only about 300 yards from the Blue Springs Honey Hole farm we used to hunt with a lot of success from 2006-2008.

      The landowner let me plant a +1 acre food plot in a mix of Biologic Maximum, Winter Bulbs/Sugar Beets, and Outfitters Blend. The day after the field was planted we got about 1.5" of rain and the plot has blown up! I have been monitoring my trail cams and have had a lot of pics but nothing real big. After doing some scouting I found a perfect funnel on the northeast side of the farm. There is also a huge oak tree that is absolutely loaded with acorns and I knew as soon as they started dropping that this would be a magical spot.

September 22
The first morning I hunted set was Sunday morning September 22^nd. It was an absolute beautiful, cool, clear morning. Around 8:00am I looked over to see two does coming in. At 12 yards I let the arrow fly and it found it's mark. Boom I was officially on the board with my first kill off the new property.

September 27th
I was able to slip out of work early. I had dinner plans with the family, but it was hot and I knew that I would be done early enough to get to the stand. I arrived at the stand at 5:45pm. I had literally just climbed into the set and got my pack squared away when I noticed movement to the east. Out popped two a nice 2.5 year old bucks that I had on camera. One was a smaller 8 pointer and the other a solid 9 pointer. I was kind of in a panic because I didn’t even have my bow in the tree yet, but after five long minutes I was finally able to ease my bow up and get an arrow knocked.

 For nearly an hour I watched the young bucks eat around the base of the giant oak tree. Both were solid bucks with great potential, but knowing there were much bigger bucks roaming around I elected to give them a pass. Just before 7:00pm I noticed movement from the east again. Another buck was running towards the other two. I could tell immediately that he was a good one and bigger than the other two. Once he got closer I grabbed the binoculars and saw that he was 10 pointer with nice tall tines. Definately a shooter! I had some branches between me and him so I had to sit back and watch the show. The smaller 8 pointer came up to the big 10 and they started sparring. It was awesome and a first for me to see bucks fighting. Finally the big 10 made it to one of my shooting lanes and turned broadside at 33 yards. I slowly drew back, zeroed in on my pin and let the arrow fly. As I saw the arrow track I knew it was really low and not a lethal hit, so I knocked another arrow. The buck had bounded off about 15 yards farther away and stopped in another opening. At 38 yards I sent arrow #2 on it's way. As soon as I shot the buck ducked and turned; obviously jumping the string since he was alert. I heard a loud crack and he took off like his tail was on fire.

 Not knowing exactly where the arrow hit him I waited another 30 minutes before picking up the trail. As soon as I walked up to where he was standing at there was blood everywhere. He'd run about 200 yards before piling up in the bottom of a large ditch. The MO archery season has barley gotten started and my first buck tag is filled; not a bad start to the season!