Getting Down to Business...Minny-MO Style

Scott made his way down to Missouri for our annual week for hunting the north MO property during the firearms season. I managed to get one last archery hunt in Friday evening before the firearms opener and had my first encounter using "Ralphy" the decoy. The buck that came into the decoy was a three year old six point that would have got an arrow if he had brow tines.

Saturday morning came early and the weather conditions were far from ideal with temps in the upper 40s and expected to hit 65 by mid-day and strong southwest winds; little did we know this was going to be a common theme for the week! We saw a few deer moving around in the morning but held off on cutting does right out of the gates. Saturday evening Scott headed into a new set I hung this spring that hadn't been sat in all year and I slid into the Illinois set. Right before 5pm I spotted a shooter buck cutting up a draw to the northeast, but he was about 200yrds out and going away. Shortly after he disappeared I heard Scott crack off the first round of the week and promptly received a "doe meat" text from him. He had two does and a mini come into the south meadow pond and after waiting on antlers for several minutes he put a mature nanny down in her tracks.

Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday with a few deer spotted but nothing to write home about and the weather was even warmer and the wind was still cracking out of the southwest. After the morning sit we slid into the east side of the main sanctuary area and hung the "Graveyard" set. Sunday evening Scott headed down to the Highrise stand and took up post in the Bedroom set. Around 4:30pm a blue F-150 came rolling up the road and parked about 80yrds in front of my. Shortly after the engine shut off I saw a rifle barrel slide out the driver side window. I immediately got down and went to confront the trespasser. It was an elderly neighbor that knew he wasn't supposed to be hunting there and I kindly asked him to get off the farm. I was pretty PO'd when I climbed back into the stand, but I quickly forgot about it when I heard Scott's .06 bark at 5:15pm...and another nanny was put to sleep.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty slow movement wise. We were seeing deer just nothing big and very little rut activity was taking place during daylight hours. We did meet up with several of the boys from Missouri Whitetails.com for dinner and drinks, which is always a good time! We had been waiting for Wednesday all week because there was a cold front forecasted to move through and we were hoping it would get the deer up and moving and we weren't disappointed.

Wednesday's morning temps where in the mid-30s with a steady north wind. I didn't even need to ask Scott which set he was hunting, because The Beach set had been sitting all week; waiting for a north wind. I decided to slip into the new Graveyard set and see what was shaking. Just before 7am I spotted three deer about 150yrds north of me and headed my way. I watched them through the binos as they continued their approach, but there was no bone to be seen just a couple of slickheads and a button. They ended up coming all the way down the fence line and when the lead doe crested the ridge top I was on she was inside 15yrds and directly downwind. I was hoping she'd just slip by but when I watched her stop and take in a deep inhale the safety was clicked off. She looked right up at me and stomped twice...I didn't wait for the third one. A perfect neck shot put her straight down, but now the second doe was locked on to me. She was stomping and swinging her head trying to figure me out and I wasn't about the let her blow out of there, so she got a case of lead poisoning also.

Scott took this picture while walking into the Graveyard to help me get the nannies sorted out

Doe #1

Doe #2

I had several more deer work through the area including a shooter buck, but he'd broke both his brow tines off so he got a free pass..lucky SOB!!! Around 8:30am I heard Scott fire off three shots in quick fashion, which isn't normal for him. Before I could get a text fired off to him to see what was going on I received "9 point down...I"m happy as hell" from him. His buck worked into from the west and was trotting through the Beach and wouldn't stop. Scott's first shot hit him a touch low, his second shot spine busted him, and the third put him down for the count. It was Scott's second biggest buck in MO and well deserved after all the hours we'd been putting in on stand.

Just after 9am I received another text from Scott saying "little doe coming". I heard the report of his .06 shortly after that and knew he'd put her down. I was pretty taken back when his next text came in and all it said was "MONSTER". Right after he shot the doe another one popped out across the farm road. He hit his can call a couple times and a giant 150" class freak came running down a side hill and right into Scott's lap. It was the biggest buck he's had an encounter with and he just had to sit and watch, since he'd filled his buck tag about thirty minutes earlier.

This is the buck Scott had in front of him...

 

 

That evening Scott headed over to the northwest pond to do some scouting for me and I hunted the North Ladder set hoping the freak from earlier was still around. Beside the four point I had cruise through around 1:30pm the only thing we saw was a spectacular MO sunset!

View from the North Ladder Set

Sunset on the Northwest Pond

Thursday morning was pretty slow deer wise, so we butchered up all the deer we had hanging and got them on ice. We saw a few deer that evening, but I was still looking for a mature shooter.

Scott was heading back to Minnesota Friday morning and I headed back to the farm looking for bucky. I sat in The Beach set and had a lot of action early on. Four does milled around the set for about twenty minutes before heading into the bedroom. A couple small bucks wandered by throughout the morning, but still no shooters.

The forecast was calling for temperatures in the upper 60s by noon and sustained 30mph winds out of the south...well I can tell you the winds hit around 10am and the temps followed soon after. With the lack of daylight movement we'd been seeing I cashed in my chips and headed back to KC around 1pm. I couldn't get the giant out of my head that I had an encounter with the Wednesday before opener and I was going to give that property another crack.

All in all it was another awesome week of hunting and hanging out with Scott. We put a lot of meat in the freezer and Scott killed another dandy MO buck. I'm already looking forward to next year...FOR SURE!

MO Firearms Hunt 2010

Pete and I met in Macon, MO on Friday, November 12th for the start of the 2010 Missouri firearms opener. We woke up on Saturday morning to cloudy skies, temps around 30 and winds blowing from the south at +20 mph. I chose to hunt the beach set and Pete hunted the ridge top set on the south end of the property.

Things started quickly for me. around 7am I grunted with my VECtor call and followed it up with a couple bleats from The Can. Within minutes I had a nice 9pt standing 30 yards from my stand. Shortly after that I had a big doe and her mini walk down the draw to my left. After checking to make sure she there were no followers, I settled in and squeezed off the first shot of the MO season. I punched out ol' girls heart and she was dead 80 yards from the stand. I had a button buck come in around 9 AM and that was it for the morning. Pete had one young 8 pt under his stand and a face full of stiff wind to show for his morning sit. Below is a pic of doe #1.

The rest of Saturday's hunt was pretty slow. Pete sat in the "Poachers pond" set and I sat in the "Illinois Ladder" set. Pete got skunked other than turkeys and I had two yearlings come out of the draw to my left at last light. Both of the little guys feed to within 10 yards of my stand before I finally blew at them, so I could get back to the rig.

Sunday morning Pete choose to hunt a new set he hung earlier this summer. It’s located on the edge of a bedding area that has a natural funnel of timber on the west edge of the it. I hunted the "Bowl" set which is located in the bottom of a ridge that drops off a green field. At 9am Pete heard chasing from behind his set and turned to see 2 does getting dogged by a little forky. The forky pushed the lead doe inside 15yrds of the set before he was able to get her stopped. After the shot she only made it 20yrds before piling up and that is when the real action started.
The forky proceeded to grunt, gore, stomp, mount, and kick the downed doe for the next 2+ hours. Several other small bucks where drawn in by all the commotion and the little guy chased every one of them off… like he was the king of the woods. It was a pretty amazing encounter and some of the deer vocalizations Pete heard were very educational (those where Pete's words.....NERD!) and will be used in the future.

Around 10:45am a mini doe came onto the scene to investigate, so Pete made quick work of filling another antlerless tag. Even with another shot being fired within 35yards of the forky, he still wouldn’t leave the downed doe. The forky actually didn't run off until I walked over around 11:15am to help Pete sort out his girls.

Neither of us saw much movement Monday other than some does and small bucks. I did get to hammer a coyote at over 200 yards while hunting the "Perch" set, it's probably the best shot I have made to this point with a rifle.

On Tuesday Pete slid into a small 2 acre patch of timber that is located in the middle of a hay pasture. There is a small pond located inside the west edge of the timber and we figured deer would be hiding out in this sanctuary after the first couple days of the boom-stick season.
Pete set up south of the timber about 80yrds away from the pond in a row of hay bales the farmer keeps there. There was no movement early, but about 15 minutes before Pete was supposed to meet up with me to butcher our does, a spike crested the hill and ran into the west edge of the timber. As soon as the spike hit the timber edge Pete heard several deep aggressive grunts and the little guy turned and hightailed it back the way he came.

Pete grabbed his rifle and his VECtor, got the wind in my favor and started to sneak through the wood lot from the southeast. Pete was about 40 yards from the west edge of the lot when he spotted a small 8 pt and a spike bedded just below the pond dam. Pete gave them a couple of loud aggressive grunts on the VECtor and both deer came flying out their beds looking for a fight. The 8 point ran out into the pasture, raked some leaves and an overhanging tree limb, and was grunting like crazy. Pete hit him with two more grunts and the buck came charging back into the timber right at him. That’s when Pete heard the grunt he was waiting on. A huge bodied buck stood up out of his bed about 20yards north of the first two bucks. He had a small doe bedded with him and was not happy about all of the commotion being caused by the younger bucks.

The big buck charged both of the smaller bucks and chased them out into the pasture. Pete hit the VECtor a few more times and the big guy turned and headed back towards Pete and his doe. When the buck got back to the edge of the cover Pete hammered him with .06. Fatty didn't even want to hold it and he dropped right next to his original bed. He’s is the largest bodied whitetail Pete has ever killed in the Midwest, his neck measured 27 ½” after being caped out.

Tuesday night was a slow sit for us, but the weather report for Wednesday had Pete and I going to sleep with high hopes. We woke up to 29 degrees, NO WIND and clear skies. The weather report was also calling for a rain/snow mix to move in around noon.

Pete finally got the correct wind and was able to hunt the "North Ladder" set and I slipped back into the "Beach" set. We were settled in by 6am and waited for legal shooting time. Around 6:40am I thought I heard something moving through the bedding cover that sits about 80 yards to the east of the stand. This is the same area the 9 point came out of during the first morning sit. I watched the area for several minutes with my gun resting in my lap, but never picked up any movement. After several minutes of not seeing or hearing anything I sat back and relaxed a bit. I kept my gun resting in my lap because it felt like something was going to happen, I just had that feeling.Five minutes later I spotted a tall rack walking towards me from my left. I got my scope on the deers, so I could try and determine how big he was. After a couple minutes he finally turned and looked my way. I could tell he was tall, wide and pretty heavy. Ol' boy kept walking the edge of the creek bottom and when he was directly in front of my stand at 30 yards, I softly grunted at him and the buck actually grunted back at me. That's when I squeezed the trigger and hit him with a round out of the Soul Snatcher! The buck reared up on his back legs, spun around and just dropped in his tracks. Thirty minutes into the sit and I had killed my largest buck. That buck also put the finishing touch on our 2010 MO deer hunt.

We're already counting down the days until our 2011 Missouri hunting trip!