Youth getting it done in Kansas

We had our annual Kansas Turkey Camp weekend April 3rd - April 6th this year. We had three youth hunters in camp along with six adult hunters. Logan and Scott arrived in KC Thursday afternoon and we headed over to Topeka to scout for the following morning. Logan, Scott and I headed to an area on the west side of the public ground where we'd seen multiple birds earlier in the week. The area consisted of a big hill with a creek at the bottom that opened up into a tall broom grass field. We got in early and set up the blind and decoys while it was pitch black....I knew there was a rise grass field that we wanted the decoys on, but in the predawn darkness I missed the mark by about 5yrds and placed the decoys below the rise.

Even with the high winds and spitting rain the birds on the roost were wound up and sounding off on the regular. Logan had never really heard a lot of gobbling, so he was pretty excited. We could actually see several birds roosted in the trees from our location. At fly down a group of jakes pitched right into the plowed field behind us. They proceeded to fight and cause a ruckus for over an hour before moving off to the north.

 

 Once the group of jakes moved off I slid out of the blind and crawled to the decoys, so I could move them on top of the rise in the grass field. On my way back to the blind a jake pitched over me and landed on the back side of the rise in the field. I crawled into the blind got seated and made a few soft calls on the VECtor slate call. A couple minutes later we had a red head sneaking through the grass into the decoys. We got the camera fired up in time to get the kill on video...Logan brought the heat!

 

 

 After Logan recovered his bird we settled back into the blind to finish out the morning hunt. The wind continued to pick up and I was making a calling sequence  every 20-30 minutes. Around 10am I told Scott I heard a turkey "putt" in the grass, but I wasn't 100% sure. Right about that time Logan spotted another red head sneaking up behind the decoys. This gobbler had come in silent on the back side of the rise, so we couldn't see him until he was on top of the spread. Logan gave me time to fire the camera back up, just before he torched his 2nd bird of the morning....and with that Little Man was tagged out a couple hours into his Kansas season! 

Friday evening Brian and his daughter MaKenna rolled into town for Kenna's first ever turkey hunt. We elected to hunt a big bottom field Saturday morning that had been holding several stutters all week during our scouting trips. We got in early and had the blind setup and it didn't take long for the first bird of the morning to fire up on the roost....and he was close! We had birds roosted all along the ridge behind us, but only three toms actually pitched into the field. Kenna got a good show for her first sit, but none of the boys would leave their solo girlfriend and come play with us. After a couple hours of slow action Kenna had all she could take, so we packed up and headed in for lunch. 

 

Saturday afternoon's sit was pretty slow across the board, but Sunday morning was a different story all together. Brian and Kenna headed into one of our most productive areas and had birds roosted all over their setup. Shortly after fly down they had several hens out in the field when three strutters showed up on the scene. Brian made some soft calls and the trio couldn't resist...the march was on. Kenna smoked the first bird and his buddies stuck around, so Brian got another shell chambered and the Little Huntress laid down a Kansas Double Tap! MaKenna was tagged out with her first and second gobbler ever....one was an awesome looking rio-eastern hybrid also! 

 

2013 Mo Gun Season – Sticker 8 Finale!!!!

In early October I ran my cameras at the KC property and it turned out to be a good card pull.  I came across a nice 8 pointer with 2" kicker on his right G2. He immediately jumped out at me as a shooter.

The Friday evening before the MO Youth season. I took my oldest daughter Makenna on her second  bow hunt and with the new shooting house completed we decided to set up there for the evening. It was a beautiful, cool, clear fall evening and about 90 minutes before dark deer started pouring into the food plot. As luck would have it Sticker 8 decided to show himself. He was chasing does all over the field just begging to be shot that night, but I had already filled my early season buck tag so all we could do was sit back and watch the show.

Opening weekend of the 2013 MO firearms season came and went with no shots fired. I had the Sticker 8 on my mind as I headed to the KC property for a quick morning hunt. I decided to hunt the middle timber stand straight east of the shooting house. Right out of the gates I had two does come in from the direction of the food plot. They fed around a bit then headed south. About 20 minutes later I notice movement to the north. A doe was heading right to me, but she kept stopping and checking her back trail. She angled south and about the time I lost sight of her in the timber I caught another flash  of movement to the north.It was a good buck coming my way so I got myself positioned for a shot. As soon as the buck got into better view I immediately realized that it was Sticker 8 and he was headed straight for me. I tried to keep clam as he closed the distance until he finally made it into 12 yards. I let out a “Meerrrpp” to stop him settled the cross hairs the let the Tikka bark!!! After the shot he took off and I immediately saw blood dumping out of him. He was hit hard and I knew he wouldn’t make it far. In disbelief of what had just happened I text Pete and Scott to tell them that Sticker 8 was a dead deer!

After giving him plenty of time, I got down and started the recovery. The track job was short and sweet and the Sticker 8 was finally down! This is the third mature buck taken off the farm this year and hopefully won't be the last!!!

 

Logan's 2013 MO Youth Hunt

11/2/13
Logan, Scott and Adam arrived Friday evening from Minnesota for the 2013 MO youth season. Scott and I hung a double ladder set this summer just west of The Beach set for Logan. There had been a lot of movement during day light in the bottom for several weeks leading up to the hunt.

Logan and Scott settled into Double Trouble for the first morning's sit, Adam settle into Poachers Pond and I crawled into the Forgotten set. Adam had a small buck work a rub early, but that was the only action for the morning. We headed back to the cabin around 11am for a quick lunch. Adam elected to sit all day and Logan and I headed back into Double Trouble for the evening sit. We didn't see any deer by us, but Adam had four small bucks work past him and Scott had an encounter with a nice 125" eight pointer.

Sunday morning Scott and Logan settled back into Double Trouble, Adam headed into the North Oak Ridge set, and I hunted the Poop Pond ladder. Just after first light I had a spike work into 10yrds before heading back north after three does that crossed onto my ridge. There was a big shooter bumping them around, but they worked back to the northwest. Logan and Scott didn't see a deer again, so we started discussing options for the Sunday night hunt.

Brian offered to let Logan sit over his food plot on a small KC tract he has permission on. Friday evening he'd seen three big shooters in the field while bow hunting. The last hurdle was finding Adam a spot to hunt and our good friend Greg Cole offered to let Adam sit on his KC lease, so we pulled up stales and burned back to KC. We dropped Adam off with Greg and rolled out to meet Brian.

We were settled in the shooting house by 3:15pm and the waiting game started. Within an hour I'd spotted several does filtering through the timber just off the food plot, which was a nice change since Logan had hunted almost 13 hours without seeing a deer. Around 4:50pm Scott said "good buck out front" and we all spotted a nice 2.5 year old ten pointer enter the plot, make a scrape and start bumping other bucks and does around. We got Logan on the shooting sticks but the buck wouldn't stop chasing deer long enough for a good shot. He ended up pushing a group of does off the field. Logan was pretty disappointed, but we told him to keep his head up and more deer would show up. From 5pm on the action was fast and furious...several bucks entered the plot and started bumping does around. We had Logan set up on two other bucks, but the the earlier scenario kept playing out; they wouldn't stop chasing long enough for a clean shot.

With 16 minutes of legal shooting light remaining the last buck in the field pushed several does off and Logan looked at me with tears welling up in his eyes and said " I blew it uncle Pete, that was my last chance at a buck". Right then Scott spotted a small six point enter the back of the field. He started to get Logan set up on the sticks and started glassing the six point. Right when I got the little buck into view through the binos I saw a big set of antlers start to materialize out of the timber behind the little guy and said to Logan and Scott "Holy shit, big shooter coming"  Logan was setting up out the right window, so he couldn't see the big deer and Scott had this perplexed look like...what the F are you talking about, it's a basket racked sixer! He took one look through his binos and realized another much bigger buck was now in the field and told Logan "yep, he's a big 6 point". The big deer worked right down a cut lane in the plot and at 85yrds. he cut right to check on a couple does. I grunted at him and he locked up and looked our direction. Logan was already settled in and touched off the shot. Logan and Scott lost sight of the deer while chambering another round and the deer started clearing the field. I had my binos locked on the buck the entire time and watched the bullet hit home. Ol' Boy pulled up in a small dip on the edge of the field, did a little death wobble and tipped over dead! I looked back at Logan and Scott and said "Buddy you just crushed a giant buck, he's down right on the edge of the plot". Logan went into meltdown mode and Scott and I did a little celebrating ourselves. Brian was actually sitting in my Double Bull blind just behind us and got to see all of the action and help in the recovery process.

Just when we thought the night couldn't get any better we received a text from Adam; buck down! Right at last light a nice young eight point worked into the rye plot he was sitting over. A great shot and short tracking job later and Adam had his hands on his first MO archery deer.

I can't thank Brian and Greg enough for helping us out and getting Logan on his first antlered buck...none of this could have happened without their generosity and Logan is going to owe them both for a long time!!!!

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!

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!

Mo Managed Hunt...13 Pointer Down!!

With 5 preference points built up for the MO managed hunts I decided to roll the dice and put in for the for a local hunt that is full of deer! The area hasn’t been hunted since 1995 (legally) and Pete and I knew if we were lucky enough to get drawn that the chances of shooting a good buck would definitely be better than average.


As luck would have it I got drawn for the first hunt and Pete, Nick, and Greg got selected for the late hunt. My hunt was right smack dab in the middle of the rut and I had high hopes of getting a crack at a good buck.


10/27/12
Opening morning was slow and I botched the one opportunity I had on a doe and hit her high in the back; we couldn't find her. Not feeling confident in my first set after walking the area for the doe I lost, I decided to sit in my second set. 

After making the long walk in I was finally settled in for afternoon by 1:45pm. Tree rats were moving everywhere but the deer were nowhere to be found.Around 5:30pm a doe worked into to 30 yards and I crushed her. She only made it 60 yards before piling up. Since this hunt is an earn a buck, it was time to focus on putting some bone down.

10/28/12
I decided to hunt the same stand as the previous night. It was another beautiful morning in the MO deer woods. Luckily I made it into the stand without spooking any deer and I had this gut feeling that it was going to be a really good morning. At first light I heard walking and spotted two does feeding back to the east of me. They stuck around for fifteen minutes before working out of the area.

About 8:35am I got a text from another hunter on the property. He was asking if I'd been seeing anything yet. I hadn’t put my phone away for more than a minute when I looked to the west and noticed another doe feeding around. As I was watching her I heard a deer come crashing in from the east. She came right into 10 yards and stopped and started looking over her shoulder. I didn’t hesitate and immediately stood up and grabbed the bow. As soon as I turned in the direction she came from all I could see was this giant buck come trotting over the hill heading directly at me. The doe took off and he came right into 12 yards and stopped broadside. I was already drawn back so I took a deep breath and settled in. As I touched off the shot I watched the arrow hit home. The buck did a mule kick and took off. As he ran past me I could see blood pouring out of him. Shortly after making it out of sight I heard big crash and everything went silent.

At this point I was shaking like a little school girl and had to sit down and compose myself. I grabbed my phone because I had to let the boys know I just smoked a big buck.

After about ten minutes had gone and me still in disbelief of what had just happened the sun started to poke through the trees more.  I was looking through the timber and I spotted a white belly laying there and I knew he was down for the count! I decided the wait was over so I packed up my gear and headed over there to see how big he really was. As I got closer I couldn’t believe my eyes. All I saw was a giant bodied deer with a huge rack sticking up.

The buck ended up having 13 scoreable points and will easily be in the mid 150s class. By far my biggest buck ever.

With the MO firearms, MO youth, and Round two at Managed Hunt coming up there are sure to be more stories and bone hitting the dirt soon, so stay tuned.

Tagged out in Missouri!!

4/27/2012

Tag #2 was unfilled and it was burning a hole in pocket, so it was time for a decision. Head to the Oak Grove farm and kill the bird that gave Pete and I the slip the previous weekend or head to Appleton City and hunt my families farms where Pete and I have killed a ton of birds over the years. As much as I wanted to kill that Oak Grove bird my gut was telling me to head South, so that's exactly what I did.

Knowing my neighbor Randy was going to be hunting on public land I decided to give him the invite. It's always more fun having a killing mate along! We woke up bright and early and made the hour and a half trip south. We headed straight for the Yellow Barn farm which has always been a little honey-hole for Pete and I.

The game plan was to wait for some gobbling and head that way to set up and like clock work the gobbling started immediately off to the west. Our first set up was a bust and we couldn't get the birds to work right off the roost, which is pretty typical for this set up. The birds were heading straight for the killing hole like they always do, but it's impossible to setup on with their roost trees so close. It's an inside corner of a big field, but Pete and I have killed a lot of birds within 40 yards of this spot about an hour after fly down.

As we put our sneak attack on and got closer I glassed the three birds and realized that all three were jakes. We snuck up into position and I told my neighbor Randy that I really didn't want to shoot a jake, but I gave him the green light to unload. Randy put his stealth mode on and let the Mossberg eat! I watched the bird kind of drop and walk off. We checked out the area, but the shot wasn't lethal and after a thorough search we had to move on.

Randy was pretty bummed out but I told him we had several spots to try and lots of birds to work so keep your head up. We ended up setting up on 3 different birds, but for whatever reason just couldn't bring them in. I guess my smooth talking wasn't so smooth!!

With Missouri having a 1:00p.m. closing time I knew time was running out so I decided we needed to check one more spot for birds. We rolled up and I quickly saw 2 long beards hanging out right next to the creek bank and we immediately took off after them. After the 1/4 mile sneak through the creek we crawled up the 15' creek bank. Randy and I went back and forth on when he could see the birds and when I could and we quickly realized that there was just too much brush in the way for us both to shoot together. Since Randy had the first shot of the day I was up to bat. I took aim at the closest bird and cut loose. Ol' bird dropped like a rock. The second bird ran and stopped long enough for Randy to get a shot off but at 48 yards I think it was just a touch out of range for his short barreled turkey gun and it was a swing and a miss!

Weight:  23 Pounds

Beard:   9.5"

Spurs:   1"

After my celebration I get a text from Pete that his Lil' Momma got a kill of her own...the story will be coming soon.

With Big Pete still having two unfilled MO tags left it's time to concentrate on him getting on a Missouri bird or two. Let's get it done brother!!

I have to give another big shout out to Scott Ashburn of Scott's Custom Turkey Calls! These calls are all custom and are top notch and sound awesome!

Phone:   816-572-1927

E-mail:  mastvet@sbcglobal.net

2012 Mo Turkey Gun Opener

The 2012 Missouri Spring Turkey opener was upon us. Pete has been lucky enough to have been hunting out in Kansas with our buddy Nick and was able to tag out there on 4/15/12. Our plan for the opener was to head out to of friend's small 80 acre farm in Oak Grove, Mo.


4/15/2012 
The day before the Mo opener found me out bright and early on a windy cloudy morning on a little scouting adventure. I arrived at the farm a bit late, but lucky for me the birds were pretty quiet until about 7:00am when they finally decided to wake up. Two toms were roosted in the northwest corner tucked away in a small 4 acre field which was almost the perfect location. The only bad thing is that there were a bunch of hens with them. Bring on opening morning!!

Around 10:30pm Sunday night I got a text from Pete saying that his big toe that he had to get 12 stitches in due to the Kansas bird getting even with him was killing him and he wasn’t going to make it. I told him he was basically acting like a little "School Girl" and to suck it up!

4/16/2012
Opening morning had finally arrived. I made the short drive to the farm and was fired up to get after them. My plan of sneaking into their bedroom worked for the most part and I ended up setting up 60 yards away from the roosted birds. The first birds that pitched down into my decoys were two hens. The gobblers were gobbling like crazy and my trigger finger was about to run out of patience waiting for the boys to pitch down. Unfortunately one of the hens decided to start working away from me and by the time she got just out of gun range the two gobblers decided to pitch down right to her. I worked them for almost an hour before finally they worked off to the main 40 acre field in the center of the farm.

At this point I knew that I needed to make a move. I found the flock in the middle of the field and the toms were strutting around nine hens and after glassing them for a few minutes trying to figure out how to set up on them I noticed that there was just enough of a hump in the field that I could try and make a sneak attack on them. I dropped my pack and started belly crawling. It was tough on a fat boy but after crawling 125 yards I finally made it into position. I slowly rose up and as luck would have it the hens were 30 yards and closing and the gobblers were strutting around 15 yards behind them.

They finally made a move towards me and when they got to about 35 yards I rose up again and let the Benelli bark....Kaaabbboooommmm!! Ole boy couldn’t handle a face full of pellets and tipped right over. Of course the less dominant bird decided to let his buddy feel his thunder and pounced on him for a couple of minutes before finally deciding to follow the hens out of the field. Awesome end to the Mo opener!!!

With me having 1 tag left and Pete with 2...it's time to get Big Pete healed up and on a Missouri Gobbler!!

Two Timer!

Heading into the second weekend of MO's firearms season I was up in the air on where to hunt. While talking to my cousin who owns about 1000 acres in southwest MO, he basically said the farm was empty for the upcoming weekend except for one other hunter. That pretty much made up my mind on where I'd be hunting.

I arrived at the farm around 5:15am and briefly talked with Jim about which stands I could hunt. He gave me the green light to hunt Blind 1, which is usually off limits because of the blinds owner. Right off the bat I had deer moving through the area as a doe and mini were headed right at the blind. The action remained steady all morning as smaller bucks chased does and minis all around the timber. Around 8:30am a spotted a big shooter to the north but couldn't manage to get a shot off.

After grabbing a quick lunch I headed back into Blind 1 hoping that the evening action would be as good as the morning's. With the warm temp and high winds I decided to take a little nap, so I'd be ready for the late evening action. I woke up around 2:50pm and immediately spotted a doe to the east of me. I watched her for about five minutes and no other deer showed I so figured it would be a good opportunity to fill another antlerless tag. I settled in and let the .06 do it's thing and she dropped in her tracks. I got down so I could get her gutted and pulled into the shade and while looking for a creek crossing I spotted a big set of antlers. It was a big mid-130s nine point that had been shot by an archery hunter during the 2010 season and obviously not recovered. I saw eleven more does that night, but no bone in pursuit of them.

Sunday morning could not have been more of a drastic change from Saturday. It was 24 degrees out with winds out of the northeast and a light drizzle. I headed back into Blind 1 again because of all the doe sightings. I had deer moving through all morning again but still no real shooters. Around 8:15am I spotted two does way up north and right behind them was a giant 150-160" eleven pointer. I heard a shot about fifteen minutes later to the northeast and just hope the poachers across the fence didn't kill him.

Around 9am I caught some more movement to the north and spotted a decent buck working his way through the thick stuff. I was starting to panic because there is a big tree top down that obscures a lot of my field of vision and shooting windows and the buck was headed right towards it. The buck was broadside at about 180yards and my only shot was to stand on my tip toes and try and free hand a shot...I can assure you shot #1 didn't connect and I felt my heart sink. The buck briefly disappeared but he popped back out about 35yards farther away. I let shot #2 rip from my tip toes again and thought I may have hit him, so immediately got down and headed up there. As I approached the area he was standing when I shot I saw the buck and doe staring right at me just before they bolted. I took off running to the north and caught them crossing an opening on the property line. I cut shot #3 loose and nothing again...shot #4 same results, NOTHING!!! I realized I only had one bullet left so I settled in and let shot #5 go.....and down he went! I was pretty wound up after all the commotion and elated that I put a decent buck down. This was by far the best hunt I've had on the farm the the biggest buck I've taken off it. It was a great close to my 2011 season....I'm out of contract days!!!

MO Firearms 2011 Season Kickoff

Leading up to the Missouri 2011 firearms opener I was pretty excited to get to hunt with Pete and Scott up at the Macon property. That was up until the weekend prior when I get the call from Pete saying that the landowner had family coming in from Texas to hunt and he was concerned about the number of hunters for the first weekend. After scratching my head to figure out where to go I decided to let Pete and Scott hunt Macon and I would head over to the Marshall farm I have permission for; which turned out to be a mess in it's own right. The landowner decided to bulldoze several tree lines the week before and the pushed deer onto the neighboring farms, but regardless I was going to roll the dice and see what happens.

Opening morning dawned and I was settled in a ladder stand on the northwest corner of the property. I was sitting there in the morning darkness and just before legal shooting time I see movement to the northwest of my set. My excitement quickly disappeared when I realized it was the neighbor and he decided to set up less than a 100 yards from me on his side of the fence. At this point I was pretty dang upset but there is nothing I could do. Looks like when I rolled the dice I ended up rolling snake eyes because I got skunked and didn't see a deer. And after the neighbor decided to yell out and say "the deer hunting sucks this morning" I had enough and I left to grab lunch and figure out where to hunt for the remainder of the weekend.

After getting back to my friend's farm, I told him the issue he graciously gave me the green light to hunt his farm which I was thankful for. After lunch I was back up in a tree for the afternoon sit. Normally I would be excited to hunt, but with the high winds and warm temps I knew any deer movement would be later in the afternoon. As I was sitting there around 4:15pm I looked over my shoulder and I was surprised to see two deer standing there. One at 12 yards and the other at 35 yards. After glassing for a few minutes I could tell the closer deer was a button buck and the other one I thought for sure was a doe, so I decided to fill an antlerless tag. I settled the .06 and watched the little guy drop in his tracks. That was the only action I had for the rest of the sit, but I was elated I had a deer down!

Sunday morning I found myself back in the same set as the evening before. As the morning progressed I ended up having fourteen turkeys roosted close by and that gave me a good show for about an hour, but that was my excitement for the morning and no deer were spotted.

As the high winds and warm temps set in for the day I decided to cut out and head home to see the family. I will be back at it next weekend with hopefully get a crack at some bone. Good luck to Pete and Scott!! Hopefully they can lay the smack down on a MO giant or two. I know at the very least the slickheads are in trouble.

MO-Archery kill during the firearms season

With family obligations on Saturday I was anxious to get out on Sunday for what would probably be my last sit during the 2010 MO firearms season. I'm that guy...that has a hard time making decisions on where to go, what stand to hunt, etc...So finally I decided to roll the dice and hunt Pete's killing set at our management hunt property.

I was greeted Sunday morning the worst November hunting conditions you could possibly ask for with +60 degree temps, full moon, and winds from the south from 10-20 mph....."it's seems like I've been snake bite this fall". With Pete having so much success from his killing set and with him taking the weekend off after tagging out for the firearms portion of our season, I decided to set up in his stand.

Pete told me that whenever you hunt that set don't expect movement until after 8:30am, so finally around 9:10am I spotted movement from the NW. Three mature does and two minis were heading my way, so I grabbed the Hoyt and was ready to let an arrow fly. The does came right into my wheelhouse and at 15yards quartering away I let the arrow go and it found it's mark perfectly with a complete pass through. The Big Momma ran off about 40 yards before taking a dirt nap right on the walking trail! I was pretty jacked up with this being my first archery kill of the 2010 campaign and first ever bow kill during the MO Firearms Season !

After getting down from the set and finding the arrow, I picked up the blood trail and it was absolutely amazing....so amazing that even I could follow it!!! The new Spitfire Maxx Broadheads are my new best friend and a big thanks to Scott for the recommendation, I appreciate it brother!!

After Thanksgiving I'll be back after it and hopefully I'll be able to connect on a MO Big Boy, but I'll have to do from my own set since Pete will be back on the prowl.

2010 MO Firearms Opener (Marshall, MO Farm)

The 2010 MO Archery Season has been really tough for me this season. After getting a wicked case fo poison ivy that shut me down from hunting for a month, I was ready to get the MO Firearms season started. This year I invited my friend Levi along with me to hunt our Marshall farm. Levi is a good friend of mine that owns the house at LOZ where we go snagging every year March, so I decided to return the favor this year and bring him deer hunting.

11/13/2010 – Opening Day!
The opening morning hunt was pretty much a bust for the most part. A neighbor unleashed hell on a good buck firing 14+ times (no Joke, I counted) and wounding the buck that they couldn’t find. Levi had a good buck come out 20 yards from his location, but his gun wouldn't fire and the buck moved on. At that point we decided to head back to the house and sort out Levi's rifle and eat some lunch before heading out for the afternoon sit.

After arriving back at the house we found out that a neighbor had killed a giant 16+ 12 pointer and another buddy from Marshall, connected on a good 10 pointer.

Without much luck on the first farm we decided to change it up and try another smaller farm with more timber in the area hoping to see more action! Around 1pm we headed out and got settled right in. Levi was sitting on the west set and I was on the east set. Around 2:45pm I heard Levi shoot and come to find out he missed a really big buck with a broken rack after shooting through some brush. The buck came by me but did not offer a clear shot so I had to pass, hoping he would come back by later that evening. Right at last shooting light I heard Levi shoot again and this time he connected on a great 110" 8 pointer. He was fired up because this was his 3rd biggest buck and first deer killed in 3 years!
Right after Levi shot I picked movement in the bean field to the west of me and spotted a mature doe standing in the field. After waiting a couple of minutes I decided I was gonna take a shot. I ranged her at 181 yards, settled the scope on her, and unleashed a 180 grain bullet to eat. My shot connected and after 20 yards she was done.

11/14/2010 – Sunday
With my buck tag still in hand and Levi sitting on a antlerless tag we headed out for the morning hunt. It was partly cloudy and cold temps in the upper 20’s. We ended up seeing a couple of does and small bucks but nothing we wanted to shoot. Sunday afternoon pretty much mimicked that morning hunt, so with both of us having work obligations on Monday we headed home.

First Minny-Mo gobbler of the 2010 season

The day started with me driving the girls to school and daycare. After dropping off my two baby dolls I headed to the office. On my way to the office I decided to drive by the new farm and check the fields. As I drove by one of the fields I spotted three toms and five hens. Instead of heading into work, I was heading out huntin! I raced back home, grabbed my gear and within 30 minutes I was back at the farm.

The birds were still in the field, so I made a big loop along the north side of the property. By the time I got to my first ambush point the birds had moved off the field. I could see the field to the east with no sign of the birds, so I started my sneak towards the western fields. I got to the second glassing spot so I could see in the west field and sure enough the birds were about 125yrds to the south. A big, deep ditch ran along the field edge the birds were working, so I decided to put the sneak on. I figured there was no chance of the Toms leaving their ladies so a sneak was my best and only option.

The ditch was massive with 15–20" sides, but luckily there was a tree about halfway up the west edge where the birds had hung up. Once I got a ways down the ditch I raised up over the ditch lip and spotted the long beards about 45 yrds. out and feeding right to me. I repositioned myself for a shot and waited as the birds closed another 15yrds on my position. After picking out the largest bird, I touched off the shot! The Nelli and Federal #5’s put the hurt on the ol' long Dong Tom and team MinnyMo had bird number one ready for a ride in the back of the truck!

Right after the shot the other two Tom birds jumped on their fallen comrade and started gobbling, pecking, and scratching the dead bird. It was an amazing sight! I've been hunting turkeys for a long time and this is the first time I'd ever seen that. It was great ending to another successful turkey hunt!

22 Lbs.
10' Beard
1" spurs

MO Canadians

The huge flock of canadian geese that Brian and I hunted earlier in the week, were still using the same roost pond and fields that we have permission to hunt. So we decided to get back after them again Sunday morning, only this time we brought some recruits...

Brian, Randy (Brian's neighbor), and I were at the Cedar Tree with decoys setup by7am. Now all we had to do was wait on the birds to start flying....in record cold temperatures (-14 in the rig when we arrived w/o windchill). Luckly it didn't take long for th eaction to start. Around 7:40am we heard a single honk to the east and the first bird of the day was coming over the far treeline. I had the first shot, but I'd told Brian and Randy to be ready incase my gun didn'y cycle. It was a touch cold for the autoloaders! The single skirted the outside edge of the set and I missed shot #1, and of course  round #2 didn't cycle. Brian and Randy proceeded to each fire off a couple shots without scratching a feather either. Not the start we wanted.

It didn't take ten minutes before we had the next birds spotted on the horizion. The pair of honkers couldn't resist the decoy spread and calling. They came straight into our setup and in quick order I had my limit on the ground. It was the first double I've had on geese in about 5 years. With me limited out we called Linn and he was ready to be picked up. I left to get him while Brian and Randy stayed behind to protect the spread.

As Linn and I pulled back into the field we watched them shoot the last bird for both of their limits, so appearently the action heated up while I was gone. Linn  quickly sorted out his gear and we headed off across the field to the killing spot. Geese started pouring into the field in groups of 2-10 and it only took about 10 minutes for Linn to kill his limit also, I don't even think he had a chance to get cold from the below zero temperautres.

As we were picking up the decoys we literally had birds landing in the spread. It was good that we shot our limits and got out, so the main group of birds could use the field all day undisturbed. We've been checking on them this week and they are still using the field, so hopefully Saturday morning will find Brian and me tucked under the Cedar again, shooting another limit of MO Canadians...  

Canadian....Snow Geese in MO

Brian called me on the evening of January 5th and said that thousands of canadian geese were using a couple of fields north of Independence that we have permission to hunt. Brian shot one of his two MO gobblers off the property this past spring, but we hadn't been back out there since. After checking on the birds yesterday morning and verifying they were still using the fields, we sorted out a plan of attack for the afternoon.

I met Brian at his house around 2pm to load our gear. We pulled up to the property around 2:20pm and I was amazed at the number of geese . It was the single biggest flock of canadians I've ever seen in one place. The flock spread at least a 1/4 mile across the field with thousands of birds packed together. The adjoining property to the east had an unpicked corn field and the geese were just as thick on that side of the fence. The KC area was expecting 3-6"of snow with record cold tempertures overnight and the snow was already starting to come down when we arrived. We pulled the truck in along the north side of the corn and literally had birds within 30yrds of the rig, with the edge of the main flock maybe 100yrds in front of us. Because of the weather conditions and available food source, the birds would not move. As we made our way into the field the flock just stayed 80-100yrds in front of us, but none of the birds were leaving either of the fields. There was one lone cedar tree on the our side of the property line and that was the location we chose for our setup.

The flock knew we were there, but it was only a matter of time before birds moving from the roosting field to the corn to feed, would offer us chip shots.

After about twenty minutes the intensity of the snow had picked up significantly and the leading edge of the roosting flock had worked within 70 yrds of our location. The cedar tree we used as cover couldn't have been planted in a better location. It kept the snow off our backs and the drifts of snow around it's trunk hid us extremely well.

Brian called the first shots as a group of 4 geese cut right into us as they headed for the corn. Brian got hung up in his king sized sheet he was using for cover and missed the first gimmie shot of the afternoon. I followed up with a school girl effort and clean missed my shot....it would help if I put my cheek on the stock while aiming! After the first report thousnads of birds errupted into the air and a small group of 3 birds flew right into us. I stoned the lead bird straight away and Brian followed that up by scratching out one of the other two birds in the group. The big flock circled around the fields but didn't move more than a couple hundred yards, so we just tucked back into our cedar blind. We waited another 30 minutes before birds started working closer and closer to us by the minute. Around 4:30pm we had a coulpe birds break off and cut toward us and Brian smashed the lead bird. After picking his bird up we were contemplating leaving when a group of 12 geese got up out of the corn field. They flew right over our cedar and I finished our hunt off by crushing our 4th goose of the evening.

The birds were still in the fields this moring, so with any luck we'll be back after them this weekend!