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!!!!

Logan's 1st Deer

11/3/2012 - Opening day of the MO 2012 Youth Season

Logan and Scott made the trip down from Minnesota Friday afternoon and met me at MWT member CallaoJoe's cabin. I'd made it up to the farm earlier in the day and setup the Double Bull for Saturday morning's hunt and pulled a couple trail camera cards. We had a big spaghetti and meatball dinner and got to bed early in preparation for the following morning. 

I'd setup the DB just off the main farm road on the NW side of The Beach, the knoll provided us good cover and an excellent shooting window into the bottom. We were settled into the blind by 6:40am and anxiously awaited legal shooting time. Around 7:20am Scott and I spotted movement down on The Beach at about the same time. Three does were working through from the east, but we could tell they were being bumped and acting nervously. They all quickly cut up the hill next to our rifle stand and never stopped to offer a shot. In six years of hunting that area I've never seen a single deer cut up that hill and was a little dejected that they decided to that morning. About 45 minutes later Logan said "deer" and Scott and I focused on the area he was looking. Sure enough a small buck popped out of the drainage following the same trail the does used earlier; only moving slower. Logan got settled on the shooting sticks a said he was on the buck good. The adrenaline was starting to kick in and for a second we thought Logan was going to hyperventilate, but he got his breathing under control and touch off the shot...only problem was that his head was off the rifle nanoseconds after squeezing the trigger ask "did I kill him?", it was a clean miss.

Logan was pretty disappointed in himself and he was trying like the devil to hold back tears and be tough about it. We may or may not have noticed a tear or two while he was turned away looking out his side of the blind for the next 15 minutes. After talking about the miss and explaining to Logan that we've all missed his spirits improved and we had a great time watching all the wildlife and messing around in the blind for the rest of the morning. Around 10:45am we decided to go grab some lunch, but I wanted to show Logan more of the farm and pull the other camera cards I didn't get to the day before.

We pulled into the south meadow and headed down the hill to a camera I'd set up on several scrapes the week before. I'd literally just turned the engine off when Scott looked over and said "is that a deer?". Sure enough there was a deer feeding up the hill about 115yards away, but it was in a drainage dip and we could just see the top of it's back. We got Logan out and moved down the hill trying to get a better angle, but the dip in the field was still preventing Logan from getting a good sight picture. We were moving further down the hill when the deer finally picked it's head up and looked at us. We got on the sticks quickly, thinking the deer was going to run up or down hill but to our amazement it started trotting right at us. Logan was on the sticks and said he was on the deer, but it continued to close the distance without any sign of slowing up. Finally around 30yards out the deer angled downhill and stopped giving Logan a great shot. Wee-man touched off the round and absolutely hammered the deer! It made it out of the meadow, but it wasn't going to hold that shot very long and the celebration erupted!!! Logan, Scott and I were all kinds of wound up and several hugs and knuckle bumps followed in the aftermath.

After a couple minutes of waiting I quietly slid into the timber and spotted Logan's trophy laid up in the bottom of the draw. I knew it was a button buck once it started towards us in the meadow, but Logan thought he'd shot a doe so I didn't say anything to him. His reaction when he found out that he'd killed a "BIG BUCK" is a memory Scott and I will go to our graves with, it was priceless!!

      

Tagging his first deer and helping drag it out....

 

That evening CallaoJoe had several MissouriWhitetails.com members over for an antelope, pheasant, gator and jambalaya feast and Logan got to tell his 'Big Buck" story to the whole crew...it was the icing on the cake!

Logan reflecting on the day by the camp fire with his trophy

The Walkers invite Logan out to their farm the next morning for a coyote hunt and he was all-in on that adventure. Unfortunately I told Scott I'd drive his new Explorer and when I looked down and noticed I was doing about 68mph in a 55 zone right about the same time I spotted the MO Hwy Patrol car, I knew it was going to be another first for the weekend. The cherries came on and I proceeded to get my first ticket ever. The officer was very nice and congratulated Logo on his deer while telling me to slow it down. As I pulled away Logan said "Uncle Pete, I'm gonna call you The Ticket from now on" salt in the wound boy, salt in the wound. 

We didn't kill any yotes but Logan got to put a few rounds down range with CallaoJoe's .223 AR and Randy gave him a little driving lesson on the mule. It was a prefect finish to an amazing weekend with family, both blood and MWT!

 

Scott is headed back down to MO this Friday and we'll be spending the entire week hunting the Macon Co. property.

2012 MO Youth Hunt....Logan's 1st Deer hunt

Scott and Logan made the trip down from Minnesota Friday afternoon for Logan's first deer hunt as the shooter. Logan has been tagging along on hunting trips with his dad and I since he was 2 years old and has been talking about shooting his first deer and coyote for about as long. Saturday, January 7th kicked off the second portion on the Missouri youth deer season and the three of us were tucked into ground blind near The Graveyard set on our Macon Co. farm. 

We didn't have any deer movement in the area to speak of, but the nine turkeys and numerous squirrels and birds kept us plenty entertained during the sit. Logan was all eyes and ears hoping a deer would materialize, but it didn't happen. Scott did manage to catch up on some much needed sleep though....

Saturday afternoon good friend and fellow MissouriWhitetails.com member Rob Gerling met up with us and we headed up to Millard, MO to hunt his lease property Saturday evening. The land owner had seen 10-11 does and a big buck working up his south fence line pretty regularly during the past couple of weeks. We got the Double Bull brushed in about 90yrds up the south fence and went into town for lunch. Logan, Scott, and Rob were settled into the blind by 3pm, but not before Rob had to take care of a little business....

Logan and the .06 waiting on Rob...

Once again the deer did not cooperate for Wee-man, but there was plenty of MarioKart and Yahtzee getting dominated in that blind from the sounds of it. They did have a giant owl attempt to join then in the blind...or at least they thought it was going to; Logan was pretty impressed with that! I headed up to the northwest side of the property to scout/bow hunt and had 7 does work through the area along with 17 turkeys I busted out of the field on my way in. Not sure we would have got a shot at the deer if Logan was with, but at least he would have seen some action...so goes hunting I guess.

Sunday morning all four of us headed to good friends and also fellow MWT.com members Randy and Jenny Walker's farm northeast of Atlanta, MO. They were gracious enough to allow us to bring Logan to their farm for the day, and what a day it turned out to be. I can't thank The Walker's enough for the generosity they showed Logan, he thought he was the King for a day!

Logan, Scott, and I slipped back into a shooting house over looking standing beans that were tucked in right next a 20 acre bedding area the Walker's had done some TSI work in the previous year. There were 5 does in the beans out in front of the shooting house when we entered the field. They moved off to the north as we approached, but not in too much of a hurry. It was way to early to shoot, but the bright moon allowed Logan to see them as they trotted out of the field and he was excited to see some deer.

After getting Logan settled into the Captain's shooting chair we sat back and waited for shooting light. Logan was busy playing Angry Birds around 7:20am when I caught movement about 55-60yards out in front of us. A yote was slipping through the beans headed east, but had no idea we were there. Scott got the .06 up on the window and Logan took over from there. Scott whistled once to stop the dog, but it only sat still for a brief second before moving on. Logan followed it for another 10yards in the scope before I whistled and second time. This time the dirty dog locked up and Logan didn't waste anytime laying the wood to it! The yote didn't even move and the with all the excitement and the look on Logo's face you'd have thought we killed a 160" buck!!!! It was a memory none of us will ever forget.

A little reenactment of the shot...

 

Logan after his first kill...

A couple of trophy pictures of his first yote...

Randy and Rob had planned to call yotes around the farm during the morning using an e-caller. We'd heard the caller fire up and a few shots throughout the morning, but hadn't received any updates from the boys. So after taking pictures of Logan and his big kill, we headed up to the house for an awesome breakfast that Jenny had prepared. Logan wasn't very impressed with the dragging process, but he was a trooper and drug his prized yote a good portion of the way back...or so he says he did!

Randy and Rob got back to the house around 10am and they had a pretty good morning calling dogs also. One set produced three dogs that came in bounding over the CRP grass looking for the pup in distress they were hearing. Another set produced more dogs responding to the call. Randy took the first shot and hit the yote back and at about 150yrds or so on the run Rob straight skull capped it!!! Great shooting Chief!

The 2 yote killers...

 

Sunday afternoon we all walked Randy's trap line then Scott and Logan chased a few tree rats around before taking a little siesta. That evening Logan, Scott, and I headed back to the shooting overlooking the beans. The conditions were perfect, but the deer refused to cooperate again. We had a lot of fun joking around with each other and watching the other wildlife. As shooting light came to a close we sat back and enjoyed a great moon rising over the trees.

 

All in all it was a great weekend shared with family and friends. Logan is already excited about coming back down to MO for the November portion of the youth season this fall, and to collect on his bill from Randy and Rob; he said to "pay up boys, lessons ain't cheap"

I wanted to thank Rob and the Walkers again for giving up their time and allowing us to hunt their properties, it was beyond generous and greatly appreciated! You made Logan's weekend one him, his dad, and I won't soon forget...THANKS!!!!

Christmas Grouse

12/23/11 
Scott, Logan, Adam, and I headed up to the central MN property that we deer hunt on for a little grouse action. It snowed about 1.5" on the drive up to the property which limited the amount of bird activity we usually see up there. We burned a lot of leather walking the property, but the birds didn't cooperate very well. Around 10:30am Adam had a bird running in front of him in the cover and he made a great shot on it after it flushed; Grandpa's ol' side by side served him well!

The bird sailed about 60yrds into the timber before going down, but Oshi made quick work of the retrieve and we had our first bird in hand. We walked out the rest of the property throughout the afternoon and only kicked up one more bird. It flushed about 35yrds in front of me and I cracked off one shot hoping to get lucky, but it was to no avail. Regardless it was a great day in the MN timber!

We also sighted in Scott's 30.06 with the low recoil rounds for Logan's MO youth deer hunt January 7-8. It's crazy how much less recoil the rounds have and they are still extremely accurate. Now we just need the deer to cooperate in a couple weeks. 

Another Pile of Ducks In MN

Logan and I woke up to clear skies, a 10 mph wind out of the south/southwest and temp of 32 degrees on Thursday morning. We decided to hunt the Honey Hole slough since it hadn’t been hunted in nearly three weeks and a good number of divers had been reported in the area. I set out 3 dozen duck decoys and a few geese for the mornings shoot. The first duck to arrive on the scene was a hen Red and she took a hot load in the face for her kindness. For the next 30 minutes we had flock after flock of Greenwing teal dropping in and out of the slough. I put four of the little guys into the bag before the flight shutdown at 8 AM. After that the skies cleared of birds and we hung it up for the AM. The morning total was 4 Greenwings and 1 ginger head.

The wind switched to the northwest in the afternoon so Logan, Oshie and I picked up the morning spread and setup on the opposite end of the slough. The duck flight was almost nonexistent in the afternoon. We called in one flock of Greenwing and I scratched a nice drake out of the flock. Oshie made a very nice 60-70 yard retrieve on the downed bird after the wind blew it out into the middle of the slough. With that bird we had our limit for the day. We sat until sunset in hopes of a goose shoot but every goose that was in the area piled right into the north slough. A great sign for our Saturday hunt.

Saturday morning found us in the East Bay hunting with Joe and Tony P. The wind switch back to the south over night and was suppose to blow at 10-20 later in the AM. The temp was back near 32 and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The morning started off very slow as far a shooting was concerned. There was plenty of ducks flying around put we got burned a couple times from people shooting on the state property as ducks were about to set into our spread. We made a couple setup changes and the wind started to blow around 9 AM and just like that the killing began. The air filled with geese and we pulled several flocks into our spread of 36 big foot floaters and 6 snow geese floaters. When the smoke cleared we had 8 geese in the boat and three of those where cackling geese. We also added 11 mallards (9 drakes) and 2 drake green wings to the bag. We called it a shoot around 12:15. We did hunt the evening but it was mostly a bust. I added one gorgeous drake wood duck to the bag and that was it for the afternoon hunt. Of course the ducks and geese poured into the slough 5 minutes after shooting closed. Another great shoot in East Bay!


Sunday was a very strange morning. We hunted as far east on the north slough as possible. We had a west/northwest wind at 5-15 mph, cloudy sky and a temp around 48 degrees. The bird movement for the morning was near zero. Logan and I left at 9 AM because we had to be home early Sunday afternoon. We left without firing a shot on the slough. Tony and Joe hung around until 10:30 and ended up killing one mallard. On the way back to the cabin Logan spotted a rooster pheasant sitting along side the dirt road the leads from our sloughs to the cabin (200 yards from the cabin). The bird was kind enough to sit within 15 yards of the car for a good 2 minutes while I got my gun, then stepped out the car and loaded up. As soon as I was loaded the rooster gave me a nice little chip shot and we had the first pheasant of the season and got the skunk off our back for the day. A great end to Logans duck season at the cabin this year .

Wood Duck Shoot!

Logan and I headed out to the hunting shack on Friday afternoon. We bucked a calm 50mph wind all the way to the cabin. The temp on Friday was 86 degrees, windy and not a cloud in the sky....perfect duck weather. We didn't make it out in time to hunt on Friday, so we hung out at the shack then went to the fields to watch for ducks late in the afternoon. Right before dark we noticed 3 or 4 good flocks of birds cresting a hill on the North Slough and dropping into a flooded bay. Since no birds where working the smaller sloughs we decided to give the flooded bay a shot in the morning.

Saturday morning we woke to cloudy skies, a light drizzle, and southeast winds from 5-10 mph. As we turned our boats into East Bay, hundreds of ducks erupted from their roost. We had picked the right area to hunt!

Hunting with Logan and I this weekend was Tony Peterson, Jason Preusser, Chad Lundberg and Tony and Chad's boys. The morning shoot started off with nothing flying for the first 10-15 minutes. For a brief moment I started to question my decision to hunt the big water. Then a pair of Wood ducks dropped into the decoys. Two shots where fired and two wood ducks laid tits up on the water. For the next hour we had several hundred wood ducks come into the decoys; what a show! The last 45 minutes we had to just sit back and watch because we already filled our 12 wood duck limit for the day. Below is a picture of the morning shoot. Take special notice of the gorgeous merganser in the spread!



Sunday morning was a bit cooler. The temp was at 50 degrees, it was cloudy, spitting rain and the wind had switched to the northeast at 5-10 mph. Because of the wind switch we setup on the other end of the East Bay. This worked out perfectly because there was less flooded timber for the birds to get through and we could setup in a standing corn field.....perfect cover for 8 people and a dog.

Once again it took about 10 minutes for the ducks to start flying, but once they did it never stopped. The first flock of birds to come over was a group of 30-40 Blue wing teal. I took one shot and brought down three birds. While Oshie and I picked up the triple Tony took a shot at another large flock of BWT and brought down two birds with one shot. Nice start to the morning. Once the smoke cleared we had killed a 4 man limit of ducks (12 wood ducks, 5 mallards, 5 BWT and 2 Gadwall), 1 more tasty merganser and Jason killed his first ever goose. Oshie also had a great day in the marsh. She made 14 retrieves including her first ever goose retrieve. She is coming along nicely for an 11 month old. What a morning!


The highlight of the day was Logan shooting his first duck. About 30 minutes into the morning shoot I called a single drake wood duck directly into the spread. Everyone held off so Logan could take his first shot at a bird that wasn't wounded. The full dressed drake set in at 20 yards. Logan took careful aim and put a load of 6 shot right up the old Drakes head. Not one BB made it below the ducks neck, nothing but face and skull! Below are a couple pictures of the duck slayer and his first ever kill. I couldn't have been more happy and proud of him and I don't think he could be more proud of himself!



On our way home I stopped and picked up the wood duck I was having mounted from last season. I had the bird mounted by Flyway Taxidermy out of St. Cloud, MN. The bird looks great. A big thanks to Jerry Froelich for a job well done. www.flywaytaxidermy.com/

2011 MN Duck Opener....Just OK

The 2011 Minnesota Duck Season kicked off last weekend. Before Logan and I headed out to our property in Western MN I took in a morning of bow hunting. I had a nice cool morning with a temp of 37 degrees and a light 5-8 mph northwest wind. Since I hunted my core area the previous weekend I decided to hunt a new stand I set this summer. The stand sits about 60 yards south of a huge cattail marsh with thick bedding cover to my east. Other than a doe at first light my morning was very uneventful. The high note of my morning hunt was pulling my trail cameras and finding a huge 10 point was roaming the farm. This is a deer I haven't seen before. Below are 2 pictures of the big fella.


Opening morning Logan and I decided to setup in the field we had hunted during the early goose a few weeks ago. We had a temp around 42 degrees and a 10-15 mph south wind. Right before legal shooting time we had a flock of 6 mallards set into the decoys. The hunt went straight downhill from there. All we could muster into the spread over the next hour was a single goose that I called in from way up in the air. The goose took 3 full circles of the spread before finally putting down his landing gear and giving my a 5 yard shot.
With no ducks working the field Logan and I hustled down to Logan's Honey Hole with Oshie around 8 AM. Within seconds of getting set up we had a bluewing teal in the bag. Oshie also made her first official water retrieve on a duck.
The duck movement was really slow for an opener. We ended up killing 1 bluewing, 1 greenwing, and 2 drake mallards before calling it a day at 11:15 AM. I should have scratched a limit but I struggled shooting from the boat.....School Boy! I Also think the high water is starting to effect the puddle duck numbers in our area.

Sunday morning found Logan and I back in Logan's Honey Hole. We hunted with Joe Salato in the A.M. and had clear skies, temps in the low 50's and a light south breeze. Once again the duck movement was very slow. I killed a drake mallard the first minute of legal shooting time and we got to watch Oshie chase down her first wounded bird. After that things slowed right down. We ended the morning with 1 goose, 2 drake wood ducks, 3 drake mallards, 1 bluewing, and 1 greenwing teal. Not the greatest of openers but still a fun weekend. We will be back next weekend to see if things pick up!