#2 hit the dirt in MO

I headed up to my north MO property with a couple friends from MissouriWhitetails.com (Nick & Greg). We arrived at the farm around 11:30am and headed in to pull my trail camera card....unfortunately my camera apparently grew legs, cut the cable it was locked up with, and walked away!!! I hate trespassers and really hate trespassers who steal!

For the Saturday evening hunt I sent Greg to The Gash set and Nick to The Bowl...both of them got skunked on deer sightings. I headed up and hunted the North River set intending to do more scouting with my binos and looking for deer coming off the hills or out of the river treeline. Instead I ended up being cover up with deer coming to the cut corn. The first four deer came off the hillside about 80yrds in front of the stand and angled into 45yrds, but there is no way to get a clean shot off in that part of the field. A few minutes later I spotted two more does following the same path as the first group. While glassing the approaching deer I spotted another couple of does working in from the north behind the set. They came right down the main trail and entered the field 16yards to my right. I let the lead doe feed out a little ways into the corn and when the second doe popped into the field I was already at full draw. I quietly grunted to get her stopped and touched off the shot. It was getting pretty dark, but I saw my arrow tracking perfectly and heard the tell-tale popping of the lungs. She bolted back towards the hill and the rest of the deer just stood there; having zero idea what just happened.

I met up with Nick and Greg back at truck and we headed back down to track the doe. It had been about 45 minutes since I shot her and we located the arrow and blood trail immediately in the corn field, all signs indicated that it was a great hit. We trialed her about 60yrds up the hill with great blood the entire time, but then we heard a deer jump up and run just ahead of us. It didn't move off very far and it sounded like it wasn't moving very well. We quietly tracked the blood another 15 yards and found her first bed pooled in blood, so we immediately backed out. I was extremely surprised she wasn't dead yet since we gave her plenty of time to expire. We decided to just head into town clean up and grab some dinner to give her time to give up the ghost on her terms. Around 10:45pm we headed back to the farm to continue the search. The temps were going to be in the upper 50's and I didn't want to chance having the meat go bad on a deer I knew was dead. We quickly got on the last blood and trailed in another 60-70 yards up the hill right to a very dead and stiff legged nanny. She had been dead for a good while, but we made the right call backing out and giving her plenty of time to die. The shot was a perfect double lung hit, so that was one tough girl to hold it for almost an hour before giving up the ghost.

Sunday morning was pretty slow on all fronts. I had a few coons walk through and I located a huge scrape in front of The Beach set. I set up Scott's trial camera he sent down overlooking  the scrape and main trail in front; hopefully it's still there next time I check! Sunday evening was slow for Greg and I with nothing but coon sightings again. Nick hunted the north meadow and had 6 does and nice 2 1/2 year old ten point come out. The buck made several scrapes along the north edge of the meadow and the does stayed out of bow range.

It was a great weekend with good friends; to bad some A-hole was trespassing on the south end of the property and decided to steal my Cuddy....

Weekend #2 of MN Bow season

Saturday, September 25. I arrived at the farm shortly after 5 AM. The weather was calling for rain, but it was suppose to hold off until 9 AM. As soon as my truck tires hit the entrance of the farm it started to rain. Nothing like weather.com being off by four hours. The wind was blowing 5 to 10 mph from the east/south east. As I walked towards my stand I could really hear the creek screaming from heavy rains we received earlier in the week. Seconds later I was up to my thighs in 60 degree water. It was going to be a cool morning sit.

After draining my boots twice I finally made it to my stand at 6 AM. I was hunting my money set again. As soon as legal shooting time arrived it started to rain hard. Nothing was moving for the first hour. At exactly 7:30 AM a doe and a mini came through the bottoms. I thought about filling another management tag with the mini, but it stopped just behind some brush at 40 yards. After milling around for a couple seconds both deer walked off to the southwest directly past my ladder stand. Nothing else moved the rest of the morning other than a mini raccoon who ran right under my stand. To bad the season isn't open yet! Below is a picture of the doe and mini I saw in the AM.....I think.

Sunday, September 26. I took the morning off to catch up on some sleep. I made it to the woods around 3:30 PM. I decided to pull my camera card from the Northwest corner of the property prior to my sit. I wanted to make sure the camera was working and also see if any deer where using the area during daylight. The camera did have some deer on it, but nothing since the heavy rains earlier in the week. I did get a photo of a nice 2.5 year old 8 pt. that I will post a pic of later this year. I left the camera and the card in the woods for now.

I made it to the ladder set on the east side of the main woods around 4:50 PM. The wind was blowing from the southwest at 0-5 mph, no clouds and temps around 60. It was a perfect fall afternoon. At 5 PM I noticed a small tree moving to my west. minutes later I saw a young 8 pt walking towards me. The 8pt walked up to 13 yards and wandered around next to my stand for several minutes before walking off to the northeast. At 5:45 I had a young 7 pt come in from my east. He walked into 20 yards before working his way towards the main corn field to the west. Below is another pic of the 7pt. The pic at the top is also of the 7 pt.

That was it for deer movement the rest of the evening. Overall another fairly successful weekend of sits. Next weekend is MN duck opener. Logan and I will be in Western MN and hopefully kill some ducks, geese and doves.

Seed Is Planted In MN!

Logan and I made it out to the Annandale property Friday afternoon. Things couldn't have worked out better. The area received a nice rainfall this morning and another light rain this afternoon. Perfect conditions for spreading seed on my food plot.

Logan and I arrived at the property around 4 PM. After raking out bumps and removing any grass that was on the plot it was time to spread seed. I planted 1/2 the plot with Evolve Habitat clover with a small bag of Biologic Brassica mixed in. The other half of the plot was seeded with Whitetail Institute Imperial Clover. Just for fun Logan and I also planted a small pack of sweet corn and sunflowers in the plot. We are suppose to receive another rain this evening which should be perfect for the plot.

I need to make another trip out to the property on Monday to fertiize the plot with a 13-13-13 fertilizer.

Logan and I walked the property a bit before heading home. The deer sign in the area looks good and my mineral sites are really getting hit hard. I pulled both the cards from my trail cameras but found out I had a bad pack of batteries. Both camera's died after a couple of days. I did get several good pics. Below are a couple of the photos from the Cuddybacks.

Logan fired a couple .22 shots in the dump and we called it a night. We got a lot of work done and had a fun afternoon.

Update 5/2/10- I ended up having a couple free hours on Sunday afternoon so I headed back to the Annandale property. I fertilized the new plot and also hit my existing plot with some 10-10-10 fertilizer. I also updated the software on both of my Cuddybacks to help insure longer battery life. The mineral sites are continuing to get hit hard. I also walked the far southeast corner of the porperty and found a nice location for another set. Otherwise nothing much had changed since Friday afternoon. I won't be back until June 1.

Missouri Marathon Ends with 2 Bucks and 2 Doe

I arrived in KC, MO the evening of Friday, November 6th. Pete and I decided to sleep in Saturday morning and drive to Macon, check in to the hotel and get out for the evening sit.

Of course the weather was windy and warm, like it is every time I hunt in Missouri. The first nights hunt was very eventful. I was setup in the Gash Set. I spotted what looked like a good buck clear across the bottom field walking along the river edge. I couldn't tell exactly how big the buck was because it was probably close to a mile away. Right around 5 PM I had a small spike/fork buck come down the hillside in front of me and work into the field. Twice I had him at 20 yards.

As I was watching the small buck I heard foot steps coming through the gash. After a couple minutes a nice 2 1/2 year old 8 pt came out and stood in my shooting lane at 23 yards. I looked him over and had to talk myself out of shooting him several times. He had a nice tall rack but wasn't very wide and was lacking good mass. Great looking deer for an MN boy! I grunted at him with my Vector call and this stirred up trouble between him and the little buck in the field. At one point the two deer came nose to nose before the young guy finally realized he was seconds away from a tail kicking and quickly put a 100 yards between himself and the 8 pt. I was able to call the 8 pt. back into 20 yards three seperate times with my vector grunt call before he finally worked into the field to eat.

Right at dark I had a Doe and her two mini's come off the hillside about 150 yards out in front of my set and work across the field. Not a bad first nights sit, to bad it would be my only good sit for the next 5 days. Below is a photo the spike/fork buck I was able to snap.

Things really slowed down as far as deer movement the next couple of days. The only deer I saw the rest of the time in Macon was a doe who got spooked off a hillside by a falling tree. She came running past me at 60 mph scared out of her skin.

Things were also slow for Pete most of the week although he was seeing deer almost every sit. On the morning of 11/11/09 Pete had a great encounter with a huge Macon Co. giant. Right after getting into the oak ridge top set Pete heard running and grunting in the draw in front of his stand. Shortly after that two doe crested over the top of the draw. Shortly there after Pete heard more grunting and a huge 150 class eight came over the ridge bumping the does. For several minutes Pete had the big 8 bumping the does around his stand. The whole time the BIG BOY was grunting and lip curling at the two does. Pete finally got the buck to stop at 31 yards and he released his arrow. The shot looked great until the big guy dropped and spun to his right after hearing the string. Pete's arrow hit him high in the left shoulder and never penetrated the bone. Another kick to the groin for Pete's 2009 archery season!

We did track the deer all afternoon to make sure it wasn't hit better than we thought. I did catch a glimpse of the big fella once in the afternoon as he ran off over 200 yards away. Even at 200 yards I could tell he was a true giant. Hopefully we will see him again later this fall or next.

We returned to KC on Wednesday night because Pete had to be in Columbia for meetings the next two days. I hunted the Blue Springs farm Thursday evening and Friday morning but still couldn't shake my curse. The good news was the farm was littered with sign. The bad news was I only saw deer while walking back to my car after dark.

Saturday, November 14th. The Missouri firearms opener finally arrived and we would finally get a chance to even the score after a week of getting our tails kick.

Opening day found Brian, Pete and I hunting the Blue Springs farm. We had cloudy skies, cool temps, a good northwest wind and periods of light rain. Finally some good weather had arrived in MO!

I had a deer in my field prior to first light but that deer was quickly run off by a grunting buck who either wanted a fight or some tail. Pete and Brian where seeing deer and turkeys right at first shooting light and pretty much the rest of the morning. I started to feel like my curse was for real as I wasn't seeing anything while those two where covered up in critters. At 7:15 my curse was finally lifted. I caught movement to my left and looked over to see a doe coming out of the woods at full tilt with a very good buck right on her tail. I tried stopping the deer 4 or 5 times and finally yelled at the top of my lungs which got there attention. Both deer stopped briefly at 65 yards to see what all the noise was about. I quickly settled in on the buck but had to rush my shot because his doe started to take off again. I thought my first shot found its spot but the buck reacted oddly. I quickly reloaded and took a running shot as the deer went for the woods. After the 2nd shot the buck stopped one more time and allowed my to settle in and take a relaxed shot. My 3rd shot hit home and the big guy gimped into the woods about 20 yards before I lost sight of him. Everything happened so fast that I was rattled worse than I have ever been by a deer.

I sat tight and waited until 9am for Pete and Brian to come over to look for the buck. The wait was brutal as I wasn't positive of my shots although I knew the 3rd shot hit home. After arriving, Brian walked into the woods where I saw the deer enter and quickly spotted him laying in a heap 30 yards past the edge of the field. It was quite a relief after having to rush my shot and not have the deer drop immediately. Below are some pictures of the big jacked up MO Una-buck.


Brian and I met for lunch around 11:45 and treated ourselves to a bag full of BK while Pete decided to stay put on the 70. At 12:30pm we headed back to the stands for the rest of the afternoon. On the way to our stands Brian spotted a deer halfway down the cul-d-sac field. After verifying it was a doe the stalk was on! Brian and I got around the field and slowly worked our way down a hedge row. With the wind in our favor and great cover between us we were able to slide all the way down to the end of the hedge row. Brian gave me the green light so I dropped my pack and Brian held back 10 yards. I slowly slid into the field and popped out in a sitting position ready to fire. The doe had no idea I was in her world. After a couple seconds she turned perfectly broadside and I let the .06 speak its peace. As soon as the shot went off I heard Brian giggling behind me and letting me know she went right down in her tracks. We quickly pulled her into the hedge row we had just stalked down and made our way to our stands for the evening sit. Below is a photo of the doe we stalked.

Sunday, November 15. Although we all saw deer Saturday night no more shots were fired. Sunday greeted us with a strong north wind, rain, and temps in the mid 40's. Pete was in the cul-d-sac set, Brian was in his ladder stand and I was in the killing tree. All of us where sitting well before shooting time. I had a deer come through my field shortly after sitting down and Brian once again had deer in his field all morning. Shortly after legal shooting time it started to rain, so I made the move to my Ameristep ground blind that sat only 150 yards away. Shortly after settling into my dry, wind free ground blind I spotted a doe trotting onto the field to my right. I quickly grabbed my gun and settled it on my shooting stick. Ol girl must have seen me move because she stopped at 75 yards and looked directly at me. School girl mistake! The .06 spoke its peace again and deer #3 was down in her tracks. Below is a photo of my 3rd deer. With that my 2009 MO deer season was complete.

Later that evening after I headed back to MN Pete got himself dressed in his frogtogs and set up shop in on the BS 70. He arrived at his natural ground blind right around 2 PM and settled in for an evening sit in the rain. Around 4:30pm after seeing a couple smaller deer things really picked up and in a hurry. As he was watching the field Pete heard a noise directly to his right. He turned to see a big bodied buck jumping the fence and landing within 4ft of him, literally knocking the right side of hsi bling over. After a few seconds the buck realized soethign wasn't right and he ran out into the field 60 yards or so. Pete settled the .06 on him and let it bark. The big guy went down but got up and gimped into the cedar thicket east of the field. Pete returned to the thicket the following morning and made a quick recovery of his deer after only 5 minutes of tracking. Below is a photo of Pete and his 09 MO rifle buck. We will be adding some better pics when he returns next week from his Montana trip.

Not a bad MO opening weekend. 2 mature bucks and 2 nice doe. Overall the BS property has produced 4 mature bucks and 8 doe so far this season, plus Brian still has his tag(s) to fill. Below is a pic of a bobcat I got at the BS farm on sunday morning. Easily one of the coolest pics I have gotten on my cuddyback.

Pete is off to Montana this week with a small game license, whitetail doe tag and a prized either species (Muley or Whitetail) buck tag in his pocket. I am taking the weekend off before getting after some MN pheasants next week.

2009 MN Bow Opener!

The 2009 MN Bow season started on Sept 20th for me because of an alarm clock issue and a high school soccer game on opening day. Had clear skies a light NW wind from 5-10 and temps in the low 60’s to start the season. Because of all the trail camera action I had, I decided to hunt my money stand. The wind wasn’t perfect for the stand but it would be ok.

I got about 10-15 yards from tree when a doe started blowing at me. It was still 35 minutes before light so I wasn’t spotted. The doe proceeded to walk around me for 5 minutes trying to figure out what she heard. The entire time she was blowing and stomping her feet, but she never spooked. I could hear her within 10 to 15 feet of me several times. Finally after her 20th blow I gave her a snort/weez to try and shut her up. This worked and she finally walked off to the Northeast. A great start to my season.

Once I got into my stand I had action almost all morning long. Twice I had young does at the base of my tree and I actually came to full draw on the second doe. I had her at 15 yards but it was to dark to make out any definition on her body so I passed the shot. I had a third doe walk in on my and then straight away, never once offering a shooting angle. Around 8:30 AM I had a 2 ½ year old 8 pt come in to 30 yards. The buck offered me a nice shot but it was opening day and I had pictures of much better deer. Below is a photo of the 8 pt I let walk.

After spending the afternoon and the lake place I returned to the woods for the evening hunt. The temp was in the low 70’s but the wind was humming at 15-20 mph from the east. My money stand should have been perfect, but once I climbed up I quickly realized the wind was swirling in the woods. I got down and moved to my field for the evening. Nothing moved all night but as soon as I took one step onto the field I had a doe and two younglings starring at me from the southeast corner of the field. I dropped down and watched them for about 10 minutes. At one point a young one started to run towards me but the mature doe quickly stopped that action and retreated the whole crew into the woods. A kick to the balls on the way to the stand and on the way out. Nice start to my season.

North MO - Trail Cam

I made it up the the North MO property for the first time since early July, on Saturday. I had moved the TC down by the bean and corn fields, and was pleasantly suprised at some of the deer on camera. I'm looking forward to seeing some of these boys with hard antlers. Come on September 15th!

Crazy number of ticks on this poor doe...it looks like something chewed on her head!!!!

Up n' comer!

This BIG BOY will get whacked if we get the chance....huge body...Scotty, this rack has your name all over it!

A little long beard action.......thwwwackkk

See you next year little man!

Shooter up fornt...walking papers in the back (lucky SOB better be glad some of these other dudes showed up)

Same shooter as above + he had another 2-3 weeks to grow still!!!

The FrEaK & coon.....please walk by my stand in shooting range this year, either of you!!!!!

The FrEak and a coon part two......

Lots-o-palimation!

Wide w/ huge browtimes....and if you look closely the FrEaK is runnign backup!

You've been dismissed for the 09/10 season...please report for duty next year.

A little tickle giggle?

Walking papers will be issued this year...but we can't protect you if you cross the fence.

Shooter with his ladies.

Good 8...possible shooter

See you next fall.

The FrEaK hanging in the back with another shooter and thier whipping boy.

Annandale Trail Camera 8/30/09

I made it out to the Annandale property on Sunday afternoon with Jake and Chrissy. I wanted to check my trail camera one more time before the season and make sure any excess corn from my camera site was removed. Both missions where a success!

I had 321 pictures on my camera over the past 8 days. The majority of the pictures are doe and fawns but the una buck made an appearance several times over the past couple of days. I have three large doe that continue to show up every day. One of the doe has two fawns, another has one fawn and the last one shows up by herself. All three would make nice freezer fillers. I also got my first picture of a red fox.

The low Sunday (9/30/09) morning was 40 degrees in MN and the deer where really on their feet during day light hours. Una Buck also shed his velvet and it also looks like the young 7 also shed his. The young 7 looks like he could turn into a nice deer if the locals let him walk this gun season. Only 20 days until the MN opener!

The MN early goose season opens this coming saturday. I can't make opening morning but Logan and I will be in our blinds Sunday and Monday to see if we can get our 2009 hunting season started with a bang! Hopefully we will have some photos of dead animals to show shortly!

Below is a photo of the young 7. Looks to have a nice body and good shape to his rack.