Mixed Bag
Ducks & Geese on the Blind
Getting your limit of geese is a great day as is getting your limit of greenheads. Put the two limits together and you’ve just had an amazing day, especially when you’re completely done by 9:30 in the morning! It’s hard to beat the sight of big ol honkers and fat greenheads locked up sailing into your decoys! We were blessed this morning!
Coyote in the Dirt
The following video pretty much tells the story. After sitting in a bow stand for a couple months, it’s nice to pull the trigger on the ol’ rifle!
Successful Hunt
Happy Thanksgiving!! I have so many things to be thankful for in my life. I’m thankful for God’s provision in my life and for His continual grace and mercy that is renewed every morning! I am also very thankful for the family He has blessed me wih and the health that we enjoy and many times, take for granted. I believe I have the best hunter’s wife a hunter could ever ask for – thanks for your support and understanding honey – I love you!!
You can tell by the pic above that I had yet another reason to be thankful this morning. I was able to enjoy the great outdoors with my little man, and with cousins. You all know my heart is with bowhunting big bucks, but I was honored to lay my bow down this morning and pick up the shotgun and spend some quality time hunting down some big honkers! As you can tell, we had an awesome morning. All of us finished with our limits which is more than any hunter can ask for.
I had a great time this morning and I’m hoping to have some more quality time tomorrow. Whether it’s chasing ducks, geese or big deer you can be sure that I’ll keep you posted! In the spirit of Thanksgiving – thanks for reading!
Trespasser
Trespassers
Imagine for a moment that hunting is what you love to do, its actually one of your favorite ways to spend time with your family. Therefore when you get the chance you spend a great deal of money to purchase some land to do just that. You’re not rich by any means so you work hard to make ends meet and with Gods blessing you’re making it happen.
Not only are you spending your retirement money on land, you’re also spending agreat deal of work to make your property the best it can be. You have young grandkids coming up who love to go experience the hunt with their dad or papa.
Now imagine the images above of bright orange as they blatantly disrespect your wishes, cross the fence onto your property and steal the saftey you’ve did your best to insure for your family. I’m right at 50% this year regarding the percentage of hunts that have been interupted/effected by someone with no respect for property lines.
Some have happened in north MO and others have happened down in south MO. I along with my family are peace-loving, laid back and we generally get along with everyone we meet just as most landowners/farmers that I know. Yet the time has come for owners to begin to prosecute the blatant offenses as many times this is all that people understand. We had been asked by the 1st trespasser up north multiple times if he could hunt and he was always told “no” politely.
I see this as a respect issue, a moral issue, and maybe most of all a safety issue for all involved. When hunting with family we always know where each other are at all times. We don’t shoot at movement, but there is always the possibility of not seeing someone, especially if they’re not supposed to be there. In my case the trespasser walked about 120yrds from me and didn’t even see me.
Here are a few helpful tips. Keep a video camera with you if at all possible. I have great footage of most all of the trespassers. You can prosecute from the video footage if the suspect is recognizable. Trail cameras (especially infrared) are also great to catch someone slipping around.
While the suspect has to be caught in the act for a conservation agent to prosecute, this is not the case for the landowner. You can still prosecute – it’s hard to argue with photos or video. If they are on your land, call conservation agent immediately. If the agent does catch them in the act, this will make your job easier.
Hopefully this helps, it is sure making me feel better 😉 It has been a frustrating year in this regard, but I’m not losing sleep over it. This is the reality that we live in.
All we can do is work hard to keep our ground as safe as possible and most of all, get outside and enjoy the great outdoors with the ones that we love!
Bobcat Down
1st Bobcat for Travis - Congrats!
Ryan scored another cat this year when this cat slipped in on him while deer hunting. Ryan put this cat down with his .270.
Even though you might think that Travis strangled his cat with his necktie that is now missing from his button up the front shirt, this is not the case. Travis put this cat down with a nice shot from a .30-.30.
If you’re not seeing/shooting big bucks, I guess you might as well be taking out a few predators. Congrats guys, nice shooting. I think I just heard our turkey population exhale a collective sigh of relief!
Monster Buck
Wow is about all you can say about this deer. This deer was killed up in north MO here in the last couple of days. This deer has it all – the drop tines are like icing on the cake.
Funny side note to this story is that my brother-in-law saw this deer very early that morning on the way to work while it was still dark. He said that the deer stood not 20yrds off the side of the road while he stopped his car and sat there admiring him.
Didn’t personally know the hunter that shot this deer as I believe that he comes in from the city to hunt. Sounds like he had been hunting him hard after catching some pics on a trail cam. So a congrats to the hunter that shot this deer and lets all hope that this buck has been doing some heavy breeding over the past few years!!
Beautiful Buck
A cousin of mine just sent me this pic of the deer he shot this morning up in north MO. What a beautiful deer. It’s not too often that you get to see a deer with this many typical points much less harvest one. The great news for him is that believe it or not, this is not the big one!!
I’ve shown the trail cam pics of a deer that looks very similar to this one and you immediately think that this is a one of a kind deer. After caping this deer out, it was obvious that this buck was not the one that was shot last year with the muzzleloader, although without doubt a close relative!! These are some great genetics and are an example of what deer are capable of given good soil and by using quality deer management techniques.
Congrats Hugh, thanks again for sharing!!
Mature 8pt
Young 8 - Coming Under Stand
I’ve been having fun up here in North MO, but have yet to connect with a mature buck. I’ve had lots of deer around me and have gotten some neat video of deer behavior, but the big ones are eluding me. Today I was close to a mature buck that slipped by at 40yrds. He was behind a bit of brush, but I did manage to catch a little video of him. He’s no monster, but I believe he’s mature enough to be a shooter, especially with the bow. The second pic is of a young 8pt that came and hung out under my stand yesterday. These pics aren’t the greatest as they’re taken by my phone off of my video. I’ll put a little video together here in a week or so of snippets of the deer & wildlife I’ve saw this week. I’m going back after them tomorrow and then it’s rifle season on Saturday. Ought to be a fun weekend!
Chasing Does
The Rut is On!
This is a grainy pic off of some video I took right at dark this evening (Nov. 4th). It was a great hunt that has left me pumped to get back out into the woods! I’ll put these snippets of vid together at the end of the week for you all to enjoy, but here is a quick pic to show one of the guys I’m thinking about chasing! Follow me this week as I post pics and stories (hopefully some video) as I chase the ever exciting, ever elusive whitetail deer! The rut is on – get out there!!
Mature Buck
Mature Buck
A friend of mine down in Southwest MO sent me these pics along with the great story. Congrats Joe – thanks for sharing!!
It started off as a bad day when I realized that I had forgot my boots at the house….. It was gonna be a cold, wet walk to my stand. I was able to make it until 9 am and I had to get out of the stand. I was back at the truck at 9:50am. I started down the road and I went about 1/2 mi and noticed this buck standing on a farm that I could hunt. I went about a 1/2 mile past and parked the truck. The stalk was now on. I got with in 100yrds and seen him on the same ridge with his nose still to the ground. I continued my stalk and got with in 50 yrds and I could hear him grunting like crazy. He continued to go back and forth and I knew he was searching for a doe that he had been chasing. As he started to leave I moved my arm and let him see it move and gave a soft grunt… the rest is history. He came hard grunting all the way. He thought I (the movement) he saw was his doe!!! He came to 18 yards and that was when I let the arrow fly. He went about 100 yrds and there was no worrys about following the blood trail!!! God is good!