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Post by grizz1 on Nov 30, 2007 22:51:03 GMT -5
November 30th 2007,Two more days left in Missouri's muzzle loader season and I was planning a hunt 25 miles from home for Sat but we have an ice storm warning so will stay on one of my home farms and give them another try. I've been deer hunting nearly everyday since Oct25th ,sometimes for a couple of hours but I've put in a lot of full day hunts as well. The county in Mo that I live in is in it's fourth year of having a 4 point rule which in my opinion has produced some very good bucks.While farming this summer I saw several good bucks each week and by hunting season had more then 15 bucks on my farms or places I can hunt that will score 130 or better,3 will go upper160's ,so I have set my sights on a good deer that I will have mounted or I don't plan to shoot. I have this weekend to connect with the muzzleloader,then it will be back to the bow till Jan 15 ,so there is a lot of hunting ahead but it gets colder and harder everyday from now on. Looking back thus far, although I haven't shot a buck I've had a very good year ,one to remember.I've hunted with friends that drove 1203 miles to get here from the east coast,was beside my wife coaching her on her first ever deer hunt and took pics and video as she harvested her first deer ,an 8 point buck.I hunted with my son for one day and saw him take an 8 point and a button buck.Got to hunt a full day with my 80 year old stepdad and as always we had an exciting day.His big farms which lie on the Mo river bottoms are always great hunting and exhausting as we try to cover too much in too little time.I was able to meet a cousin for the first time while on a deer hunt, that had just returned from serving 3 years in Iraq as a marine helicopter mechanic.He is enjoying being back home in Mo ,trapping and hunting the Mo and Grand river bottoms ,a far cry from the scenery in Iraq. Still hoping for that big buck story,got to check equipment and be ready for this weekend ,ice ,snow and rain they say,well the woods won't be crowded anyway.Later ,Grizz
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Post by grizz1 on Dec 1, 2007 22:10:25 GMT -5
The weather forcast was right on for Sat Dec 1 ,cold blowing wind,freezing rain turning to rain by afternoon. Before daybreak as I got in my truck for the 4 mile drive to my East farm it started to rain.I left before the truck warmed up and within 1 mile I was pulled over and trying to deice because I could not see the road whatsoever,I made it another mile and had to stop again,by this time staying on the road was difficult. My Bro met me there and we hunted together till noon ,taking turns still hunting while the other took a stand.We saw a total of 3 deer ,not so good.Since we were so wet and cold we quit hunting together at noon and each came home to dry out.I hunted the evening hunt and saw 5 deer ,all doe, just at dark. My cousin Matt was hunting 4 miles down the road for most of the day and at dusk got his chance at a 130 inch buck but the gun did not fire the first time,or the second time and no it never fired on the third try so he is at home now trying to dry out a muzzle loader.
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Post by grizz1 on Dec 6, 2007 21:56:34 GMT -5
Dec 2nd ,This was our last chance to take a buck with firearms,so my bro and I hunted from daylight until dark. It had warmed up during the night,at daylight it was 57 degrees but the wind picked up driving temps down all day long,by the evening hunt it was freezing once again. We saw 20 deer today,only two were bucks but they were the kind we were looking for ,BIG.We were unable to get good shots so both bucks got to walk without hearing a shot from us.Although we did not take a deer this weekend we had some great hunting and time in the field with our muzzle loaders. The skies were filled with geese and ducks all day,this means winter is really coming cause these guys were high and had a Southern destination in mind.
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Post by grizz1 on Dec 13, 2007 23:41:24 GMT -5
Dec 12th and rifle season for antlerless deer is soon coming to an end.We have had a terrible ice storm here as most of the midwest so the last two days have been more about surviving then hunting.The sun came out for an hour today showing some promise of melting some ice or at least making conditions somewhat better.When the weather does cooperate I plan to be in the woods hunting .I'm wanting to take a doe or two with my muzzle loader but if rifle season closes I will take up the bow again. The temps are much harder to deal with at this time of year but I 'm still trying to take a good buck & the bow is the only legal way at this point so I've got to keep trying. I noticed the deer are hitting my ladino clover/food plot hard so I may set up a camera to see what times they are using this field and if any bucks are feeding there.At least I have stands already in place in all the good feeding areas for this time of year although I had hoped I would not have to use them in late Dec or maybe Jan.
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Post by grizz1 on Dec 30, 2007 0:09:20 GMT -5
With the holidays and weather I haven't spent as much time hunting as I had planned but still able to get in a hunt from time to time. I had my deer cam up from Christmas Eve until this AM ,got 150 pics ,3 bucks with good antlers which surprised me .The other bucks were all too small to be legal here but there is a large crop of young bucks for 2 years from now . The deer on my land are feeding heavily on browse created when I did some TSI , 3 different plots in as many years .There is not much else for them in the area ,they have cleaned my food plots long ago except the clover but its getting buried deep in snow. One of the larger bucks that I sure wanted to take with my bow has shown himself to me 4 times out of the last 5 hunts ,still a little too far for a shot but as I have had a chance to look him over with binocs it appears he has broken 4 of his points off midway down to the main beam. After checking my camera I noticed all pics were taken in the dark except one , most of them from 3 to 4 AM ,so I'm hoping that changes soon ,sure need some movement during hunting hours .With the snow / cold it is hard enough to get to and stay in a stand for a good hunt but if they don't move it sure takes the fun out of hunting.
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Post by grizz1 on Jan 10, 2008 19:40:34 GMT -5
I've been getting in some short hunts once in awhile in Jan 08 but the deer movement during daylight hours has not been good. When my camera did show deer under the stand it was on the two days I never hunted at all . Almost got a shot at one of these gobblers on Jan 8th but he saw me as I was trying to draw back , end of that story . This evening , Jan 10th I hunted for 3 hours ,saw 22 doe deer but could not get one to come in close enough for a shot . There was light rain falling when I entered the woods , turned to heavy wet snow soon after and continued to snow until dark . When the deer did show it was getting late and they moved fast heading for open ground where they probably are feeding on clover ,wheat or bean stubble .
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Post by grizz1 on Feb 8, 2008 23:29:04 GMT -5
Feb8th , Had some free time this morning so I went to the east farm and hung a game camera .My hope was to run into the large flock of turkey I had seen in Dec and get the camera on them for a few days .There was at least 100 birds in the flock in the early winter but today I saw no birds and only one track . I put out some corn to attract them and set the camera anyway .
The deer tracks were thick so I drove around following tracks to see what I could learn about them .The deer have been feeding on browse in the timber and some taller green grass they are finding where the snow had melted under some large cedar trees. They had not been in my clover field or food plots at all,looked like they had already cleaned them up from the early winter and the snow is making it too hard to find the shorter food supply. I saw around 30 deer , they were up feeding at 11 AM and the temps were above freezing but since it is going to get extremely cold on Sat they seemed to be filling up . I will get deer pics for sure so it will be interesting to see if the bucks still have headgear.
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Post by grizz1 on Feb 10, 2008 0:21:42 GMT -5
Checked my camera ,had six pics of deer ,4 were bucks ,still had their antlers . I saw several deer later while cutting firewood not far from the camera and a few turkey tracks so they should get in front of it in a day or so . When I returned home with my second load of firewood the temperature had dropped a lot and there was 18 deer in my bean field , they were trying to fill up fast evidently as they never raised their heads as I drove by them .
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Post by grizz1 on Feb 13, 2008 19:58:57 GMT -5
The weather continues to be brutal here this winter , today it warmed up to 30 but they say it will head right back for the single digits tonight . This evening there were two flocks of turkey in my field and just before dark 22 deer came out to feed in front of my house . They may be finding some grain but I think they are feeding on volunteer wheat . It didn't seem to bother them that I was going about my evening chores 50 yards away so I believe they are getting as tired of winter as I am.
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Post by grizz1 on Feb 15, 2008 1:01:45 GMT -5
Todays job took me 70 miles from my home to the East , was just a few miles from Illinois when we got to the house . I had noticed the area looked good for deer and even commented on how it should hold a big one or two . Turned out the guy had several big racks ,the largest about 160 was in the garage with junk piled on it ,but while I was cleaning tools out back I saw a couple more that would go 140 or better just thrown up in a tall bush .There were no mounts of any kind in the house so I guess a 160 inch deer doesn't mean much to him. Had a long drive back this evening in the dark ,didn't see a deer till I was in my driveway where I had 3 walk in front of my truck ,another one came out of no where and almost ran into my door , I reckon she didn't want to be left behind so was trying to catch up with the others. Plan to check game camera tomorrow , should would like to find some turkeys on it.
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Post by grizz1 on Feb 24, 2008 23:17:03 GMT -5
Today was the best weather we've had in quite sometime so late this morning I took a 20 mile drive to a friends farm to do some scouting and shed hunting . There were plenty of deer tracks but I didn't find any turkey as I had hoped for and no sheds. Most of the snow went off of the South slopes today and the temps were very comfortable. I saw 15 deer from the living room window just before sunset and they were chasing each other around like they too enjoyed the warm weather.There had been 35 turkey in the same field for the last two days but they never showed themselves today.
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Post by grizz1 on Sept 5, 2008 21:35:15 GMT -5
Starting to set out cameras with season fast approaching on Sept 15th. While checking on my cows a week ago I saw a tremendous buck so set up within 100 yards of the location and all I have so far, are 31 pics of this young buck, hopefully he will attract one of the big boys into range soon. Temps are falling this week, in the 50's and tonight it is going into the upper 40's they say, lots of rain which we do not need.
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8pt172
8 Point Buck
Mathews DXT
Posts: 398
Likes: 1
Joined: May 1, 2024 10:42:19 GMT -5
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Post by 8pt172 on Sept 10, 2008 1:20:41 GMT -5
Already lost the velvet, I have seen a couple this past week still in the soft stuff.
I will be in MERCER MO for bow opener.
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Post by grizz1 on Sept 10, 2008 22:04:44 GMT -5
This is one of the better 10 pointers I've seen while checking cows in the evening. He is now out of velvet, got 9 pics of him this week and he looks like one of the deer I'll spend some time hunting since he is on my farm, close to home, I can afford to hunt him anytime conditions are right. Some of the other big guys I've seen have a few miles between us and with gas still at $3.40 this buck will keep me interested while hunting out the back door. Have several cams up, not checking them often but the pics are starting to roll in now with the cool weather, rain, acorns and all signs of fall on the way. Monday morning will find me in the woods- bowseason begins- although I won't hunt hard for awhile I sure enjoy opening day kicking off yet another deer season. 8pt172, while you are at Mercer ,I'll be straight East of you, North of Kirksville, Adair Co.
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8pt172
8 Point Buck
Mathews DXT
Posts: 398
Likes: 1
Joined: May 1, 2024 10:42:19 GMT -5
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Post by 8pt172 on Sept 11, 2008 3:36:04 GMT -5
Good Luck, no computer in MO but will definitely report back (hopefully with a P & Y in the back of the truck). The weather looks iffy with the hurricane coming up from TX. I have my fingers crossed. I have 3 cameras out since July, hope to have some good pics
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