2014 MO SEASON THREAD >>>------------>

[kennym]

Good luck Brad!

Don, what part of MO are you hunting? I'm at the North end, 50 miles from IA and in center East to West.

Some white oaks are dropping now, if you can find the one the deer are liking, you should be in!

[CoachBGriff]

This cold weather has me fired up!  Monday afternoon I'll be in the stand ready to fire photographs and maybe even an arrow.

Good luck to you all too

Here's to making this a thread to follow!  

[huey]

I see the game laws just caught up with the die of we had down here. Only one doe for the gun hunters this year. Maybe I will learn how to post pics this year. Good luck everyone

[kennym]

Showing the first hunter some of the lease, we saw a good buck that had just rubbed. His antlers were shining red-orange in the early morning sun. Beautiful!!

We still have 2 antlerless up here in the CWD containment zone.

[Don Stokes]

Kenny, I'll be nearly on the other end of the state, about an hour north of Joplin, outside the little town of Sheldon.

[Beau J]

Don, we'll practically be hunting the same deer, I spend most of my time hunting south of Nevada close to Milo..Good luck.. BeauJ

[kennym]

Well, I can't buy ya a coffee then!    

Went to my bro's farm about 11:00, we found the pinoaks were dropping along a levee in a beanfield. Actually it is an entry to another field thru the planted trees that is about 40 feet wide and 150 yds long.

We put up a ladder stand there, hoping the wind will work, there is a LOT of tracks in that avenue!!

Also hung another stand on a ditch crossing , and found one more spot that deserves a stand between a cornfield and some planted oak trees. Should be hot, but ran outta time......

Oh, found some scrapes with the grass pawed out and saw a decent 8 pointer....

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Best of Luck Fellas.  


Kenny, those spots sound like great places for a  tree stand.  Don't go killing a pig the first week. Its been a  long time since you only worked one job lol. May as well reap the hunting rewards.    

[kennym]

Charlie, it's in the plan! Buuuut, I won't let a good one go just cause its early either!!

Will be packin a camera at all times when I go, so hope to have a few deer pics soon!

[Wind D Ranch]

It's getting close!  You guys should have great hunting weather.  I had frost on my roof Saturday morning.  I can't wait to hear your hunting stories.  Hunt safe.    

[Mudd]

I may not get the start I wanted in the morning because I got scheduled for a sleep study tonight. aarrgghh!!

It will be good to get it done though and I've tried to lay out a plan that hopefully will still get me in the woods fairly early.

I took all of my hunting stuff to the cabin so when I am released from the study all I'll need to do is drive straight to the farm.

The study could suffer some as I lay there trying to go over in my head everything I packed just to be sure I haven't forgotten something that is essential for the hunt....lol

Good hunting folks!  Hunt hard, hunt safe!

God bless,Mudd

[kennym]

Don't they know better than to schedule a sleep study the nite before season??  

[Cyclic-Rivers]

They can do the sleep study in the woods??? best sleep I ever get lol.

[RLA]

I did some more scouting today, saw a nice buck in a spot I plan to hunt next weekend.  Seasons only hours away, I'll be out for a short sit behind the house in the morning. It's been a long time coming,  be safe and good luck to everybody!

[SlowBowinMO]

I've been busier than a one armed man in a dog paddling contest but everything came together and I got a hunt in opening morning!  Woohoo!  Had two at 10 yards but of course they came from the "wrong" place and my shot opportunity was gone before I could adjust.

Still a great morning and more deer than I saw from stand all year last year so I'm off to a good start!

[CoachBGriff]

I got out opening afternoon here, and I couldn't have been more excited.  Unfortunately, in my excitement I rushed to my stand from work and overlooked an important detail...



Yes, those are my dress shoes.  Luckily they were a backup pair, so I didn't feel bad about walking through the mud with them.

After the rocky start, I had a great evening.  I had two fawns bedded in the beans when I showed up, I saw mom later in the evening, and I had about 7 turkeys cluck around for a bit.



No shot opportunities manifested, but it was a great evening in the woods!

[CoachBGriff]

I had a very cool morning.  A mamma and three fawns came in and bedded around me.  I could have shot any of the yearlings, but mom never offered a shot.

The cool part was I got to see a young button buck rub a little sapling, and the smallest of the fawns (still with some spots) let off a "maaaaaa" when everyone else got up and walked off without her.  

She was the least observant of the three young ones, and the button buck was the most observant of the three little ones (he was also the largest).  

Mom caught my movement at one point but not my scent.  She was on edge for a bit, but I was able to hold still enough that everything calmed back down.  They went back to normal behavior and eventually grazed out of sight.

[CoachBGriff]

Another interesting tidbit - I actually heard the doe let out a few soft grunts before I saw her.  So I let out a few soft grunts, and that was what brought her in.  She actually responded to my soft grunt with more of her own.  Then she appeared in the thickest stuff to my left.

[kennym]

Bowhunters get to see all those details, Brad.

Great, ain't it!

I've been once,after work went for 1.5 hours. Had to rush to get to a stand I set for later in the winter, didn't have any close but felt great to be in a stand!!

A couple pics from the hunt, you can see the 2 clover plots on right and the 1.5 acre bean patch thru tree on left....



Locked and loaded....



The trophy for the evening...

[L82HUNT]

Shot her about 9 this morning.  She was facing me at 15 yds and hit her perfect.    Went 50 yds