I'm in the tree now. I'm off tomorrow and Monday then I'm off a shotgun blast of days through the 17th. Good Luck, everyone! Sent from my SM-G965U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
So it was 70 degrees last night and dropped to 42 this morning. I hung a lock on over a fresh rub last night. This morning I hiked in super early got up in my stand and grabbed my harness. One problem...my tree strap was in my truck. Hoped down hiked out and back in and got up just before shooting light. My buddy is hunting just up from me and saw a doe so far but I have seen no movement which is really surprising. I’m gonna try and sit all day but I was drenched in sweat from this mornings fiasco so right now I’m pretty cold. I have tons of deer and big bucks on all my cameras but 95% of them are at night. Turns out the other couple guys who hunt this property have been putting corn out religiously all year. Nothing against baiting but it doesn’t do it for me, I like looking at sign and figuring deer out. Unfortunately it seems like the corn may have already made the deer nocturnal. My only hope is that this cold front starts the rut and gets them on their feet or it’s gonna be a long season. I’ll keep updating throughout the day.
After that storm blew through yesterday and last night I HAD to get out this morning...temps dropped almost 20 degrees from 2am-7am this morning...wsw wind 10-18 miles per hour...it was actually pretty calm...the ten pointer cane in from the north instead of the south...eating acorns on the edge of them hemlocks...I grunted, he heard...he looked around and got down wind...didn’t like it and trotted off...if only I was in my other stand...he walked right by it...I haven’t sat in it yet but I guess it’s time. Winds will be the same tomorrow but it’ll be 10-15 cooler than this morning...down to 30...fingers crossed!!
Update: just had a real pretty 8 working the creek bottom. Grunted him in to about 30 yards but he was in thick brush and had no shot. He walked off after about 10 minutes
Thanks for the update guys. Glad to hear you guys are getting out and seeing some bucks. I bumped one on the way in this afternoon. So far this afternoon I’ve just had a few doe come by. Those are some great bucks MB. Definitely makes it easier to do an all day when you have some bruisers roaming around. Good luck! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Update 2: I forgot I had overtime tonight at 6pm so I had to climb down. It was still extremely windy and nothing seemed to want to be on its feet and moving. If it was good I may have said forget work
Hey guys. I pulled the card by my timber stand this morning. Good news is that my #1 from last year is back. He's getting older and really started to decline in rack size. He's definitely an old war horse. It would be a privilege to take a deer that old and wise.
Just got off the phone with my son. He's still about 3 hours out. He's so excited about this hunt that he's positively giddy. Reminds me of me when I was young. Well, it reminds me of me now. He's even more excited now that I've killed a buck with my bow because he knows I'll put him in my best spots. The little jerk. Anyway, I was supposed to pick up two rank of firewood today from a local here but he wasn't home when I got there and hasn't answered his phone all day. I just drove back over there and the gate is locked now so I know he's been there. You used to be able to depend on country folk but times have changed and the country folk around here now all seem to be stereotypical half a set of teeth having hillbilly rednecks who are all strung out on meth. Depressing.
Didn't you say you were in southern Missouri? Typical. Sent from my SM-G965U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
You get that close to Arkansas and things are bound to get weird. Sent from my SM-G965U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
One of my officers went out & sat in a ground blind within eye site of my ladder stand. He advised there were 7 doe under my stand. Apparently eating walnuts Headed there Monday after work Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have been pretty dialed in on the doe these last few sits. I’m hoping that the shooter bucks will eventually show up? Good luck guys stay after em! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wind is howling here. Heading to our youngest ones hockey game. Sent from my SM-G965U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Well fellows, I messed up. I debated long and hard about whether to post this or not but it just seems like the right thing to do. A week ago this morning I shot that 10 point. When I got down and walked up to it I notched by tag using the Missouri Hunting app and went to the truck and met my son-in-law as I said in my story. I was on cloud nine, guys. It was my biggest bow buck and it was a hoss of a buck. We took pics. We celebrated. After we finished processing the deer we shot bows. We threw darts and drank a few beers.. Finally I went to bed. At 4:20 am I snapped awake and remembered that I hadn't telechecked the buck. I shook the cobwebs out of my head, grabbed my phone and got it done. Well, yesterday morning I got a phone call from the CO for Henry County, MO. I won't say he was a D**K, but he was close. I told him exactly what had happened and then listened to a lecture from a guy younger than me on what the proper things in life to celebrate were. He told me "it's just a deer, after all. Eventually he stopped just short of accusing me of shooting the deer at night and I was very close to losing it. The fact that I notched the tag electronically (which can't be undone) an hour after I shot the buck seemed to be irrelevant. If I were trying to poach why in the hell would I notch the tag? I was as polite as I could possibly be, though. He said I deserved a ticket and I told him "I couldn't agree with you more. I made a mistake and I'm more than willing to own up to it and pay the penalty." Anyway, after about 30 minutes of this he said he would have to "kick it around" and he would get back to me later. He called me this morning and said that he would be sending me a ticket for failing to check the animal in the required timeframe. I thanked him for his time and apologized for making his job more difficult. It's probably going to cost me about $200 based on what I can find on the web. I don't care about that though. I'm 56 years old. I've had three speeding tickets in my life and that's it. All three of those were in a 35 mph zone and my speed was in the 40s. I've always done my absolute best to follow the law and do the right thing, legally and morally. To be honest, I am totally humiliated and it casts a shadow on the buck I killed. I now have a game violation on my record. I'm not sure I'll ever look at that rack on the wall with the same level of pride I would have had if I had just paid a little more attention to detail. It is still going on the wall though.
Dang. I don't know what else to say Chief. That sucks. I wish you would've said something sooner. I have some pretty good friends in Henry County. We may have been able to make this go away. Don't let a brain fart take away from that buck! He's awesome! Sent from my SM-G965U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
